The Ill Communication of Adam Green

I feel this is stage three of what I've been doing, Adam Green muses, "you can see how much the substance - what I'm made off - has changed." For many performers, such talk of transformation is regularly dismissed as hyperbole and self-importance; but for Green, founding member of influential anti-folkers the Moldy Peaches and solo artist in his own right, it's a legitimate attempt to rationalize an impressive body of work.

Starting with Lo-Fi home recording in his teenage years, moving through the twisted, orchestral backed folk of Friends of Mine, and passing via the early rock and roll sound of Gemstones, followed by the bombastic Jacket Full of Danger; his present style reflects years of development.

The New York songwriter is enjoying this artistic maturity too. His latest record, Sixes & Sevens, has twenty tracks and clocks in at a fairly lengthy 50 minutes. "In the past I had three weeks to record an album, I recorded this in a year and a half," he explains. "I've sat with it so long that I'm very comfortable." A sense of security is certainly evident as he skips between genres with ease: some songs roll with 1970s swagger while others stutter, stop and start again at their own charmingly counter-intuitive pace. The lush production of Sixes & Sevens includes a Brooklyn gospel choir that pops up throughout the record and fills what Green describes as "an open space, cause I sing low most of the time."

Most notable, however, are the more stripped back numbers such as Cannot Get Sicker, Exp. 1 and Drowning Head First - featuring a duet with his girlfriend - which recalls a Moldy Peaches vibe that it seems, up until this point, Green has been eager to avoid in his solo material. "I think a large part of recording Friends of Mine, Gemstones and Jacket Full of Danger was an attempt to kill indie rock for myself," he concedes, "but now I'm not so angry about making this type of music." This is a lucky development, considering the recent and overdue thrusting of the Moldy Peaches into the limelight with the release of hit film Juno, where the duet Anyone Else but You not only features in the soundtrack but is also sung on screen by stars Michael Cera and Ellen Page. "They're two of my favorite actors at the moment; I was actually stunned when it was proposed that they would sing one of our songs," says Green excitedly. But is it strange for a song he recorded so early in his career to become many peoples' introduction to his work? "It's a little displacing but I welcome any kind of interest people have in any song I've written."

In Adam Green's universe, pathos sits quite comfortably with humour and profanity. Much like the enigmatic Jens Lekman, it can be difficult to tell when he is and isn't winking. When Green proposes that the backing band he recently played with in Nashville "was mostly comprised of Bob Dylan's old band from the Blonde on Blonde era; the guys that were dead were replaced by Elvis' old band," there's no change in his tone to indicate he's kidding (he isn't, you know – Ed).

Talking about the future, though, Green finally cracks. "I think I'll go to Hawaii: just go and find a sandy home and move in," he chuckles. "I remember I used to have a teacher in school who moved there," adding earnestly: "I think he was pretty smart." Smart obviously matters to Green and there's a sense that, while in conversation, you're occasionally missing what he's trying to communicate. It's fortunate, then, that a growing number of fans are willing to meet him half way.