Bright Eyes - London, UK - Summer 2007
By: Alex Lee Thomson
This intrepid and fearless scribe made his way across London, (went back to work and then came back at a better time), to sit mano a mano, face to face, genius to, erm, sweaty ginger bloke, to discuss music, lyrics and the poetry of death.
Conor Oberst, mastermind behind American alt-country band Bright Eyes, is perched on the end of his manager's bed, looking a million miles away from the comparative schoolboy that was behind songs such as 'Bow Of Oranges', 'Easy Lucky Free' and 'First Day Of My Life'. He's in town to uphold his new album, possibly the best of his career, 'Cassadaga', an emotional stampede of hammering tunes and evocative wordplay. His newly fashioned long hair is swooped across his face, bound with expression and dreaming charm, he's balanced and ready and so despite our utter starstruck awe and genuine respectful adoration, we venture onwards without agenda...
Rockfeedback: Greetings Conor... I kind of want to say happy Independence Day, so we can all celebrate how Bill Pullman saved us from aliens...
Conor Oberst: Yeah, exactly. We should all be drinking watery, domestic, shitty beer and eating barbecue.
RFB: Do you class yourself as patriotic?
CO: Oh, definitely.
RFB: ... Because you're known for occasionally shouting out about the government, but I suppose there's a difference between the country as a place and the government.
CO: Yeah, y'know there's ups and downs to everywhere. I believe in the ideal America, I think it's pretty amazing, it's just how it manifests itself in reality can be different.
RFB: Something that comes across, certainly in your early work, is how much you love where you're from, Nebraska. Having seen a lot of the world now is that still where your heart is, so to speak?
CO: Well that was my home y'know and I think you only get one hometown, and that's definitely mine. I have a house there still and I think I'll always have a place there, it's where my family is and my friends are...
RFB: Do you still go back there and visit your old friends from when you grew up?
CO: Yeah, I mean most of them I'm still pretty tight with; obviously you lose people along the way, but a lot of my close friends I'm still close with, y'know; we kind of did the whole music thing together...
RFB: Does everybody still treat you the same way or is there a sense that you're now Conor the celebrity?
CO: Nah, not from any of my real friends. I might run into that sometimes from acquaintances, like people in Omaha I was never that close with, but not from my real, true friends.
(Conor settles back onto the bed, his ripped shirt scraggily hanging down across the crispness of the white bed linen... ooh er...)
RFB: You're a very 'Americana' sounding band, obviously influenced by a lot of country music, are you surprised how that's taken off around the world, especially somewhere like here in the UK where country music is almost unheard of?
CO: I guess so. I was surprised when I started to like country music because when I was young I really didn't like it... at all. I mean, sure, there was like, whatever, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash and it's hard to kind of not like that, but it was never a big part of what I listened to or what my parents listened to, or anything like that. I was very into classic rock, or 70s folk rock or I guess new, kind of, whatever it was called at the time - I don't know if they'd invented 'indie rock' yet, maybe they had, but...
RFB: ...Well, what decade are we talking about?
CO: I really started getting into music, like Fugazi, Pavement and Superchunk and that kind of stuff when I was 10 or 11 so like 1990, and that was really all I listened to and then I started going back and discovering...
RFB: I think a lot of people have used Bright Eyes to go back and find artists like Neil Young or Emmylou Harris, especially Harris who you've worked with; is it nice to know that people have used your band to fall in love with a lot of other people who along the way have inspired you... almost like you're the gatekeeper of country music to a new generation?
CO: Well, I think that's the way music works in general. Everybody has influences and it's fun to chase it back.
RFB: Yeah I think you could probably chase everybody back to one band, at some point there was one band that inspired the world (we'd guess Beatles):
CO: Exactly, yeah...
(We glance at the clock and our all too short time is diminishing swiftly, so hastily we move on... follow us on to the next page...)
