**The bucket list **of one of rock’s great balls-out frontpeople—Karen O, singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs—may not have included Grammy and Oscar nods for the same track. But that’s what happened for "The Moon Song," from Spike Jonze’s Her. She even performed it as a duet with Ezra Koenig at the 2014 Academy Awards. O then took a sharp left turn on Crush Songs, fifteen tunes featuring an acoustic guitar and her broken voice. It might be the most punk-rock thing she’s done yet. Here, Koenig asks her about D’Angelo, risk-taking, and her selfies policy.

Ezra Koenig: You’ve developed an awesome stage persona, wearing really loud clothes and showing a rock-star version of yourself, whereas in person, you’re like anybody; you can be withdrawn or shy. If you were a teen now, would you be posting wild selfies?

Karen O: Probably! Because it’s just self-expression, and that’s really tough when you’re a teenager, especially a shy one: What’s your outlet? I’m all for celebrating your self-expression, and if you want to do that by selfies, then I’m all for it. What makes me a little uncomfortable has to do with its ties to a need to be famous.

It’s self-esteem versus self-promotion. I totally buy the argument that, especially for women, so many things in our culture are constantly attacking you. And if you do something as simple as take a selfie and say, "I look good," it can just be showing you have self-esteem.

The self-promotion thing is connected to the confused way this culture feels like you can be famous for nothing. And who wants that, anyway? As an artist, the work part is what it’s all about, really. Any perks you get from the success, that’s an added bonus.

How have you enjoyed being on Twitter?

I’m pretty inactive. I check Instagram more. I like the feeling of connection you have through it. But that’s weighed down with a bit of "What am I doing with my time?"

When I saw that you were nominated for a Grammy for "The Moon Song," I sent you a text saying congratulations. You had no idea what I was talking about. You wrote back, like, "What? Huh?" In terms of your legacy, it’s funny that you’re so out of the loop, but I found it charming and cool.

I can be pretty out of the loop. A similar thing happened with the Oscars earlier in the year: There was zero expectation that "Moon Song" would be nominated, so when I found out, I was blindsided. This is continuing that theme of not expecting anything and then being totally surprised. If you hadn’t texted me, I may not’ve found out that day at all. My management had no idea, either.