Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters, Concorde 2, Brighton, Sept 8

3:30pm Wednesday 3rd September 2008

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With their feather cuts, overpriced boho chic and studied mannerisms, plenty of young men in bands are trying to tell us how kooky they are.

Jeffrey Lewis could well be the exception that proves the rule; this rather ordinary-looking 32-year-old is widely credited with the revival of an 'anti-folk' movement in his native New York, while his inventive lyrics and staunchly lo-fi approach have marked the self-effacing songwriter out as a genuine original, if not something of an oddball.

If this weren't enough to tick the box marked 'eccentric', he has a flourishing secondary career as the writer and artist of his own comic books.

The critical acclaim heaped upon last year's 12 Crass Songs - an album in tribute to the anarcho-punk outfit – has made Lewis and his band (which includes his brother Jack) a more popular live proposition than ever.

Ian Ray spoke to the man himself.

How were your appearances at the Reading and Leeds festivals?
It was really good, but we had some issues in Leeds. I've never owned my own amplifier, and sometimes they have ones at the venue, and I was surprised at somewhere prestigious like Leeds that their amplifier didn't work, so the guitar only worked for 40% of the show.

The Reading show was a lot better, but I was a little frustrated about some of the reviews. Some of them had blatant misinformation. One said it was just a folk act, and we couldn't be compared to the rock acts, which was totally untrue because we played a rocky, punk set. Another one said we played Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror, but we didn't play that song. I don't know if they go along and just hang out and wake up hungover and think, 'oh no I need to do that review'. It was kind of ridiculous.

How much of your set is planned and how much of what you decide to play is spontaneous?
It's a bit of both. Today we're playing at this festival in Belgium, and the guy who booked us is a huge Crass fan, and so he specifically asked us to play songs from the Crass album, but at the same time, it just depends on the situation and the size of the room. We might have played a song three nights in a row and we might not want to play it again. Then of course with equipment, when you're playing with different amps that sound different, and maybe a pedal I'm using might sound really good in the room, so we'll play songs with that pedal. You have to be flexible. If I do have a plan, and it's not working, then we have to try something else.

Then it gets into problems with other people with different opinions. At one stage, my brother playing bass might say let's do something, but then the drummer might say 'let's do something else', so it's good to talk first.

Your 12 Crass Songs album was very well reviewed. Was it always your intention to make a whole album of their songs?
Well, in the album artwork there's a comic strip that tells the making of the album. There were a couple of Crass songs that I'd been playing live - I like throwing in covers of songs I like and maybe songs people wouldn't expect me to play - and the Crass material was some of those.

At some point the idea struck me that it'd be good to do it, and I sat down with a tape recorder and my Crass albums in my room and recorded song after song with these acoustic arrangements. Some sounded not so good, but some were great and so I went to my friend Matt Nathan and then over the next few months whenever we had free time, we'd work on it.

Would you think about recording an entire album of someone else's songs again?
Absolutely. There are so many bands and songs I love, and part of the joy of music is in finding albums you can spread around to other people. Staying at places on tour, people will say 'have you heard this?' That's always been part of the tradition of being a troubadour: a guy playing a song in Chicago and saying he'd been shown this new style in Mississippi.

Part of the traditional role of the troubadour is to be the bumblebees that cross-pollinate and spread the music around.

Who else would you think about covering?
There's people like Ian Dury and Lou Reed. Good songwriters who have a lot of under-rated songs. Lou Reed is known for his stuff with the Velvet Underground, but he has dozens of albums of good songs. Ian Dury is barely known in the states and I think he's known for only a couple of songs in England, but he's such a witty and original songwriter.

You were signed by Rough Trade over here – did you have any idea of the high esteem in which the label is held?
Absolutely. I was amazed they had contacted me. I loved The Fall and Television Personalities, and it's not like I had a dozen labels knocking at my door, it was really amazing.

I don't know if their relationship with me is the same as their other artists, but it can be a little informal, and it's cool. I can email them and say I have some new songs, or like with the Crass album, I just asked if they wanted to put it out and they said yes, so I just get some artwork together and we do it. There are of course the nuts and bolts about who gets what and how much it costs, but it's kind of informal.

Is it difficult to keep up the work on your comic books when you're touring with the band?
When I first started touring I was much more focused and disciplined about keeping up on my comic book work, but the artwork has gone by the wayside because there's so much to do on tour. Before this tour I spent three weeks catching up on my comic book work. But it's very time-consuming and solitary, whereas music is such a social activity.

As a big fan of comic books, what have you thought of the recent spate of movie adaptations?
American Splendour is the only comic book movie that has really worked. Ironically, I've become friends with the producer Ted Hope. We've been talking about doing something together. But everything else I can think of - most of them are terrible. I thought Ghost World was a good movie and V for Vendetta was okay, but there doesn't seem to be any regard for the comic book. There's always this idea that if it's a good comic book then the movie will be great, but what's wrong with it just being a great comic book? Is Watchmen going to be an all-time great movie? Probably not, but the comic book is still amazing 20 years later. I wrote my senior thesis on Watchmen so I could talk about it for hours.

You're also known for storyboarding your songs live with your own artwork. Will you be doing that on this tour?
Yeah, I have a couple of new storyboard songs. There's one about the history of North Korea and another one that's like a detective story.

And how is it touring with your brother? Do you get on spending so much time together?
There's plenty of battles for sure. I don't know how much of that would go on in any band, but there's no need to be polite because you're still going to love them because they're your brother. You can say 'shut up, I hate you and all your ideas are stupid' and you know they'll still be there... but we do get along and it all works out.

• Support comes from Morgan Onion and The Wave.

Starts 8pm, Tickets £8. Call 01273 673311.