Hidden behind narrow sunglasses and a zipped-up camo fleece, Archy Marshall is telling me about how his artistic antenna is always up: “I’m a walking product of being influenced by stuff.” Sometimes his allusions are conscious, like when he absorbed dream sequences from The Sopranos into his “Czech One” and “Alone, Omen 3” music videos. Other times, he’s apt to just name a song after whatever movie was buzzing in the background while he wrote it. There’s no beginning or end to his creative impulse.

Three albums into his career, Marshall’s distinctive sonic and lyrical lexicon as King Krule draws on itself as much as it does the outside inspirations that inevitably seep into his brain. He’s a one-man feedback loop: No matter what cultural flotsam enters his psyche, it exits as a part of the greater King Krule universe. Man Alive! is the latest product of this spongey process, bringing together downtrodden guitar, hip-hop beats, and street-lit saxophone to conjure his now-signature brand of beautiful murk. Here, Marshall lays out some of the keys that helped him unlock his latest work.