From the local-lad-makes-good file, Toronto singer-songwriter Hawksley Workman has capped a string of positive press in the U.K. with a coveted rock-snob honour: A full-page feature in the February issue of high-brow Brit glossy Mojo.

Seems the Huntsville-bred eccentric has been pricking up English ears with For Him And The Girls, the independent album that won him accolades here in 1999.

And it's nice to see that the overseas interest hasn't curbed his playful interview mystique.

Asked if his self-penned record company biography -- which has him learning to tap dance on the pack-ice of the Canadian wastelands -- is untrue, Workman responds, "Yes ... You know how your own life isn't all that interesting to you? I'm not interested in listening to records made by anybody who moans about how awful it all is. I make dark music, but I want to entertain you before you realize that you're swimming in the dark pool."

He also floats the suggestion that airline pilots walk around on planes in mid-flight, "so we can check them out and compliment them on their art, like you'd do with a great chef."

Workman's second album and major label debut, (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves, comes out in Canada March 6 through Universal.