Actor Michael Cera released a surprise folk album this week, which obviously led to a lot of questions.

Luckily, the former Arrested Development star recently sat down with Stereogum to set his new record straight. Perhaps the most burning question on everyone's minds was the album art. What was that all about, exactly?

Turns out, the low-quality picture is of him and his sister's boyfriend's daughter.

"I just love that photo of her, and one day we were just hanging out and my sister took a bunch of photos of us, and I liked that photo," Cera said. "It's nice that she really likes me. I take it so personally when a kid doesn't like you."

The album, true that, features a lot of piano, but he said that moving issues almost cut the instrument out entirely.

"The guy who sold it to me was pretty positive he couldn't get it up here," said Cera, who lives three floors off the ground. "So he told me he'd try to have his guys move it in, but if they couldn't get it in, I'd still have to pay the piano-moving cost. You know they charge by the step, so... I don't know how these guys did it. They got this thing around two corners, going upstairs - just defied physics and got it to my house. I don't think I'll ever get it out, but it's here now, and I love it."

Cera learned guitar at 13 and then picked up piano five years later. He still can't read music, and was hesitant to share anything publicly.

"I've been sending my songs to friends for a long time," he said. "It's nice that people listen to it. I've been recording stuff at home for so long, just playing it for myself and people I know. My friend told me he thought I was being too careful with my music, and I thought that was a really nice, gentle criticism. So I thought I'd maybe want to have people hear it.

"I thought I'd make a Bandcamp page so my music would just be online and people could find it. There was so little thought put into it."

Earlier this week, MusicTimes' own Joey DeGroot broke down the music:

"Anyone going into true that expecting something jokey or tossed off (as I did) might find themselves surprised by the album's melancholic atmosphere," DeGroot wrote. "Much of the album is instrumental and has a folky, lo-fi, and even somewhat experimental aesthetic similar to the Microphones, the Music Tapes, or Elliott Smith. It's actually very good, though it probably wouldn't garner much attention if Cera weren't already a famous actor, unfortunately."

So, will we be hearing any more music from Cera in the near future. Maybe a mini-tour?

"I have no plans of that kind," Cera said. "I really actually don't know what I'll be doing with my life in general come January. Which is fine. I really don't need to be looking too much further than that."

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