Sunday, December 19, 2010

Bright Eyes Interview with Billboard


Bummed that I narrowly missed doing an interview with Conor Oberst (literally by seconds, via e-mail), I found some of my questions answered on Billboard no less. It's weird to see Bright Eyes working with big music corporations like Billboard and Live Nation, after he was so vehemently against it in earlier days. Maybe he's obligated to.

Some key information in this very brief interview is that The People's Key ::

  • It uses sound collage from Danny Brewer of Refried Ice Cream, a Texan psychadelic grampa group on Conor's label Team Love.
  • There will be no acoustic instruments. Looks like possibly a return to more Digital Ash days. Conor says, "We're over the Americana, rootsy, whatever that sound is. People say country, but I never thought were very country at all. But whatever that element is or that aesthetic is, I guess it's worn a little thin for me these days." One of the minor criticisms I've always had was that the band tends to segregate their sound instead of fusing their interests (only minor, because every one of the aforementioned albums has been great). It'd be cool to see this rock and roll digi album that they're making with a few of their favorite Americana touches, like lap steel battling keyboards.
  • Seems like the album is more socially than politically conscious. Conor breaks out this gem, which is a very weird thing, "There's this future that's coming that's really trying to, I think, divide us more and in a lot of ways strip us of our human nature in the sense that now when you walk into a room it's like 20 people all staring down at this little screen in their hands, typing away, not looking at each other." A strange occurrence which I think a lot of us have seen. 'I feel awkward, don't know who to talk to, I'll just whip out my phone.'

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