PURPLE — Do you consider yourself a good musician?

CHARLOTTE KEMP MUHL — I can play every instrument badly. Drums, bass, guitar, piano, accordion, etc. I invented my own strange finger technique because I never had a lesson, so when professional musicians see me play, they stare at my hands and get a facial twitch. Mostly I only play my own compositions, which are a cross between Satie and Shostakovich and Daniel Johnston.

PURPLE — What’s your favorite guitar?

CHARLOTTE KEMP MUHL — I like the weird, cheap ’60s guitars. The Soviet brand Tonika. Or Teisco. Bakelite Eko. Hagstrom. Wandre.

PURPLE — What’s your relationship with the piano?

CHARLOTTE KEMP MUHL — My mother, whom I have a complicated relationship with, used to play classical piano when…