RFB: Now the new album, 'Cassadaga', is it a natural progression from where you left off with 'Digital Ash' and 'Wide Awake' or was there a conscious decision with this album to combine those two?
CO: Oh... no... for the first time we made a record, we made it with not much in mind. It seems that with other records, especially the last two, we were so focused on achieving a certain sound or a certain style or whatever, and forming the album around this one homogenised idea and on this record it was really the opposite. I tried to just be as free as possible and just record anything we want, different styles, you know... and, as it turns out, it does sound like one record; in my mind, it fits together fine.
RFB: Do you find it quite therapeutic writing albums, or songs in general?
CO: Yeah, I always feel really good after I finish a song, and it's kind of like downhill from there. I enjoy recording and I enjoy playing but to me the ultimate moment for what I do is that moment of creation.
RFB: So do you class yourself as a songwriter first and then the performance is a natural thing that comes with it?
CO: Yeah, I'm the most interested in that, the writing of the song, and everything else I'm interested in to a lesser degree.
RFB: Well, it's kind of how you're known now, and I hate to say it... but like Dylan...
CO: Well, I can't play guitar very well, that's for sure
RFB: Oh I'm sure thousands of people would disagree.
CO: Well, I've got that C chord down now.
RFB: Was this album hard to write?
CO: It was a very easy experience; I didn't feel any pressure to finish the record. Maybe towards the end there was a moment of like, 'ok we've got to decide to mix,' and stuff, but throughout the process of writing and recording we had all the time and resources we really needed.
RFB: Do you ever worry that one day the songs aren't going to come as easily as they have been?
CO: Oh yeah...
RFB: I guess writers block must be your biggest enemy.
CO: Of course, I think about that a lot. It seems that every time I finish a wave of songs that creativity, muse or spirit thing you need is... yeah, it's a terrible feeling, I'm always convinced it'll never happen again.
RFB: You do write in a very personal nature. Do you ever have to compromise on lyrics to make a song appeal to a broader audience, like you'll want to write something, but something else might make it a better song...
CO: I never thought about it in those terms, but occasionally I'll write a line that maybe I'm afraid will hurt somebody's feeling so I'll leave it out as a favour to them or find another way to say it that isn't so blatant.
RFB: Is there anything you've ever written that you've later regretted?
CO: Oh yeah, on all of our albums.
RFB: ... I don't think I could write half the things you do and have my mum and dad listen to it...
CO: Yeah, that was more of a big deal earlier. At this point, I don't know, I'm friends with my mum and dad so I don't censor the way I speak to them, as I wouldn't to anybody. When I first started out, though... it was interesting, but I think they got used to it pretty quick.
RFB: Do you find that people tend to over-analyse what you're singing about?
CO: Yeah, I think people definitely seem to do that. It's hard to say what the right amount is, but I guess it's just the style of music it is that invites that kind type analysis.
RFB: Exactly, these are songs about something and people are always going to want to know what they are about.
CO: Yeah, but y'know, I used to be more frustrated more when I wrote something and then the people didn't understand it or understand what I meant, but now I like the fact it can be interpreted in a million different ways and I think that's far more profound than anything I could actually intend upon someone. It like really has to interact with their mind and their memories to make it complete.
RFB: On your new album you talk about the greatest country singers dieing in the back of classic cars. Do you think there's a certain sense of poetry to having an early death, like the whole Cobain, Janis Joplin thing?
CO: Oh, I mean, I don't want to die, if that's what you're asking. I think obviously there's a fascination with it, and people who disappear quickly, but it's nothing to strive for. My hope is to do this until... to stick around 'til...
RFB: ...To carry on until the end, like Cash, who was still being given awards and writing music very late on in life...?
CO: Yeah, I think that's way cooler.
Rockfeedback thanks Conor for his time profusely, and leaves delighted at his plans to stick around.
Words, questions and photography copyright Rockfeedback and Alex Lee Thomson
Artists in this article: Bright Eyes