Celebrity Scoop: Brendan Hines

Brendan Hines, who plays radically honest Eli Loker on Fox's Monday drama "Lie to Me," may be a singer/songwriter, but he can't lie about his guitar chops.

"I try to keep (my songs) in the lyric-based folk simplicity," he says, "because I don't consider myself much of a musician. I'm a much better guitar player than I used to be, but I consider myself more of a lyricist."

Right now, he's happy to be spending more time acting than playing, but when he does get a chance to strum and sing, he keeps it mellow -- but with an edge.

"I would describe (my music) as smarta-- urban folk music," he says. "Ours has a little country in it, just in the instrumentation, not necessarily in the content. I don't have an affected twang when I sing, as 95 percent of country music does these days.

"So, yeah, in the instrumentation, it's country-folk-ish, but in content, it's pure smarta--."

In his acting life, Hines works across from acclaimed British actor Tim Roth, who plays Dr. Cal Lightman, an expert in detecting when people are lying.

Again, Hines is honest about the experience of working with Roth.

"It's quite an education," he says. "It's like going to school, and your teacher is constantly mocking you in a brotherly sort of way. You want to both impress and insult him back. So you really work your chops off as far as acting but also as far as going out with insults. That's fun.

"But it's in my blood. I'm Irish. I can give it."

Hines has also learned more than just how to take a verbal punch.

"One thing, I won't say that I've learned it so much as I've observed it (in him)," he says, "is being totally at ease with your own inherent weirdness."