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Jason is a pork pie-hatted troubadour from Seattle who’s most at ease with an accordion in his arms. At school he was in a punk band called Moral Minority, then he began busking, and he’s since released five albums. He’s put out limited edition collaborations, under his label Eleven records, with Jay Thompson, Reverend Peyton and Sxip Shirey. He’s also set up an annual tour called Monsters Of Accordion, featuring musicians who’ve played with the likes of Gogol Bordello and Regina Spektor.

During our shoot, Jason’s bright-eyed, quiet and childlike until he starts playing music – when he turns into a foot-stomping, hollering, brash gypsy punk. We sat him down on a kids’ chair in the sunny backyard of Bush Hall, to talk about the twins, Amanda and misunderstandings with Andrew WK.

What’s your version of how you met Amanda?
I was performing and a girl came up to me and we started talking. We went to see a butoh play together, and at the play I became smitten by a Japanese dancer – so I ditched Amanda, and went to Bali with the other girl, who immediately left me for her ex-boyfriend, which was miserable.

Amanda had told me she wrote songs, but I was dismissive. Years later, Amanda sent me an email, and the next time I was in Australia I saw her perform in front of 2,500 people. That taught me a lesson!

How did you write the Evelyn Evelyn stories?
We’d do things like get a pen, close our eyes, and drop the pen on a map to find out where the twins were born. We both worked on songs: even when I’m writing on my own, I run it through a filter of what she’ll think. That’s why a lot of collaborations are fun – you’re not just trying to impress a nebulous audience, you’re trying to amuse a friend.

Is it hard to play instruments one-handed?
It shouldn’t be very hard – we’re not playing difficult music – but I get cramp up my arm. There was someone at the show last night who had one arm missing and she was asking about playing piano like us – there have been pieces written for one-handed piano because Paul Wittgenstein, a famous Austrian concert pianist, lost an arm in WW1.

Do you ever tickle each other under the dress?
We used to communicate a bit under the dress, but now we try to act as if the other limb isn’t there.

Why did you include a Twix bar in the story?
Part of what makes the Evelyn story fun is that it feels like it’s happening in another world. The Twix bar seemed to live in that world. Dropping in references to every day life gives the story a sense of motion.

How did the guest vocals on ‘My Space’ come about?
The week before we did the first recording session, Amanda met lots of celebrities. She toured with Debbie Harry and Cyndi Lauper. She also went to LA for a day and bumped into Trent Reznor, and interviewed Henry Rollins.

I said she should carry a tape recorder around and get all of these people to sing something for one of our songs, and we could mix them all in. Frances Bean singing in the gang vocal was unexpected – the press even reported that Cobain’s daughter had made her recording debut!

How about Andrew WK?
When I emailed him, he was confused because he thought I was Weird Al Yankovic! Our friend Corn Mo is good friends with him and said he should do it, then put us in touch with each other. When I sent Andrew the final track, after it had all been mixed together, he said, “Man, this sounds so great, Weird Al sounds amazing!” And I said, “Oh, that was me, I hope you didn’t agree to do this project because you thought it was a Weird Al song!”

What was your response to the criticism of Amanda’s first blog post about Evelyn Evelyn?
We were accused of portraying disabled people as pitiful folk that overcome all odds with the help of able-bodied people. Others felt it was wrong for us to people to dress up as conjoined twins and treat disability as though it’s cute and fun. The twins aren’t really people who are being helped. People can relate to the twins’ relationship – two people who can’t be apart from each other, but have separate identities.

How will the Evelyn Evelyn graphic novel look?
Two hardbound volumes in a slipcase – like a twin book – by illustrator Cynthia Von Buhler, who did the album artwork, with an afterword by Neil Gaiman. It’ll follow the same story as the record, but we’re adding extra material: for example, in the story, many people die in a row, so I’m going to make an obituaries page that looks like a newspaper clipping.

What about the future of Evelyn Evelyn?
I’m ready to work on my own stuff again. I’ve got a live record out this fall, but I hope the twins will tour parts of the States we’re missing this time around.