Adam Green Welcomes Negative Crowd Vibes

Last spring, while opening for Scottish indie-pop heroes the Vaselines in Brooklyn, N.Y., Adam Green pulled a baggie of what he claimed were magic mushrooms from his leather jacket. He proceeded to eat every last one, his supposed drug binge amusing some fans, annoying others. Presumably, he was fine with both reactions.

"I do thrive off, sometimes, a negative crowd vibe," Green tells Spinner. "When a crowd really finds you to be distasteful, it opens up a philosophical part of your brain that wants to do some exploratory research on them."

Green will have plenty of opportunities to do research on audiences this winter, as he tours the United States and Europe with British rockers the Cribs. Next month, the Moldy Peaches founder will release his sixth solo album, 'Minor Love,' a collection of droll, witty pop songs reminiscent of 'Transformer'-era Lou Reed.

Green's upcoming travels will take him to both England and France, countries he says have treated him quite differently over the years. On his last visit to Manchester, one English concertgoer spent the night baiting Green for a fight and threatening to punch him in the face.

"I tried to crowd surf around him," the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist recalls. "England is a really violent country. There's a whole culture of bullying everybody that doesn't really exist as much in New York."

In France, on the other hand, each of Green's albums has outsold its predecessor, and he's fared well with fans and journalists alike.

"It's like the only country that's really grown for me on a steady incline -- I've never had it be bad for me there," he says. "I think the French just know how much I'm a Francophile, or it's inferred."

No matter where he's playing, Green admits he's liable to provoke an audience. The urge to pick at listeners, get insider their heads and hopefully convert them into fans is one he says he can't control.

"You get up on a stage and you're put in that position, to entertain people, and it just happens, whether or not you want to do it," he says. "You're facing everybody, so all this stuff comes out. It's instinctive."

"But it's not so instinctive," Green adds. "When I first started performing, I was more shy. Now I'm kind of less shy.