Much-maligned Fiona Apple makes the most of conjecture about the state of her world. Be kind to her or treat her mean, she maintains she's an extraordinary machine.
She sings about her fortitude on the disarming title track of her Grammy-nominated, much-delayed comeback album, "Extraordinary Machine."
That's not to say that this machine hasn't been in need of the occasional tune-up since it debuted in 1996 at 19, delivering the MTV video "Criminal."
"I'm fine now," Apple said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, acknowledging reports of bathrobed reclusiveness that conjured images of Brian Wilson.
"Yeah, I pretty much checked out for a while," she said of her six-year recording hiatus. "It wasn't like Brian Wilson in that I wasn't in a state of depression or anything like that. It was just I had moved into a house and I was just being lazy and staying home, and I just didn't feel like writing for a long time. It was kind of boring."
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Elle magazine described her as "possibly unhinged." Untrue.
She's no longer just a photogenic, outspoken rock ingenue — or, at 28, content rolling around in her panties on camera.
When "Extraordinary Machine" debuted at No. 7 in October, it marked a long-awaited return to the music business since a much-publicized onstage meltdown. She's anything but ashamed.
"I did have a meltdown at Roseland in New York at a show a few years ago. And at the time, it was the worst thing that I could possibly imagine," she said. "For a good couple of years after that, if anybody said the word 'Roseland,' I would cringe. But now, it's one of those things that happened in life where you're, like, it's kind of nice to think about it right now because it's just evidence that you can get through stuff — and it's just fun.
"I don't care if people write about it. It's totally true, I had a meltdown."
Still, she does avoid the rock press: "I'm way too sensitive to be able to handle knowing what people are saying about me."
Apple said she's not quite sure why she connects with fans:
"One thing that I know that I can depend on is I mean what I'm saying, and I'm honest. And I think if anything is connecting, then that's got to be it.
"I'm the one person in the world that has the least perspective on what my effect is. I don't know what people see me as. . . . But if I had to guess, I think it's probably because I'm not lying."
Not even to herself, when she accepted that she couldn't live with the overproduced original version of "Extraordinary Machine." Producer Mike Elizondo, a pal of Dr. Dre's, salvaged the project by stripping it down.
"The songs were not rewritten. They were the same exact songs. It's the same body with a different dress on it, you know," Apple said.
Her musical comfort zone seems to be defined by those dark chords lurking in the Beatles' White Album and John Lennon's piano-based solo work. Her stepfather got her into the Beatles, which she recalls fondly and with a laugh.
"I actually fell in love with John Lennon," she said. "I was pretty much all about the Beatles when I was a kid. I had the 'Let It Be' poster up in my bed, and I used to kiss John at night, you know. And I had on my door: 'Enter Beatlemania.' "
These days, Fionamania doesn't make her as nervous as it might seem for a famously nervous person.
"I'm a person that spends 90 percent of my time worrying about things," she said. "All the time that's leading up to going on the stage, all the time leading up to something I've got to do, I'm pretty much worrying my head off about it. Once I'm onstage, I feel fine."
But mostly don't worry about her, she said. Like her song "Waltz (Better Than Fine)" goes, she's getting along hummingly.
