Ezra Furman On World Cafe

For years, Chicago singer-songwriter Ezra Furman had been operating under the idea that meeting the audience's expectations was more important than being true to himself — and it was not working. Nine and a half years into his career, he hit bottom and decided that his 2013 album, Day Of The Dog, would be his last. But then, Furman began to openly embrace and discuss his own gender fluidity, and his career broke open in the U.K. and spread from there.

Furman is a witty songwriter, and he and his band rock hard on his new album, Perpetual Motion People. Hear the conversation and some fine performances on this page.