{"id":3404,"date":"2011-08-16T01:39:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T08:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2011-08-16T01:39:04","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T08:39:04","slug":"bright-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/bright-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"BRIGHT EYES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

BRIGHT EYES<\/h1>\n

Conor Oberst and company reinvent themselves once again<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Could Bright Eyes be doomed? Rumors of the indie-rock powerhouse\u2019s demise spread like wildfire when frontman Conor Oberst said in an interview that he had been thinking about bringing the band to an end. But fans can relax\u2014for now, at least. \u201cI was probably feeling that way that day,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we\u2019re just focused on getting the new record out and doing the tour. That\u2019s going to take most of the next year\u2014after that, we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as though Oberst is lacking for outside opportunities. Since Bright Eyes\u2019 2007 release, Cassadaga<\/em>, the Nebraska native has released two albums under his own name (most recently 2009\u2019s Outer South<\/em>, backed by the Mystic Valley Band), collaborated with Jim James and M. Ward in the Monsters of Folk and built a recording studio in Omaha, where Bright Eyes recorded its latest, The People\u2019s Key<\/em>. Oberst and Bright Eyes partners Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott (the only other permanent members) enjoyed the leisurely pace that working in their own studio afforded. \u201cThe only pressure or deadlines we had were self-imposed,\u201d Oberst says. \u201cJust being able to take time and revisit ideas let us be on our own planet for a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous transmissions from Planet Bright Eyes have included 2002\u2019s acclaimed folk-rock collection, Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil<\/em>, Keep Your Ear to the Ground<\/em>, and 2005\u2019s less acclaimed dalliance in electronica, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn<\/em>. For The People\u2019s Key<\/em>, the band paid particular attention to building songs around outlines Oberst had written. He spoke with us about creative process, embracing \u201980s synths and the role of politics in songwriting.<\/p>\n

What defines a Bright Eyes song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Songs need to fit the album, but I don\u2019t categorize them as solo songs or Bright Eyes songs. One thing I\u2019m proud of with the band is that we\u2019ve always managed to change. Some of it\u2019s the songwriting, more is about arranging and, stylistically, trying to make different-sounding records\u2014staying interested in what we\u2019re doing, not just repeating ourselves or painting by numbers. This batch of songs reflects my interests at the time I was writing them.<\/p>\n

When were these songs written? <\/strong><\/p>\n

They were written over the last year and a half, and it\u2019s different than other records in that there wasn\u2019t tons of material. We focused on revising and editing. We really wanted to make a record that was concise and tied together. We\u2019re slightly old-fashioned in that we still believe in making an album somebody will sit down and listen to as a piece of music. I know that\u2019s not common these days, but that\u2019s still our intention. This record is hopefully something that is enjoyable to\u00a0spend 45 minutes with.<\/p>\n

Did your other projects influence you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of whatever I\u2019m doing at the time is a reaction against what I\u2019ve just done. The Mystic Valley Band has a good-time live feel, and there are a lot of songs about seeing the world through a windshield. That\u2019s cool, but I knew I didn\u2019t want this to be that. I was looking for a new language, in a way. Lyrically speaking, it\u2019s more coded and opaque than some of my\u00a0more narrative songs.<\/p>\n

How did the sound develop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took a while. I had more of a sense at first of what I didn\u2019t want. I wanted to steer clear of any kind of Americana- or folk- or country-driven sound. I felt burned out on that. On folk and country songs, there\u2019s this circular quality to the melodies, where they come back around and start and end the same way. This time I wanted to color with a different palette, I wanted more pop melodies. So we dove in and made some aesthetic choices right away, like we\u2019re going to use analog \u201980s synths, which gives you a certain color\u2014but we didn\u2019t want it to sound like a retro album. We were trying to find something that maintained the essence of our band and worked with the songs, but also was new to us. It took a while to arrive at that balance, and I think we\u00a0eventually got there.<\/p>\n

How much did the songs evolve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot. \u201cTriple Spiral,\u201d for example, started off like a straightforward Pixies or Frank Black rock song. It still retains some of that, and we lived with that version for a while. But as we were sequencing the record, there were disagreements over what songs should go\u00a0on it. My goal was to have it fit on one piece of vinyl\u2014which tops at about 45 minutes\u2014and that was one song some of us didn\u2019t think fit with the others. It was too normal-sounding. At the 11th hour, we started trying to make it more expansive or trippy. We put delay on the clap track so it doesn\u2019t sound like claps anymore, and our friend Laura Burhenn sang a bunch of harmonies\u2014and that was the magic dust we needed for it to\u00a0stay on the record.<\/p>\n

Were there a lot of those revisions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Working with a batch of songs for nine months, you go through phases where you\u2019re not as into things. We\u2019d go to our corners, listen to the works in progress and get back together. Mike would want to change the drums on something, or Nate would want to redo all his keyboards on a song and have a whole new melodic motif. I don\u2019t know what made them feel that way, but I tried to give everyone time and space to follow their\u00a0ideas to their conclusions.<\/p>\n

What did your guests bring to it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This record, more than any of our others, was very insulated. Most of what you hear was recorded by Mike, Nate, me and our friend Andy LeMaster, who sang and helped engineer it. He was a big part of the record. Everyone else\u2014not to diminish their roles\u2014but they were kind of in and out. It was like, \u201cOK, come play the drums, come play the bass,\u201d and the songs were often in pieces. It was like having\u00a0an actor come in and do their scene\u00a0when they don\u2019t know what the movie is\u00a0about. They did a great job, and we\u00a0couldn\u2019t have done it without them, but\u00a0there was a little mystery about what\u00a0exactly was going on.<\/p>\n

Is this a political record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably a subtext to all the music I make, because it\u2019s hard to divorce yourself from the world entirely. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything overtly political on this album except for a humanist stance\u2014that we should try to see ourselves in each other, we\u2019re all one, and all these ideas of division are illusions. That could be seen as a political statement, I suppose, but to me it\u2019s\u00a0just common sense.<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRIGHT EYES Conor Oberst and company reinvent themselves once again Could Bright Eyes be doomed? Rumors of the indie-rock powerhouse\u2019s demise spread like wildfire when frontman Conor Oberst said in an interview that he had been thinking about bringing the band to an end. But fans can relax\u2014for now, at least. \u201cI was probably feeling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2396,1059,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3406,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions\/3406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}