The only problem with conjuring people is they insist on getting paid, unlike a writer who would do a reading for nothing.

The people you might lose are the people who look at a marquee and are like, Oh, John Wesley Harding is playing. I went to see him play 20 years ago. But if they see Wesley Stace, they might make absolutely no link between those two things at all.

Novels may have taken care of the emotional business for me, which has allowed music to be more emotional for me.

When I was writing this new bunch of songs, I was singing a lot lower, because they were more intimate in a way. I had to come up with a way to frame the music that was intimate.

If they'd said, Do you want to be John Wesley Harding or Wesley Stace in 25 years' time? I would have said Wesley Stace, but I wasn't to know.

I do find that most fans are aware of my writing career and have known my real name for many years.

A friend of mine pointed out to me, Why do you separate your writing and your music? I got (writers) Rick Moody and Jonathan Ames to do the first one, and it just kind of gathered steam then NPR picked it up. It is a nice way for me to marry both sides of my career, a move that's probably culminated in me dropping the name John Wesley Harding.

There's nothing I like more than a writer who can sing, or a musician who has a book out.

I just love putting on a show. I get a tremendous sense of community out of it.