Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom plays the harp, writes esoteric songs that contain words like Tulgeywood and sings in a high-pitched warble that manages to sound both beautiful and pained at the same time. It took the 28-year-old songwriter four years to release Have One on Me , the three-disc follow-up to her critically acclaimed sophomore album Ys . Newsom talks to TIME about the process of creating a monstrous album, why she wishes she was a better composer and what happened when she lost her voice.

Why did you keep...