The show’s fourth episode, “Rest in Metal,” follows a band called Doxxology that is desperate to claw its way back to success after one giant hit song. There’s a creative-writing workshop folded in, too, as Darnielle lays out the mechanics of creating a backstory for the fictional heavy-metal band he performs in for Poker Face. Then there’s literature in translation, an interest Darnielle has shared with Johnson during their decades-long friendship. One of them is metal, a musical genre Darnielle knows well and loves wildly, though it’s not the genre his band, the Mountain Goats, works in.

Talking with John Darnielle about his guest-starring role in Rian Johnson’s new detective series, Poker Face, is a little like taking an enthusiastic seminar in three different classes at the same time.