“I just started crying right now,” said Devendra Banhart, pointing to his eyes inquisitively. “I don’t know why, I just do this sometimes.” It seems that when you’re as full of inspiration as he is, some of it is bound to be pressed up against the surface. What brims over might be an emotion, it might be a surreal drawing, or (if we’re lucky) it might be a new genre-bending song.

Since the 2002 release of his first album, Oh Me, Oh My—recorded largely on answering machines and mini tape recorders—Banhart has simply been following his inspiration wherever it leads. He’s left a sea of critics in his wake who have tried in vain to classify his ever-evolving musical style with invented terms like freak-folk and neo-hippie. When he rolls up to our interview on a skateboard, wearing a Day-Glo shirt and showing off a weird new Japanese synthesizer toy, the thought of neatly filing Banhart into one category or another seems a bit silly. It comes as no surprise when, a few weeks later, rumors begin to circulate of a potential collaboration between Banhart and hip-hop luminary GZA.

His new album, What Will We Be, presents Banhart at his most expansive, with a globe-spanning blend of folk, prog, reggae, rock, latin, R&B and much in between. Just out on Warner Brothers, it’s his first release on a major label—a sacrilege to indie die-hards, but for Banhart it was an obvious choice: They offered him the most freedom.

Do you like the album? This record is a document of where my life is now. Typically, my main concern is making sure I’m happy with the lyrics and the way they work with the music. I tend to focus more on the things I’m not happy with than the things I’m happy with, but that’s the case after any record. I don’t think I’ve made any good records. But do I like it? Yeah, I do like it. Though, at the same time…I just can’t be definitive about any of my work.

Is that your natural relationship to your music or is it more a product of external expectations? I felt that pressure really early on because my first album was all four-track, me alone—that’s it and let’s see where it goes. No one knew anything about me except for the story of how I recorded it. It was about the music, right? And that’s what was written about. It was the same with the next record, but after that I started feeling like there was a presumption of who I am that came before the music. Then with the last record, I don’t remember anyone writing about the songs. It was all about some caricature of a person I don’t even know and an assumption of what the songs are about based on that. So since then I don’t really read any of the reviews or anything about me, and that eliminates 99 percent of the pressure.

That’s a thing too—why the hell did I sign with a major? I did an interview with Mojo and the first question was, “Do you know something I don’t, or have you gone totally crazy? Why did you sign with a major?” I know none of my peers are signed with majors, and it’s perceived as a really dumb move, but I felt pressure from the indie label, and I do not feel pressure from the major label. So that’s actually the answer to the question: I don’t feel pressure as time goes on.

Did you have any reservations about signing with a major label? Does it bother you that some people see it as a bad move? Whatever other people want to think is fine with me. I chose the situation that I thought would give me the most freedom to make the music I want to make. The indie labels I talked to had all these ideas about me, and Warner Brothers was the only one who just wanted to let me do my thing. Also, I think it’s incredible to be on the label that has both Paris Hilton and Built to Spill.