For Robert Schwartzman, a new musical outing is not just professional—it’s personal. Fresh from scoring cousin and frequent collaborator Gia Coppola’s recent coming-of-age feature Palo Alto, written by and starring James Franco and also featuring Emma Roberts, the solo artist accompanied footage from the film with an intimate studio performance of new single “It’s You.” “Working on this movie with my cousin was really special because she’s like my little sister and this was her directorial debut,” says Schwartzman, the musical descendant of the Coppola-Schwartzman dynasty. “I was composing music for her fashion shorts and short films—I even got to act in one of them—and she had used my songs a lot.” Having dabbled in film with a cameo in cousin Sofia Coppola’s 1999 breakthrough The Virgin Suicides, the former Rooney frontman is firmly focused on music once more: his California Roll tour kicks off next month, tailgated by an EP and a new album planned for next year. Here, the singer talks swapping formative years growing up in LA for the grey skies of Guildford, England, and his penchant for Britpop.

The kids in Palo Alto are the epitome of teenage angst. What’s your ultimate angst moment?
Robert Schwartzman: I really wanted to get into something; I liked learning and taking classes but I really didn’t enjoy my high school community that much. My older brother was a musician at the time and had a band, so I just yearned to hang out with him and his friends. I kind of was lucky to have all those siblings because they could show me the way; I could go out with those guys and go to their concerts and I always just felt I belonged to that community. When I was 16, I went to Oxford to study filmmaking and when I came back I wanted to leave my school and move to England. I found this boarding school in Guildford so I came out for a while, which seemed impulsive by the time I got there, but I thought I could kind of hold on or recreate that Oxford experience. But sometimes the beauty of experiences is that they’ll never happen again.

What band posters were hanging on your walls?
RS: I was a victim of Britpop, in a good way. I was a big fan of Blur and Oasis. It wasn’t a lifestyle thing for me, it was about a song. My brothers were kind enough to share their record collection, so there was a lot of dramatic 70s rock and roll. Every day my brother Jason’s alarm clock was "Telephone Line" by ELO.

Have you ever paid attention to the saying that you should never mix business with family?
RS: Family is really important. You can have all sorts of feelings; it's complex, like any family, no matter what industry you’re in. It just happens that we all orbit around a similar industry. Music is a little different than film but it’s all somewhat intertwined, but no matter what, I always want to feel connected. I have a family to feel emotional with; I like that feeling, that bond.