Tell us about the last three years in the life of the Twilight Singers.
It started in the late winter of '97 in my bedroom. I was just demo-ing some songs like I've done since I was 17 years old. These particular songs that I was doing didn't sound like rock and roll songs, so it gave me an idea that maybe I should pursue a bit of a lark and try to make something separate from my rock and roll identity. I came up with three or four songs and then some other people came in and started playing on them. Then we took it to New Orleans in the summer of '97 and began to flesh it out. Then we switched record labels and I started working on a batch of rock songs which became 1965. Then we took that [record] out on tour for 14 months. When I got back I didn't do anything for a couple months, and then around the winter of 2000 I gathered up the tapes and took them to England and began sorting them out with a group of English fellows called Fila Brazillia.

I heard that you were working with Fila Brazillia, and I was expecting a more electronic record, but it's really not that. How did you envision their role in this?
I love their music, but I wanted a combination of two different people coming from two different worlds to create something that was not all their world and not all my world. We decided to meet in the middle and create something new. I think we did.

How did you come up with the twilight theme?
The first two songs I wrote were called "Twilight" and "The Twilight Kid," which became the bookends of what the record would be. At first I was the Twilight Kid. I basically wanted to write a series of songs entailing this person's short-lived life, so the theme twilight … I had gone through some experiences that were most definitely black and white, which I felt were unfair -- that life is sometimes so black and white. There is a gray area to explore, and twilight is the most gray area I can think of, so I picked that title for the whole project.

What was the black, and what was the white?
Mostly the record business and my small role in it. In today's world you're a hit or you're a flop. There is no gray area. You either have a smash or you're nothing. It didn't used to be that way. You used to be able to explore artistic pursuits. The bottom line has become increasingly black and white. I didn't want to maneuver in those waters, so I created a world of my own.

[The Afghan Whigs'] 1965 is an excellent record. I also thought it had a shot at commercial success. I take it you guys were disappointed that it didn't.
Yeah. I was. Honestly, though, had I been 22 or 23 and had that happen, I would have been crushed, 'cause I have been crushed in the past. You never get used to it. You do the best that you can do given the time that you have to do a record in. I don't take pictures and I don't write a journal, so the records I've done have been snapshots of my life. I'm immensely proud of that record. What it sold doesn't change the fact that it was a success to me. That's why I wanted to go back and re-explore the Twilight record, because it seemed to be prescient in that it was a blueprint for where I find myself now. Anybody endeavoring to make an artistic statement is pretty much left out in the cold. Will I be left out in the cold on this one? Almost definitely, but that's not gonna stop me from doing what I do.

You characterized 1965 with the term "lust." How would you characterize the Twilight Singers record?
It's probably the most hopeful and optimistic record I've ever done, and that's saying a lot given my past transgressions. I wanted to create a mood record, and it's pretty out of character for a music world that wants either rap-metal or Ken and Barbie dressed up doing dance moves. For me it was attempting to break the chains that were binding me.

So you're feeling much better than you have in the past?
Oh yeah. I was definitely a mixed-up person. I'm not so mixed up now.

I always thought of you as a brooder. Then I saw the Whigs live, and you seemed so chipper.
If you saw us in the Black Love period I was probably not so chipper. I had some problems during that time, but the '65 tour was a pretty celebratory experience for me. Any time you get to go out and play music with your friends -- people you respect musically as well as on a human level -- I think that's a cause for joy. I was particularly joyous during that tour.

Are you in a relationship now?
No. That probably has a lot to do with my optimistic nature.

There are a lot of themes of lovers leaving. On this [Twilight Singers] album the song "Love" seems to talk about someone cheating on you, and yet the chorus says "Love is good." How does that follow?
I've gone back and forth on that one. I try to convince myself of the light side of the equation in the battle between dark and light. There is a lot of darkness. You have to keep your head up, though. The character in "Love" is, at the very least, suspicious of his lover's motives, and he tries to convince himself -- like in the last song ["Twilight"], where he repeats over and over again, "Everything's gonna be alright." I'm not sure he or I believe that, but if you say something enough, (laughs) perhaps you will begin to believe it. Love is a beautiful thing. I've been in love two times in my life, and although it didn't last, I'm better for having had the experience. In the verses [of "Love"] it's not looking good. In the choruses there is an attempt to convince oneself that it is a good experience.

