Fleet Foxes' Perfect Harmony

When Fleet Foxes singer Robin Pecknold was in high school in Seattle, he was overweight, bad at sports and way too into The Lord of the Rings. "It was a pretty isolating time," he says. "I was never invited to anyone's party. I felt invisible." If that wasn't bad enough, he suffered allergies so debilitating he was often unable to go to school. "Once, I sneezed 23 times in a row," he says. "I could barely leave my house. My face would turn red and I'd, like, die."

But he did have a best friend, the supremely shy Skyler Skjelset. And together, they had music. Before the first bell and during lunch breaks, Robin and Skye hung out with the computer geeks in the science lab. "It had the best stereo system in the whole school," says Skjelset. "We'd sit around and blast Neil Young and Bob Dylan — and the teacher would always squeeze in some ELO and Yes."

Now 22, Pecknold and Skjelset front one of the most buzzed-about young bands in America. Since releasing the pastoral, folky EP Sun Giant in February, and their debut album in June, Fleet Foxes have scored a gig on The Late Show With David Letterman and an opening stint with Wilco — during which the Foxes shared the stage for a nightly encore of "I Shall Be Released." "It was amazing," Pecknold recalls. "Just last Christmas I was harmonizing 'I Shall Be Released' with my family."

On a warm afternoon in September, Pecknold sits at an outdoor table at a coffee shop in the Capitol Hill district of Seattle. He's wearing his favorite tattered blue-plaid flannel over a stained white T-shirt and a pendant around his neck engraved with his girlfriend's name, Olivia. His hair is long and greasy, curling around his chin; beneath a scraggly beard he has a long face, high cheekbones and dark skin.

Despite his success, he's still a loner. He says he's never been to a party and he hates bars, due to overwhelming social anxiety. "I don't really hang out with anyone," Pecknold says. "I'll hang out with my band, because I love them, but I don't have any friends aside from that."