In the winter of 2006, in a scene that repeated itself at venues across the country, Kevin Barnes of the band Of Montreal ascended the stage at New York’s Bowery Ballroom dressed in a wedding gown, announced his upcoming divorce, and asked the audience to join him in holy musical matrimony.

Barnes has since reconciled with his former wife, Nina, who is also the mother of his daughter, Alabee. Their separation, however, is the subject of Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, a late-career masterpiece from a band that has been putting out magnificent records since 1997.

Of Montreal takes its name from the home city of another woman who long ago had a failed romance with Barnes. The band is actually of Athens, Georgia, home of the Elephant 6 collective, which spawned Neutral Milk Hotel, the Olivia Tremor Control, the Apples in Stereo, and many loosely affiliated bands.

Barnes, now thirty-two, has only heightened his well-known theatrical antics with age. On the Hissing Fauna tour, he has appeared in a kimono, gold booty shorts with fishnets, and a ten-foot dress, which he enters through a ladder onstage. He also famously played naked at a winter show in Las Vegas, though he says that stunt will be reserved for the rare twenty-one-and-over show.

When I went to meet with the band in Seattle, they were playing a set at the radio station KEXP, during which they were threatened with having their tour van forcibly removed from the lot adjacent to the station’s studio. Later that day, I spoke with Kevin Barnes over coffee before that night’s sold-out show at the Showbox (the van was safely—and legally—stowed in the venue’s lot).

—Amy Benfer

I.“IT MIGHT BE SORT OF A TABLOID-Y THING.”

THE BELIEVER: The people in your life—especially your girlfriend, Nina, and your daughter, Alabee—have been reference points in your music. You’re not talking about “love” or “breakups” in general but creating characters and storylines out of your life.

KEVIN BARNES: Ray Davies [of the Kinks] did that. He would use his sister’s real name, or sing about his cousin. In a way, it might be a bit unfair to the people in your life, because you’re writing about them and it’s not an autobiographical thing for them; it’s your impression of them. Maybe they aren’t necessarily too psyched about having a song written about them. I believe that art should be intimate; that it should be directly connected to your life and reflect your life. You shouldn’t feel the need to put up a wall separating your “real” life from your artistic life. The part that resonates the most with people is confessional,...