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Tales from the Mystic Valley

Conor Oberst rolls in with a new band and brighter outlook
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By James Scanlon
For The Prague Post
September 3rd, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
COURTESY PHOTO The American folk rocker has always followed his own muse, even when he was dismissed as a "babbling child."
Conor Oberst


When: Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 7
Where: Roxy
Tickets: 280 Kč, available through Ticketpro, Ticketstream, Ticketportal and at the venue

Every time American folk rock singer Conor Oberst picks up his guitar, you immediately sense an inner Bob Dylan waiting to burst out of him. Constantly writing songs about the subjects he knows best — love, death and loneliness — Oberst has never been afraid of wearing his neuroses on his sleeve. Although just 28, he feels he’s reached one of those critical musical crossroads in his life where new decisions have to be made.
“You can only write so many songs about feeling lost, then you’ve got to move on to the next point of inspiration,” says the former Bright Eyes frontman at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Portsmouth, England, where he’s taking a short break from a very hectic European tour schedule.
Oberst recorded his latest, eponymously titled album in a makeshift studio in the mountains of Tepoztlán, Mexico, a place renowned not only as a UFO hotspot, but home to a 700-year-old pyramid built by the Aztecs.
“It was perfect, because it was very isolated,” he enthuses. “I didn’t want to record the album in a traditional studio, but in a more casual setting like a house or something like that. Friends who live down there found this property that was like a small hotel. We rented it for a month and turned part of it into a recording studio.”
What materialized was an album totally different from the last Bright Eyes album, the sleekly produced Cassadaga, released only last year.
“There’s definitely less instruments on this record,” Oberst says, “Cassadaga was very elaborate, with a lot of players, and was recorded over a long period of time. I think this record was kind of a reaction to that, and wanting to have a very different experience — just something casual, more centered around the song and the delivery of the song and performance.”
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Oberst is the first to admit that he was a serious child. Putting aside Playstations and episodes of Scooby Doo, he started working on his songbook at the age of 13. Using whatever lo-fi equipment he could find at home, he enjoyed singing about his insecurities from the very offset. After spending a couple years steering Commander Venus, he eventually changed gears by forming another loosely knit outfit called Bright Eyes. Oberst is prone to using abstract and unrecognizable images, and albums such as Fevers In Mirrors, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn left him open to criticisms of being “self-indulgent,” “self-obsessed,” “pretentious” and completely detached from reality. One American critic even went so far as to complain that Oberst had the voice of “an unintelligible babbling child.”
Reminded of that remark, Oberst shrugs. “I guess everyone has the right to their opinion,” he says. “I just make songs, make music, and that’s it.”
Truth is, repeated listening to most of the Bright Eyes material makes you want to switch off all the lights and sit in perpetual darkness. And while there remains a distinct dark underbelly in a lot of the new stuff, at least Oberst has extended his brief to focus on issues apart from himself. Indeed, there are even flashes of genius in tracks like “Lenders in the Temple” and “Get Well Cards.” In regard to the former, Oberst explains, “It’s about how anything pure can become corrupted eventually.” Asked to explain further, he point-blank refuses except to add, “What’s great about music is that there’s no real right or wrong.”
If anything is clear, or perhaps relatively clear, it’s that Oberst’s lyrical content is becoming more intriguing. He’s even managed to add some tongue-in-cheek humor this time, with songs like “I Don’t Wanna Die (in the Hospital)” and the decidedly wacky “Souled Out.”
“I think anytime you rhyme ‘nurse’ with ‘hearse,’ it’s bound to be kind of funny,” he says about the former track. “It’s about taking somebody out of the hospital who doesn’t want to be there. A hospital is a sad place to depart Earth; it’s better to do it outside, under the stars.”
Having recently put in sterling performances at the Leeds and Reading Festivals in the United Kingdom, Oberst’s new six-piece backing combo, the Mystic Valley Band, is more than ready to take on Prague. Playing material mainly from the new album, with an occasional wild card like “Corinna, Corinna,” their show should be quite a hot ticket.
“I’m kinda excited about going to Prague,” Oberst beams. “It’s always good to go somewhere new.”
James Scanlon can be reached at
features@praguepost.com

James Scanlon can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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