Lera Lynn was of course thrilled when the producers of True Detective's greatly-anticipated second season got in touch with a view to using several of her songs. Lynn had, along with the rest of us, adored the first year of HBO's gothic procedural. And she sensed she was a good match for television's darkest property, her feverish and baroque country rock eerily attuned to show-runner Nic Pizzolatto's cosmic horror world-view.

"T Bone Burnett, True Detectives musical co-ordinator, heard some of my stuff and reached out," she recalls. "I couldn't believe it. Obviously, I said yes on the spot." Which is where things got complicated. HBO didn't just want Lynn's music, it turned out. They wanted her too. Pizzolatto was eager for the 33-year-old, Texan-born, Georgia-raised singer to play a dead-eyed chanteuse at a dive bar where much of the action goes down. It was a huge opportunity - Lynn would be showcasing her songs, in person, on television's hottest franchise.

What could possibly go wrong? "I'm not an actor," she sighs. "This was something I'd never done before. It was strange - on my first day on set, I looked up and there was Colin Farrell. He was great but it was initially weird seeing him. At one stage someone said, "We need an eyeline on Lera." I thought they were talking about make up!" [Eyeline is in fact a highly technical cinematography term].

Pizzolatto's instincts were correct: the young singer was indeed a knock-out on TD. Lynn's crepuscular presence contributed greatly to the muggy, claustrophobic ambiance, with the song 'My Least Favourite Life', as deployed heavily in trailers, setting the tone for the fever-dream ahead. Listening to her music one might form the impression that Lynn had grown up on the world's saddest trailer-park. In fact, she is a child of the 'burbs' like the rest of us, her first musical crushes Whitney Houston and Canadian girl-rockers Heart.

It was only later that she discovered Emmylou Harris and Ray Charles. The persona she presents on record - especially on her bleak new album Resistor - is only part of the story. As anyone who saw her gig in Whelan's knows Lynn is a hoot. Her humour a counterpoint to the sturm und drang of her songbook. It's all on purpose, she confirms. "That's the goal," she nods. "We do a version of Johnny Cash's 'Ring Of Fire'. It's rearranged but I do it as it's a song that a lot of people know. You want to bring the audience with you."