ALEXANDER Giannascoli – the singer and songwriter better known as (Sandy) Alex G – is at home, but the place doesn’t feel like home. His roommates moved into this modest North Philly apartment a few months ago, while he was on tour. He’s only been here a about a week.

Most of his belongings are in storage. All but one of his guitars are at a practice space across town. His bedroom is spare: some books, a painting by a friend of his, a pile of clothes, a mattress on the floor.

No use getting comfortable; two days after this interview he’ll be back on tour, this time for a month of shows across Europe: the UK, France, Spain, Belgium maybe? He can’t quite recall. All he knows is he’s headlining. “Hopefully we’ll break even this time,” he says, half joking. “Usually we just lose a shitload of money.”

The 24-year-old musician quickly rose to prominence in the past few years thanks to fans (Frank Ocean, among them) discovering his music on Bandcamp. Alex’s sound is intimate and rustic, the songs often built around gently layered guitars and vocals. His sometimes-breathy vocal approach has garnered comparisons to one of his heroes, Elliott Smith.

Alex originally went by Alex G, and later added the parenthetical nickname (Sandy) for reasons he’s never stated publicly. (Most likely it’s because there is another Alex G out there, a singer-songwriter and YouTube star from Colorado.)

Rocket — released in May by Domino Records, home to Franz Ferdinand, Dirty Projectors, Arctic Monkeys, etc. — was his first under the new name, and it hasn’t seemed to slow him down. The album scored an 8.4 from Pitchfork for its “obtuse storytelling and oddly-shaped songs” and has led to a seemingly endless touring schedule.

He and his band recently wrapped up a trek across the United States opening for veteran rockers Built to Spill. Colour him impressed. “Doug [Martsch] was like tour-managing the band himself,” Alex marvels. “They’re just, like, badass adults. They’re so cool.”