You may have noticed Binghamton kind of loves Ingrid Michaelson, and it’s for several reasons. If the concert on Tuesday hasn’t swayed you to Team Ingrid, perhaps this Q&A conducted a week before her concert will.

Release: You know, there was a Facebook event for your concert since last semester.

Ingrid Michaelson: I can’t figure Facebook out. I got the MySpace thing down and then they make Facebook and it’s like … I don’t even know how it is.

Release: I prefer Facebook to MySpace.

IM: Everybody does! There’s, like, so many different things happening to you. I keep getting poked or I keep getting bitten by a vampire … I can’t take it anymore, I don’t understand what’s happening!

Release: You have no desire to return to State Street while in town?

IM: What’s on State Street? Is that the bars and all that stuff? I went to The Rat once. And it was because I had to find my friend inside. I went to The Sports Bar maybe three times, but I do miss the Belmar. Is that still there? Yeah, I used to walk to the Belmar from my apartment. That place was awesome. I think I’m going to go back there when I’m in town. I totally want to be like after the show, “Let’s all go out!” (laughs).

Release: What’s your stance on illegal downloading?

IM: I don’t like it very much, especially as an artist … that’s where i get my money. I don’t have a record label taking percentages and I don’t have a record label fronting me money either; it’s hard for me especially. But on the other side of it, I know that there’s so much music and that if you really love music and don’t have a lot of money, then it’s hard … I guess I lean more towards I feel like it’s unfair. I don’t mind maybe one or two tracks and, if you really like an artist, you should buy the whole album and support them, and if you don’t have the money now you should make a mental note and get them later. It’s very hard for us [musicians, especially those without labels] to make a living. People that have entire libraries of illegally downloaded music, that hurts me. Physically pains me. Try to make it up, go to the concert, try and support the artist.

Release: What do you think of the mainstream music world with the charts being ruled by the likes of Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers?

IM: It would be nice if we could balance it out with other kinds of music being very popular … There should be room for all of us up there, you know? It makes more of an incentive for me to kind of get to that level — well, maybe not to the Miley Cyrus level — but to sort of reach a more mainstream audience but still retaining what I do. It’s like a kind of challenge to keep your integrity but also be loved by the masses.

Release: Favorite guilty pleasure band?

IM: Got to love — and I don’t even feel guilty about this anymore — Justin Timberlake. If you listen to a lot of his songs, the production on them is really great. And Britney, Britney’s got some and Rihanna. Oh god that “Umbrella” song haunted me, I love it (laughs).

Release: Besides them, what’s on your iPod?

IM: A lot of my friends that I met over the past couple of years that I’ve become obsessed with so kids don’t really know them … I love the Magnetic Fields; know them?

Release: Nope.

IM: They are really awesome. You should listen to them, you should listen to all the people I’m telling you about. Death Cab for Cutie is like probably one of my top out of anything … their album, “Transatlanticism,” shifted the way I thought about song writing. I like Regina Spektor a lot and Fiona Apple a lot. I think she was really quite groundbreaking, actually. Do you like Vampire Weekend?

Release: Yes.

IM: I like it but there are two or three songs where I’m just like “Ugh!” Like I’m jealous I didn’t write them kind of a thing.

Release: Do you have a favorite TV show?

IM: I do, but I have not kept up with it. It’s “Lost.” The new season hasn’t started yet, has it?

Release: Nope, it starts this winter.

IM: Oh, they’re really taking their time. I think I have four more to go on this season. Wait a minute, when Charlie died, that was two seasons ago right?

Release: That was at the end of season three. My housemates and I are planning on having a “Lost” themed party, that just shows how much we’re into the show.

IM: Are you each going to be a character?

Release: Yeah, I’m going to be Charlie …

IM: Aw … he’s dead! Are you going to dead Charlie or alive Charlie?

Release: We’re going to allow it to span seasons. Hopefully we’ll do it when it’s still warm out so we can have the backyard as our jungle …

IM: (Laughs) You guys are dorks! That’s cute.

Release: What was the last movie you saw in theaters?

IM: I saw “The Dark Knight.”

Release: Did you love it like most of America?

IM: You know, everybody loved it! I definitely enjoyed it … but Heath Ledger’s character really freaked me out … I want to watch it again because everyone else I talk to has been raving about it like it’s the best creation in the world and I definitely liked it, but I didn’t walk out being like, “Oh that was awesome!” I was kind of disturbed, actually, but I think that was the point. I think we were supposed to be really fucked up from it and that’s how I felt. I felt all messed up.