GLORY DAYS: The originial Huffamoose, back in the day. Craig Elkins (right) has a new band in L.A. called Craig Craigstofferson.

City Paper: When did Huffamoose officially disband?

Craig Elkins: Boy, you know what, I don't really remember officially disbanding. I don't remember a conversation. I guess we had one. I think we just fizzled out. Same old shit—everyone going in different directions. Plus, my front tooth had started to stain pretty badly so I needed to take time off and get that taken care of.

CP: I sensed from the Here Comes Huffamoose documentary that there was a sense of exhaustion once the band completed its last van tour, not to mention the physical altercation.

CE: There was a huge sense of exhaustion and just overall uncomfortableness … Nothing like a band brawl to make everyone feel really great about themselves.

CP: When did you write the tracks on A Final Blaze of Glory? CE: I wrote most of them while I was still in Huffamoose. For some reason we never worked them out. I'm glad we didn't though, cuz they have a whole different feel on this record. I think with Tom [Walling] and Chris [Siedel] I was able to create something a lot more rough around the edges.

CP: Do you feel a need to differentiate your current sound from Huffamoose?

CE: I didn't set out to make anything sound different from anything else. First of all, I can barely play guitar and I'm the guitar player. Secondly, it's a trio. I did purposely go for an unproduced sound—as devoid as possible of extraneous instrumental hooks. I just didn't feel like trying to sell the music. What else can anyone possibly do that's original from a production standpoint? Production is just starting to bore the crap out of me.

CP: Do you develop the lyrics and music independently?

CE: I really think that my laziness and attention deficit disorder have contributed in a positive way to my songwriting skills. I just sort of half-learned stuff and then in the process of trying to cover up my ineptitude, I came up with my solid-gold songwriting style.

CP: I know you'd lived in L.A. before. Why'd you move back?

CE: In Philly I felt like I didn't have to play music. I didn't even have a guitar. On the few occasions that I did play, I'd just borrow gear. Then, one morning I was driving around listening to an interview with Arlo Guthrie and his daughter. They sang "This Land Is Your Land" together over the phone. I have a 2-year-old daughter and I got all choked up. So I thought, where is music always going to be reminding me to get my shit together? L.A. I've already written an L.A. tune or two and I'm independently wealthy so I don't have to worry about money.

CP: Was financial independence ever an expectation? Are you an artist for art's sake?

CE: Right before I moved out here I met with a bunch of folks at Universal Music regarding the status of my publishing contract with them. Basically, I'm screwed, but they were nice about it. Gave me a bunch of ideas, "Let's get together when you get into town," etc. Anyway, one thing is this password-protected Web page that contains the names of these super high-profile artists that need tunes for their latest projects. Like, "Christina Aguilera needs songs for her upcoming release—she's looking for hits," that sort of thing. I'm not above making a ton of cash, so I tried my hand at it and wound up with an R&B tune about nuclear holocaust and the economy. My guess is that I can be as sleazy as the next guy but my sleaze IQ is pretty low.

CP: A Final Blaze of Glory is a rather ominous title for a debut. Is Craig Craigstofferson a one-off project?

CE: Good question. I might have to up the sexy quotient a bit—we'll see. L.A.'s a tough town.