Photo by Butch Hogan
Bright Eyes
Issue #23
Conor Oberst gets down to business about his two new records, fear of death, and why writing songs about writing songs is, like, so 2002
By Anne Ichikawa
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 3:36pm
Here’s Conor Oberst for dummies: From Omaha, Nebraska, he released his first album in 1994 as the singer for the indie-punk group Commander Venus. He helped start Saddle Creek Records (home to Cursive, the Faint, the Good Life) and more recently founded Team Love (Tilly and the Wall, Willy Mason). With his melodic sensibilities and confessional songs, he’s this generation’s voice of emotional intelligence, singing about things that matter, whether the subject is personal, universal, or political. Somewhere along the line he made out with Winona Ryder, but what self-respecting indie-rock boy hasn’t?
Following 2002’s critically acclaimed Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, the 24-year-old released two new full-length albums on January 25: the folk-driven I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and the sonically diverse Digital Ash In a Digital Urn. Two totally different albums, but they both showcase Mr. Oberst’s talent as a songwriter and a fearless storyteller.
Besides these rudimentary facts, my knowledge of Oberst came from listening to his albums. So when I found out I’d be interviewing him, I was looking forward to it — and slightly scared.
Why be scared of a cute singer-songwriter with Bambi eyes? After listening carefully to his catalog, some of his lyrics intimidated me: “Fuck my face / Fuck my name / They are brief and false advertisements for a soul I don’t have” (from "False Advertising"). And perhaps his most infamous line: “I want a lover I don’t have to love / I want a girl who’s too sad to give a fuck” (from "Lover I Don't Have To Love"). Hopefully now you understand my apprehension. I was anticipating a sullen boy with one-word answers. Would he use the F-word a lot? I mean, geez, I still watch Sesame Street.
However, all my trepidation disappeared when he extended his hand and smiled. “Hi, I’m Conor. Nice to meet you,” he said. By the end of our chat, all preconceived notions were gone and replaced with the knowledge that we’re lucky to have a Conor Oberst in our world. He’s a sweet, smart, funny, honest, genuine boy, with manners and more talent than you can shake a stick at. Jackpot.
As a responsible journalist, I have to ask: Why two albums? (Laughs) It really was more of a practical thing. We’ve been playing the songs on the folk album live for a couple of years. It didn’t seem exciting to put out that record and then go do a tour and play them all over again, especially since I had all these other ideas started for Digital Ash. The recording process for the folk one just didn’t take very long. It was done, so we could either put it out, tour and do press, and then do it all again for the second album, but we thought we might as well finish this one and put it out at the same time. So, it was kind of like killing two birds with one stone.
How was working with Emmylou Harris, who provided guest vocals on Wide Awake? Awesome. She is just so great and sweet and fun to hang with. When she rolled up to the studio, my heart was beating so fast, like, “Oh shit, here she is.” I’ve heard her voice a million times, but it was always through a speaker. Seeing her sing my words for the first time, I like … I had to leave the room to compose myself, but then it was totally cool and she’s super easy to work with. She would say, “This is one harmony, or I can also do it this way. Is there one you like more?” And I’d be like, “Yeah, yeah. Great!” (laughs)
Was it your intention to make a completely different album with Digital Ash? That wasn’t the intention. I just thought of it as a trippy record — a record that was fun to listen to when you’re stoned.
I also think it’s a pretty good make-out record. Thanks! I think that whenever you can get sexy and sad to work together, it’s pretty awesome.
It seemed like a fun album to make. It was awesome, but it took a lot of patience because the mixing process, for me, was boring. I have to let [producer] Mike [Mogis] go in there; we’re on the same page, but he doesn’t even like me in the room while he’s doing his shit. I watched a lot of cable movies in the lounge. I was like, “Fucking Mike, c’mon.” It gets to a point where some of the stuff he’s doing, I can’t even hear the difference. Like I don’t care if that drum is more distorted or less distorted — it’s fine!
Do you think your fans might have some apprehension about Digital Ash, since it’s a departure from what they’re used to? I hope they like it. I like to believe, with all my records, that there are different musical styles and experimentations whenever possible. So, I hope this is another expansion of that. I feel like the thing that most people like about my music is the melodic sensibility, and it’s still there, just played on different instruments.
When you’re writing songs, is it difficult not to think that these private songs will inevitably be public? I’d be lying if I said the thought doesn’t occur, but I try to keep it in a little box in my mind and try not to dwell on it or [let it] affect me too much. A lot of Lifted was about dealing with this. That was the first record I ever wrote where I knew there would be an audience to hear it. All the other prior albums it was like, “Here it is, I guess people will hear this.” With Lifted, I realized people are going to hear it and judge it. I ended up writing a lot of songs about writing songs. It was fun for that record, but I didn’t want to get stuck in that weird infinite circle. My friend Tim Kasher from Cursive joked about Lifted and The Ugly Organ [Cursive’s 2003 album]. Their record was about that kind of stuff, too, and after those albums, we were like, “Dude, no more writing songs about writing songs. That’s so 2002.” (laughs)
Is it weird to read things about yourself like “Rock Boy Genius” or “The Next Bob Dylan”? Yeah, it’s flattering for sure, but I definitely always keep in mind that everything is temporary. All this shit that we’re doing, everything that we’re doing, it will all probably pass away. So I don’t think it’s too smart to dwell on the praise or the criticism of anything. Besides, I’m not the last next Bob Dylan, for sure. They’re going to keep using that one.
How much of your songs is autobiographic? There’s never been a goal to make something that accurately portrays my reality. If I was to do that, I’d just write a memoir instead. Like, “I was born February of 1980,” but, that isn’t the point. You’re writing a song and going for a feeling, a universal truth, or something everyone can relate to. In order to do that, I obviously use a lot of my life and the way I see it, but I also use friends’ lives, and every conversation I have, every book I read, every movie I see, every story I hear. Everything is like fair game if it adds to the essence of what you’re trying to say.
Was there something in these two albums that you were trying to say? It’d be hard to sum up, but the main theme for Digital Ash is fear of death. That’s something everyone pretty much can relate to. I guess for me, I think about it a lot. I don’t want to die.
I have this friend who is sort of a mad scientist. He wants to invent a machine that can download your brain. He thinks computers will one day make it possible to live forever. Interesting you bring that up, because that’s sort of in the lyrics of the record. I ponder the idea that essentially your body is a vehicle, and with how crazy technology is getting there might be a point where you can transfer all your shit to something that can last longer than your body. But, I’m also scared of eternity. I think it’s a ridiculous concept, when people talk about heaven, something that never changes, one feeling forever, even if it’s absolute joy. That’d just get boring.
I take it that you think about things a lot. I’m just a fucking worrier. I worry constantly about everything and everyone, myself included. I have to be, like, reminded by my friends to calm down. My favorite people are people who take away my nervousness and anxieties. When you have friends like that it’s awesome, because it’s better than any Xanax or pill.
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