Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst
Conor Mullen Oberstis an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, Norman Bailer, Commander Venus, Park Ave., Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Arab Strap and Monsters of Folk. Oberst was named the Best Songwriter of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth15 February 1980
CityOmaha, NE
CountryUnited States of America
You could be happy, the minute you try. Why won't you try? Oh won't you try?
I think it is more like a ghost that has been following us both. Something vague that we're not seeing, something more like a feeling.
There was this book I read and loved, The story of a ship Who sailed around the world and found That nothing else exists Beyond its own two sails And wooden shell And what is held within. All else is sure to pass. We clutch and grasp And debate what's truly permanent.
Each song [Desaparecidos] has a seed that it came from. We're trying to take that and broaden it out and make it resonate with people.
And your eyes must do some raining if you're ever gonna grow / When crying don't help, you can't compose yourself / It's best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing / Or a simple song of hope.
Every time I finish a song... most of the time it's in my own head, like this sounds too much like a Townes Van Zandt song, or whoever. I realize there are so many melodies and chord progressions in pop and rock music that are so similar that you can kind of trace it back to other things. Most of the time it's just in your head.
Men with purple hearts carry silver guns and they will kill a man for what his father has done. But what my father did, I don't live it: no, I am not him.
I think our music is more about seeing ourselves in each other and trying to find a more humanistic viewpoint for the world.
I went right from wunderkind to washed up. Old. Been around too long. That's just the way I feel. That's my internal dialogue.
It seems like everything I do musically I tend to lose a few fans and gain a few fans, and it all kind of evens out.
Life is always surprising to me. When you think it's going to get dull, it never really does.
[Popular music]is all about traveling at the speed of you and elevating the individual as the highest thing in the world.
One of my favorite modern American authors is Denis Johnson. I'm deeply inspired by all of his work - I rip him off constantly.
Pronouns really don't matter in a song - 'I' or 'he' or 'she' or even subscribing a lyric to an inanimate object.