You spoke of "the character" in "Love." How autobiographical are your songs?
I don't think that one is particularly autobiographical. I have cheated in my life, and, having known what I've done to a person by cheating on them, I was able to inhabit that as a character, rather than that being me. Certainly, there are autobiographical moments on just about every record -- some more than others. I've often said that I don't think anyone's life is that interesting that they can write an all-autobiographical record. Mine certainly is not. Black Love was very autobiographical.

How would you summarize your thoughts on women?
That's a pretty broad subject. I love women. I was raised in a house with three women. I definitely learned that you're last to use the bathroom. They're always right -- no sense arguing with them. If you're gonna get into it with a woman on the telephone, and you hang up on her, you should probably mean that, because if she does call you back it's going to be painful. I'm pretty fascinated by women, actually. In recent years I've been kind of wary about entering into any sort of relationship, because of my past.

What kind of past?
An unsuccessful one [in relationships]. As a 35-year-old man, I've seen the sort of patterns that began to develop early on, and I can look into the future and pretty much see how it's going to end. I do believe that I will fall in love again. But sometimes I think I've seen too much.

What's the biggest misconception about you?
That I'm a misogynist. I always correct them and say, "I'm most definitely not a misogynist. If anything I'm a misanthropist."

Do women come up to you and say as much?
Yeah, but usually it's more of an unbalanced person who would come up and challenge me on that level. That's gonna go nowhere. I will shut you down if you come up and challenge me on that. You will get turned off immediately like a television.

You hear a lot about how the Afghan Whigs brought soul and R&B into what was considered alternative rock. What were some of those artists that were influential for you?
I was a Motown baby. My mom was a 17-year-old mother when I came into the world. A 17-year-old girl in 1965 was listening to the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. As she got older and I got older she started listening to a lot of Stax music. I got turned on to Al Green, Carla Thomas, Booker T., Otis, a lot of Memphis music, which is why I was fascinated by Memphis at an early age -- Memphis and Detroit. I made pilgrimages to both cities at a pretty young age, just to feel it, to feel what was going on there. Those were the first records I ever heard. I don't think you really forget the first things that turned you on musically. I never did. Even though I got into rock and roll and then punk rock, it was a pretty natural progression for me to salute my past. A lot of times people will make soul music a black and white thing, and I really disagree with that, because to me the definition of a soul singer is, "Can I make you feel what I feel with my voice?" You're exposing your soul to people when you sing, so a soul singer could be the two guys from Fugazi, or D'Angelo and many people in between. I consider Steve Earle one of the best soul singers I've ever heard.

You were also a film student. What are some of the films you're into?
Scorsese and Coppola. William Friedkin. Those were the first guys I really got into -- the classic '70s filmmakers. Nowadays I think the Cohens are the probably best that we have, in America anyway. Anybody who can tell a tight story, get great performances out of the actors, employ a great story line and also have an excellent director of photography -- anybody who can tie that all up. As in music, there is a blockbuster mentality with movies, and I think a lot of the smaller, more interesting, character-driven stories are either shelved or [become] art house movies. It's been tough to see a good movie. I'm trying to think if I've seen a great one all year. The only two that come up off the top of my head are Croupier, an English film, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which was a documentary about Tammy Faye Baker. Those were the two best movies I've seen this year.

What's the next Whigs record gonna be like?
It's pretty schizophrenic right now. I think my experience with Fila has opened my eyes to the world of beat-driven music. At the same time I'm a very song-oriented person. I've been listening to a lot of blues lately, so there's a decidedly bluesy, delta-esque feel to a lot of the material. The one thing about the Whigs is that we've constantly reinvented ourselves each record. No record is the same, and this one will be most definitely different than '65. I think they're all reactions to the previous one.

It's pretty early in the game -- I've only got about eight songs right now. I won't go into a studio unless I have 20 or 22. We had a great session last night. We went from five in the evening until five in the morning, and we got onto something pretty interesting and special, something I've never heard us do before. I think having a hot keyboard player in our group has really shifted the dynamic, and we're sort of a five-man band now. For the last three records we've had [a keyboard player], but now I want to have one always. It's a great extra texture. We can all play remedial keyboards, but none of us are gonna win any boogie-woogie piano contests. Last night was a Clavinet exercise. Stevie Wonder popularized [the Clavinet] -- it's the instrument on "Superstition." You play it almost like you play the drums. It really keeps the tension -- and very funky. That's been the instrument of the week.

What's the best medication for sadness?
Music. I think, hands down, it's the best medication for sadness. For me personally, it's saved my life 10 million times and probably will 10 million more. Like I said about soul singing, when someone connects with you in a song, you don't feel alone. There are 100 people I could walk up to and hug because they got me through a long, dark night.