Serpentwithfeet: ‘Nobody can take my joy. Not the government, not a random white person'

With his new album, Deacon, the US singer-songwriter has finally left heartbreak and anger behind. It's been a journey

Across the long stretch of the pandemic, with formal face-to-face interviews replaced by cosy conversations over phones and laptops, we have become used to images of kitchens, living rooms and carefully selected bookshelves. For today's conversation, though, singer-songwriter Serpentwithfeet has offered up a far more novel setting in the current locked-down climate: an airport. After struggling to connect, he appears, most of his face covered with a mask, his neck tattoos just visible through the compressed video image. Can you hear me?" he asks, before a disembodied voice interrupts to announce that a flight is now boarding.

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