The Love Language's Stuart McLamb insists he doesn't seek chaos for art's sake -- it just seems to find him. "It's funny how that works," he says over cigarettes and coffee at a java joint in his band's hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. "I'll have these periods where just nothing is in my head. Then it's like a phoenix, coming out under stress.

Musicians tend to play better after warming up. Or, as the case may be, thawing out. "Our first practice space was in a room we couldn't afford to heat," recalls Wild Light's cofrontman Timothy Kyle, thinking back to the band's winter rehearsals in Quincy, Massachusetts.

It's a strange day when a rapper frets over what piano-pop goofball Ben Folds thinks of his music. But that's exactly what happened after Novel (born Alonzo Mario Stevenson) recorded himself rapping over Folds' plaintive 2001 ballad "The Luckiest." "I was worried he'd say, 'You fucked my shit up!' " says Novel, 27. "But Ben loved it.

Sam Eastgate, frontman for English electro rockers Late of the Pier, recalls when he swore off the synthesizer. "I found one behind the shelves in our living room," says the 21-year-old, whose father played in obscure '80s rock act My Dog Has No Nose. "It was a weird plastic thing covered in dials. I thought, 'I'll never learn to play that.' "

Long story short: He did.

FACE TIME: Ever since A-listers lined up to virtually duet with Frank Sinatra in 1993, pop collaborations have become devalued as events, even as they've increased in frequency. But unlike your standard rap remix featuring phoned-in cameos, the cavalcade of stars guesting on N.A.S.A.'s The Spirit of Apollo -- the brainchild of Squeak E.

James Allan didn't grow up dreaming of being a rock star. The Glasvegas frontman had a more modest goal: becoming a professional soccer player. "At school, anybody who played guitar was just weird," he says. "In the east end of Glasgow, nobody played music. It was all gambling, going to the pub, going to football matches."