Considered by his fans to be the musician of our generation, Oberst is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful songwriters to hit the scene in recent history. His intensely personal writing style has had the troubled psyche of American youth ravenously gobbling up his releases. In the latest of these, Oberst has broken with his longtime outfit Bright Eyes and struck out on his own alongside his new group of musicians, the Mystic Valley Band.
Recorded in a makeshift studio in Tepoztlán, Morales, Mexico--in a spot known for UFOs and sightings of the paranormal--the new album evokes the harmonized chillness of such a relaxed, faraway spot. He'll be playing tracks from the new record along with the Mystic Valley Band on August 10 at the NorVa in Norfolk, Virginia. it! had the opportunity to talk with Conor last week about growing up as a songwriter, the future of the human race and the meaning of some of the more obscure lyrics off his latest release.
it!: First of all, in both this new release and off “Cassadaga” it seems there has been a shift in your style from your former albums--just kind of more mellow and whatnot--and I was wondering what you think accounted for that shift in sound from the older music you were making?
CO: I think growing up is probably the biggest reason. Songs I was writing when I was 18, 19, 20 years old are quite different in space, mentally, and just in every way in my life, y'know? Getting older kind of changes what comes out creatively.
it!: Right. And one of the changes in your past two albums has been an increased reference to I guess what you could call apocalyptic themes. In a track off the new album, for instance, you reference having fallen asleep during “the dusk of man.” What do you think is in store for the next couple hundred years of the human race?
CO: Well, you caught me on a good day. I'm feeling optimistic and I think the one thing about people is that they can evolve and adapt and change more readily than any other creature on the planet, and hopefully we'll have the intelligence and the self-awareness to realize the damage we're doing and the potential danger we're in. So, I think the human race has got to change but it's maybe a 50-50 chance at this point. But it's not a reason to despair, it's just all about decisions you make every day trying to be a good person and spread the love around.
it!: Location has always had a big effect on your music--New York City in “I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning,” Mexico on this new album--what was the feel of your latest location, and could you feel Mexico having an influence on your creative process?
CO: Yeah, definitely. I believe that, wherever you're recording, it'll effect the way the record sounds, whether it's in a subtle way or more dramatic. But just being down there for me, it was such a casual, laid-back environment that we were able to work at our own pace and if at any point we lost interest in what we were doing we'd just stop, hang out, go into the city or do something else. There was not that feeling of pressure or studio time burning away--it was more like living and working and enjoying ourselves. Which was kind of the idea coming off Cassadaga, which had been kind of a big production--lots of different studios and a lot of different musicians. We spent about a year making that record and I'm happy with the way that came out, but it was nice to do something more casual and kind of living in the moment, just being together, hanging out, making the music.
it!: So you wouldn't say you had the pressure to force anything creatively-- you just let things slide out however you felt like it?
CO: Yeah, exactly. And I didn't go into it with a lot of expectations or preconceived ideas of how I wanted it to turn out. Basically I brought the equipment that I wanted to record on, this old 1 inch, 16 track tape machine, and I brought the players I thought would complement the songs, my friends that I thought specifically their styles of playing would match the songs I'd written and I had those two elements and put us in a place that was really beautiful and relaxing and kind of magical and just let it be whatever it was going to be without holding on too much to any idea.
it!: Right--you mentioned it was kind of magical, and I remember reading on the press release that the location where you recorded was known for UFO sightings and paranormal-type stuff. I don't know if that was any sort of motivation for picking that stuff out, but in Cassadaga there were some psychic elements going on too. What about that kind of stuff interests you? Does it motivate you in writing and living and everything?
CO: It's definitely a fascination of mine--[but], to be honest, it wasn't why we went there. It was a lucky accident that that was what the town was known for. We went there mostly because the property itself suited everything we needed out of it. But, yeah, [when] my friend that found the place for us told me that that was what the place was known for I got even more excited. To me it's just the idea of finding something beyond the reality we're in right now. I think people look for that in different places, whether it's spirituality or art or something more sci-fi, but for me it's all the same thing--the desire to peek behind the curtain and have something a little more accurate as far as what we're doing here.
it!: Yeah, and that's really what I think so many people dig about your music is just how philosophical and broad-minded it is. I was wondering if you find yourself being influenced by that broad, worldview type thinking and how often can you feel it getting into your music as opposed to just straight expressing your day-to-day life type stuff.
CO: Well, I think, inevitably, the two are tied together. To me the best writing is the everyday, along with something beyond that--something more all-encompassing… the way it feels to be a human being as opposed to just describing it in a more journalistic way. [That] can be effective too, but, for me, there's just a lot more to understanding the way it feels to be a person as [aside from] the concrete details of it. I guess if you're talking a literature example, magical realism as a style to me is much more an accurate way to describe the way it feels to be a person.... Even if you're using some sort of fantastical example, I think it's more of an accurate description of the emotional state of a person. [That] is, in the end, more important than [saying], "I walk down the street I buy a loaf of bread, I eat the bread."
it!: It's interesting--you try to abstract the observer and make it something that's completely removed from things, and that's what a lot of colder sciences try to do but a lot of the time that stuff sort of misses the point, you always forget you're part of the whole phenomena that's unfolding.
