(Photo: Spencer Heyfron)

What’s going on today?
I went to my favorite bookstore and got a book of Da Vinci drawings. And a 50-cent Hardy Boys paperback.

Do you read a lot of Hardy Boys?
I do. And I like Nancy Drew. Also Tom Robbins.

What kind of music do you play?
Right now it’s more folky, early-nineties grunge rock.

Like who?
On a songwriting level—man, people will hate me for saying this—I compare myself to Fiona Apple. She doesn’t dumb down. Her vocabulary is ridiculous.

So you have a great vocabulary?
Well, it’s not that I’m superintelligent. It’s just that the bar in music is set really low now. I think I’m at a basic reading level.

Are you a good speller?
I’m more of a phonetic speller. If worst comes to worst, I’ll use pictographs.

Talk about your hair.
I’m a Leo, and it’s just my mane, my tresses.

Does it ever get heavy?
When it’s wet. But when I’m actually in the water, it floats on the top like I’m a mermaid.

This story appeared in the June, 11, 2012 issue of New York Magazine.

Interview by Rachel Baker.

Related:

• Archive: “Look Book”
• Table of Contents: Jun 11, 2012 issue of New York | Subscribe!