Plenty of indie-rock bands find the poignant in the ridiculous and vice versa, but few do it with the hand-strummed, hardscrabble troubadouring of John Darnielle, the songwriter, leader, and, um, main guy of the Mountain Goats. Their latest album, We Shall All Be Healed, is his second on a major label, and features real live studio production, but Darnielle has also recently released three compilations—Ghana, Protein Source of the Future… Now!, and Bitter Melon Farm—that cull together the singles, cassettes, and other ephemera where many folks first heard his wavering voice, and the lo-fi fizzle and crackle of his acoustic guitar, or, sometimes, cheapie Casio keyboard.

The night after this interview took place, the Mountain Goats played a great show. The encore was “The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton,” and like many Darnielle songs it’s less of a song than a story: two angry high-school kids who sort of start a band, only to get into trouble and endure a forced separation. The lyrics made me laugh; they made everybody laugh. And then came the kicker, in the last verse: “When you punish a person for dreaming his dream / don’t expect him to thank or forgive you. / The best ever death metal band out of Denton / will in time both outpace and outlive you… Hail Satan! / Hail Satan Tonight! Hail Satan!” By the last “Hail Satan!” everyone in the room was singing along with genuine fervor: it wasn’t a joke anymore.

For the interview I picked him up at the airport and we had vegetarian Chinese food at Eric’s. I told him in an email we could talk about anything. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he wanted to talk about death metal.

—Daniel Handler

I: “THIS IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A LIGHT COMEDY.”

THE BELIEVER: I think it would surprise many of your fans to hear that you’re a death-metal fan.

JOHN DARNIELLE: I hear that a lot, but the thing is, I don’t know why if you make the kind of music I make you would listen to more of that kind of stuff. I know it sounds arrogant to say it, but I know how singer-songwriter stuff goes. I like a lot of singer-songwriters, but at the same time when I listen to them, it sounds like watching my peers work in the workplace. I’d be more interested in going to a factory and seeing people work there because I don’t do that kind of work… I guess there’s a conflict, but I don’t know, I think listening to music and making music are two almost totally discrete activities. Deicide...