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
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.
I don't feel real confident expressing myself except when I'm writing. I feel kind of scatterbrained. I can see everything from both sides and that makes it hard to reach conclusions. Writing enables me to clarify things.
My feeling is that I think writers in general tend to be self-conscious and it takes a bit of a leap of faith or just not giving a sh-t to write something you know people are going to criticize.
It's in vogue to have a cause and give money in charity. But to actually speak up and say something like, I'm pissed about this" - that doesn't seem to be very popular unless you're writing a blog or tweeting.
When I try to explain to people the big influences in my life, or at least when I first started, the most important ones were my friends who were also writing songs and were typically four or five years older than me.
To outsiders it probably seems like splitting hairs, but to me, Bright Eyes is a simply the collaboration between myself and Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott. What you hear is definitely the sum of all our ideas and represents all three of us. But I still write the songs myself.
When you write a song, the goal is not to convey the details of your life. You should write a memoir or something if that's what you're going to do.
The one recurring theme in my writing, and in my life in general, is confusion. The fact that anytime you think you really know something, you're going to find out you're wrong - that is the rule. The moments where you think you have something figured out, those are the exceptions.
I keep drinking the ink from my pen, and I'm balancing history books up on my head, but it all boils down to one quotable frase; if you love something, give it away!
And we will share a drink. Yeah we will share our fears and they will know how I love them. They will know how I love. They will know how I love them. I am nothing without their love.
So we decided we'd basically go on tour twice and play the same places.
I want a lover I don't have to love
You write such pretty words, But life's no storybook. Love's an excuse to get hurt. And to hurt. Do you like to hurt? I do, I do. Then hurt me, Then hurt me, Then hurt me...
I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers/ And laid entwined together in a bed of clover/ Left there to sleep/ Left there to dream of happiness.