Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, hasn't released an 
album of original music since 2006's The Greatest, a raw, soulful tour de force.
 Life got rougher  after that. The epically troubled singer suffered a psychotic 
breakdown in 2006 and had to  cancel a tour, leaving her nearly bankrupt and
in foreclosure.  But now she's back with Sun, her ninth Cat Power record, 
on which she's shed her  band and her sad-indie-chanteuse sound for  some- 
thing pissed off, alive, and masterful. She spoke with GQ from a sidewalk café 
in Hamburg, where she was  having a drink or two.
What have you been up to the past few years?
I moved to Los Angeles to be with a man I loved. I started making this record three 
and a half years  ago in Silver Lake, and then someone from the label said the 
songs sounded like "old, depressing Cat Power." I got depressed and didn't work on
them for eight months. I got the itch again, but then I ran out of money. I cashed 
in a bond  and bought some gear and rented a house in Malibu and wrote these 
other songs. I saw on the Internet this morning that it was "a breakup record,"
 and it made me wanna hit 
something, because we broke up a couple of months after the record was done.
 It's like it invalidates it somehow.
Sun doesn't sound like a breakup record. It sounds like you're riled up.
It's an outrageous time. It's not a politics record, but I am a human being
 from America. I'm not super-educated, but I give a shit.
I felt like I was hearing your inner Mary J. Blige come out.
I would love to have that kind of pride—that Mary J., Beyoncé pride. Hip-hop 
and R&B  is mostly what I listen to. I don't have a connection with punk rock
—I just never had that experience. I listened  to [Blige's] The Breakthrough
 when I was coming out of the  hospital; I was on that. 
There's a lot of talk about how this is going to be your big crossover 
record.  Is that why  you finally got a manager?

I got told so many times I needed a manager. For a long time I resisted, and 
I finally got one so I can pay my mortgage, and it helped me from becoming 
a homeless person.
You're offered a lot of opportunities, but it seems like you mostly say no. 
How  do you  know what to turn down?

I am just going where the wine takes me. I got more guts than brains, 
and that's my problem. My gut taught me a lot, so I know a little bit. 
Does that answer the question? [laughs] This is my ninth record. I still don't
 believe it. I definitely thought I would be  married and have a couple of 
children by now. I always thought for a boy's name... 
 I think it's Sarah in the Bible, she never found love, and finally a good man
 shows up: Boaz. 
I always thought I would name my son  Boaz Mexico. "Mexico" just 
because it sounds good. I had a dream I had a daughter and we were on 
the beach and she was sayin' "Mama! Mama!" and I opened my eyes and
 the sun was  behind her head and I called her Tumbleweed. What do you
 think of the name Tumbleweed for a girl? 
It's hard to imagine it on a business card.
There will be no President Tumbleweed. [laughs] Since this is for GQ, can you 
make sure they Photoshop me to look like I have a big penis?