You’ve worked with a wide variety of local bands and musicians (The Long Winters, Minus 5 and Death Cab For Cutie, to name a few.) Any upcoming projects you’re particularly excited about?

I’m hoping that my record of Harry Nilsson songs, Nelson Sings Nilsson, will be released this year. I also have a “solo” album, under the name Sean Nelson & His Mortal Enemies (featuring collaborations with Chris Walla from Death Cab, Peter Buck, Steve Fisk, John Goodmanson, and members of the band Centro-Matic) that I’d like to release this year, too. Also, I’ll be doing some touring with Robyn Hitchcock, both as an opening act and as a member of his band. All very exciting.

On your Web site (www.seannelson.net) you refer to the period between 2001 and 2004 as your “wilderness years.” Why is that and what did you learn during that time?

That was the period between Harvey Danger’s break-up and reformation. I call them wilderness years because I was searching, vainly as it turned out, for some idea of what to do next without having resolved my feelings about that band, which had basically been my whole life for seven years prior. I learned that you can’t just up and start some new project just because you want to and expect it to stick. Music takes time.

As a college dropout and famous musician, you’re far from a conventional journalist. That said, you have written quite a lot. What’s been your favorite story/interview? Is there anyone you’re just dying to interview?

Best interviews: Billy Bragg, Green Gartside from Scritti Politti, Christopher Hitchens, Martin Amis (for The Daily in 1995). Hey, they’re all British!

Best stories: Cover band feature, Mott the Hoople diary piece (Cobain diaries satire), Yes Logo package, Sexual Real Estate package, Bali bombings essay, several others (all from The Stranger.)

I would happily slit your throat if it meant five minutes interviewing Paul McCartney.

[Scooting my computer back a few inches.] Um, thanks, that’s good to know. Moving on! What’s the fondest and/or most interesting memory you have of your time at the University of Washington?

Most of my memories involve the Daily office, which I more or less lived in from September 1993 to June 1995. I also remember a great class with Leroy Searle, in which I met my wife, who was the A/V assistant. We’re getting divorced now, but it was still a great class. I re-read Paterson by William Carlos Williams just the other day.

You taught a UW course in songwriting a few years ago. Any quick advice you could give to aspiring songwriters?

Don’t take a songwriting class.

More specifically…

… Now what the hell’s wrong with that?!

In my experience, she’s not that great on an airplane, and art should always tell the truth. Otherwise, spot on.

After reading your book on Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark, I went back and listened to some of your music (namely, “Flagpole Sitta.”) There seems to be some overlap in themes and imagery (self-reflection, insanity, duality of human nature i.e. “I’m not sick, but I’m not well.” Is this just a natural by product of life or has Joni been more of a conscious influence on your music?

Are you fucking joking? OK. In case you’re not: Joni Mitchell is one of the great songwriters of the 20th century. “Flagpole Sitta” is a travesty — a good travesty, but still. I’ve been listening to Joni Mitchell for as long as I can remember, so I guess she’s an influence, in the sense that food and water are influences on my respiratory system. But I would never presume to claim to be part of her lineage. Also, I’m not a hippie, if that’s what you’re suggesting …

If you were to pick an album from the last 10 years to write about, which would it be?

I just had a really intense experience realizing that my first answer, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement, was 13 years old. Given that, I suppose I’d have to say either Love by the Beatles (and George Martin) or Blur, by Blur. Maybe King James Version by Harvey Danger, actually.

I was having difficulty coming up with more questions, so a friend suggested I ask the following: Why sing? Who or what inspired you to be a singer and interpret art in this manner?

I was literally born singing. Both my parents swear this is true. I never got really serious about singing until the last couple of years, but now I am, and really excited about it. Also, I don’t really know how to play a proper instrument, so there’s that.

Speaking of art, who is one of your favorite non-musical artists?

I’m really aggressively ignorant about painting and sculpture (these forms seem about as relevant as theater to me, but whatever.) The non-musical artists I really respond to are writers and filmmakers: Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Bruce Robinson, Francois Truffaut, Eugene O’Neill (speaking of theater), Ian McEwan, Charles D’Ambrosio, Wallace Shawn, Tobias Wolff, Lynne Ramsay, Ernst Lubitsch, Alfonso Cuaron. I could go on …g