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Each week ZIO asks a different musician the same 11 questions via email. Visit Zoom In Music weekly for a new installment or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Jeffrey Lewis is a renaissance man. Ever since he began showing up at open mics in his native New York City back in the late '90s, the former Moldy Peaches pal has put out comic books, designed album covers, become an indie newscaster, and released some of the most oddly thoughtful songs of our generation.

His latest album, Em Are I, may deal with more serious subject matter than Jeff's previous albums, but it also confirms what we've always known about him: that he's an artist capable who can tackle the full spectrum of life's questions. Jeffrey Lewis is currently playing all over the world with his band that includes David Beauchamp and his brother Jack Lewis.

1.  What music was played in your home while you were growing up?

If there was any music playing it would have been my father's blues or jazz records, my parents didn't listen to a lot of music but there were always about 50 records in the house, and a turntable, and the records would be played sometimes. Stuff like Thelonius Monk or Champion Jack Dupree.  Some of them were my mother's folk records, Pete Seeger or Joan Baez or a couple of early Bob Dylan albums. Also a couple of Beatles and Rolling Stones albums from the '60s. But that's all, not a very extensive collection. The majority of the records were old acoustic blues.  Oh, and one weird '60s rarity, the original Folkways edition of the first Fugs album, very scratchy and with no cover, this was an important discovery for me when I was about 19. 

2.  Who is the best artist we have probably never heard of?

Oh there are so many!  But I don't know who you have heard of...when I started digging deep for lesser-known music back in the '90s before the Internet was very popular, and before there were a lot of CD reissues, it was actually very rare for me to find anybody who had ever heard of bands like Silver Apples or The Monks, but now everybody knows them, there are probably more young people who have these CDs in their house now than have Hendrix and Doors albums etc. You can go to anybody's apartment all over America and Europe and they will have CDs by Os Mutantes and the Seeds and things like that, like it's totally a normal thing to listen to. When I was a teenager I think it was very different; this was strange, obscure knowledge and often very hard to hear copies of these things. If I am trying to think of a great artist that you have never heard it will have to be very obscure, and even then maybe you will have heard the stuff!  Prewar Yardsale is a band in New York City that I really love, they have been a big influence on me for the past ten years, and they are not very known by anybody.  But I know that it is music that is not for everybody.

3.  What is your favorite song lyric?

This month my favorite lyric is from Pink Floyd's song "Sheep" - "Bleating and babbling I fell on his neck with a scream...Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream." It's a lot of syllables but it really works with the melody. I was rediscovering the Pink Floyd album, Animals, I am now hearing it in a new way from when I heard it when I was in high school. 

4.  What song do you want played at your funeral?

Something loud enough to wake me up.

5.  What is your favorite b-side?

I like Yo La Tengo's alternate versions of "Nuclear War".

6.  Which medium do you prefer: vinyl, cd, or download?

At home I listen to almost all vinyl. When I'm in my shack in the woods in Maine I listen to tapes. On tour with my band it's usually music from someone's laptop. If I am going music shopping or looking for stuff on eBay, it's almost all vinyl.

7.  Which artist would your fans be surprised to find out you like?

Nothing surprises people anymore because everybody listens to everything - but there is music that I listen to that is not very apparent in the music that I play, perhaps, like Fela Kuti or N.W.A. or the Geto Boys or Slayer.

8.  What musician would you choose to cover one of your songs?

Sometimes people cover my songs and I think they sound so bad it makes me never want to play the song again.  Other times the version is much better than my own version.  Some of the best covers of my songs have been by Herman Dune, I would always like to hear their versions of any songs of mine. 

9.  Who is the most overrated artist?

Me!

10. What musician or band do you wish you’d seen play live in their prime?

Supposedly Butthole Surfers shows in the '80s were quite an underground spectacle, maybe that would be a good one to pick.

11. What non-musical influences do you have?

A lot of comic books are influential to me, for my music and for my comics.  Peepshow and Eightball and Ed the Happy Clown are all comic books that had a big influence on me.

Check out more of Jeffrey's illustrations here. (Recently, he drew A History of The Cribs, one of whom did his own These Questions...)

Take a listen to those unknown favorites Prewar Yardsale (scroll down).

Watch one of Jeffrey's funniest videos ever, "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror."

Check out more installments of THESE QUESTIONS GO TO ELEVEN:

Adam Green
Art Brut
Camera Obscura
Chin Chin
The Cribs
Darlings
Dead River Company
Fool's Gold
Fujiya & Miyagi
Golem
Jukebox the Ghost
Talib Kweli
Ben Kweller
The Low Miffs
Lights
M83
Man Like Me
Marina & The Diamonds
Meg & Dia
A.C. Newman
Cale Parks
Silvery
Tapes 'n Tapes
Tiny Animals
The Von Bondies
White Rabbits
Wild Light
Yo Majesty!

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