CO: Oh yeah, it's like, you're trying to describe it but none of us have an aerial view of what we're seeing--we're much more inside, underwater, trying to make sense of it.
it!: That reminds me of a quote by J. Krishnamurti--"The observer is the observed."
CO: Yeah, I think that's true. You can only use your view and try to see it from there--at least for me. I guess some people have the ability to remove themselves from it better, but I haven't learned that yet.
it!: So how hectic is your schedule these days? I'm sure it's pretty shocking going from Mexican wilderness to jumping around, shooting videos and whatnot. Do you have any free time these days?
CO: [laughs] It has been pretty busy lately. We started our tour in the States three days ago. I'm in Vancouver right now playing a show tonight, and we'll drive overnight tonight and play Seattle tomorrow and it kind of goes on like that. We're basically on tour until December with just a few little breaks. It's going to be busy but I'm really enjoying it... this band is probably the tightest band I've ever had. They're all such great players and it's really enjoyable to play with them every night. I wake up looking forward to the show, which is not always the case on tour.
it!: Do you ever get burnt out or listen to older songs and repeat them so many times they lose their “umph” for you?
CO: Yeah, definitely. We've always made an effort on Bright Eyes tours to only play the songs that we feel something for--I never want to just be going through the motions. We're lucky as a band because even though there's three of us, which are the main band, other musicians change and it allows us to reinterpret our old songs in a lot of different ways. [It] keeps it exciting for us and I always figure that if we're interested and excited in what we're doing then that's going to translate to the audience. And vice versa-- if we're up there bored out of our skulls, it's gonna' make for a bad show, so it's important to do things that we are interested in and still passionate about. But at the same time it's like people want to hear certain songs, and you want people to have a good time, and [it's all about] just trying to find that balance in between. But what's great about this tour is that we're not really playing Bright Eyes songs--it's just all this new material which I'm still pretty excited about. It's like a whole new band.
it!: It being a non-Bright Eyes album and everything, how did that switch it up? You said you have a rotating band already with Bright Eyes--do you have more personal input than normal since it's officially a "Conor Oberst" album?
CO: The main difference, and the reason it's not called Bright Eyes, is the absence of Mike Mogis. My main partners are Mike and [also] Nate Walcott (who actually is on tour with me), who plays piano and organ. But yeah, it's the first record I've made in nearly 10 years without Mike and that was both frightening and exciting to do.... He's so much my safety net and the person that I depend on when I'm making these records [and] so it was something that I knew at some point I would going to have to try... and it just worked out that that happened now. But it's good. Whenever you do something in a new way it always makes you appreciate the other way more too. So I definitely still love playing with Mike and I'm sure we'll do a lot more in the future. But, yeah, it's strange not to have him here on tour with us.
it!: So do you have any mind on where you're heading next? Do you think you'll go back to doing Bright Eyes stuff after this is done or do you think you'll keep headed in this direction?
CO: I'm not sure. It's going to be a pretty long haul getting to the end of the year with all [of] this, but I'm sure next year we'll think about making a new recording--Bright Eyes that is. Nothing's set in stone but I wouldn't be surprised if we got back to work sooner rather than later.
it!: Another big influence in your writing seems to be literary--"The Unbearable Lightness of Being," for instance, influencing the song "Tereza and Tomas" off of “Letting Off the Happiness.” What literary influences do you consider to have affected you the most, and have you read any good books lately?
CO: Yeah--it's always hard to summarize everything. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my favorites. As far as American writers, Dennis Johnson is amazing--he writes novels and poetry and short stories. He's really one of my favorites. Steinbeck, actually, is also one of my favorites. There [are] so many good things to read out there, you can't read it all.
it!: Are you still reading Don Delilo? I remember you mentioned that in "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn."
CO: Yeah, he's great. Trippy.
it!: There was one more thing I wanted to ask you. There's a lyric off one of your new songs, “Moab,” that has been puzzling me a bit. It's "They say the sun won't burn forever/ But that's a science too exact/ I'll prove it, watch we're crossing the state line/ See the headlights coming towards us?/ That's someone going back/ To a town they said they'd never, yeah, they swore it on their lives/ But you can't break out of a circle/ That you never thought you were in." What'd you mean by that?
CO: I guess that's just about things that are so embedded in your blood and your DNA that you just can't escape. Like the idea of becoming your father, really. So many people swear off their hometown and think they're never going back and they find themselves back there.
it!: So you think the sun coming up and setting all the time, is kind of one of those things that's embedded in us?
CO: Yeah exactly, I think it's just those things that are just so much a part of you that you just can't escape them, even if that's all you want to do.