Quarantining in Omaha? “I would say it’s markedly different from Los Angeles,” the singer-songwriter Conor Oberst said of his Nebraska hometown, where he returned last month.
In California, where he spent the first few months of virus lockdown, there was walking to the grocery store, and walking to the pharmacy. In Omaha, he has a backyard. He has his roommates, who maintain his house when he’s out of town, and his parents and brother, his nieces and nephews. His social circle is cautious about the virus, but Nebraska hasn’t been hit as hard as most states, so there’s a more permissive attitude toward seeing one another.
“That’s one thing that has always lifted my spirits in this whole thing, even if it’s just backyard with a mask on — just seeing your friends a little bit, and trying to maintain that human connection,” he said in a recent Zoom call. “I’ve had my fair share of despair in my life, but the way I feel now is a different level of that.”
At the same time, Oberst, 40, is preparing to release “Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was,” the first Bright Eyes album in nine years. “I’ve never stopped making records and touring, and I’ve never been scared of hard work,” he said. “But we’re just in this weird time where I literally can’t do my job.”
So at a time when he should be busier than ever, the week still seems to blend together: “The idea of any day being different from another day is not really applicable.” Even so, he’s found ways to pass the time in between album obligations, and he broke down his recent routines and cultural intake. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Mornings
I tend to get up around 9 or 10, and it usually involves a paw on my face. My ex-wife, Corina, who I’m still super tight with, we have joint custody of our two dogs. Lola — this scruffy little terrier — is sitting on my chest. So I take her downstairs, I let her out, I feed her and then depending on how I feel, typically I’ll get back in bed for a couple of hours.
I’ve kind of stopped looking at the news. I’ll listen to “Up First,” which is the NPR daily news brief, and then sometimes I’ll listen to “The Daily.” But I used to be such a news junkie. I used to read every newspaper, I used to watch cable news, I used to be obsessed with politics and news, and I gave it all up. I had a private Instagram that I just can’t look at anymore, because it literally depresses me.
Wednesday Afternoon
I listen to that Waxahatchee record, “Saint Cloud,” every day. Every song is dynamite. I’ve known Katie [Crutchfield] for a long time. I’ve always been really impressed with her output, but this new record — I’ve listened to it more than any record in a really long time. It’s kind of that perfect balance of all the hooks are there and you get all the payoff of these beautiful pop songs, but then you have her lyrics which are really insightful and really cut to the bone as far as like, the human experiment that we all have to go through. She does it all.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of the Brittany Howard “Jaime” record. That came out a year ago, but I didn’t really hear it until around like maybe four months ago. Every song is cool; the production is super cool; her voice is crazy. It’s kind of all over the place stylistically, but she does it so seamlessly. There’s this one called “Short and Sweet” that’s like the most beautiful ballad ever. I’ve always thought highly of Alabama Shakes, but it wasn’t until I heard this record that I realized she’s a national treasure.
Wednesday Night
I already have enough anxiety, so the idea of watching something super dark is … I usually don’t. I don’t like true crime, I don’t like horror films. The first actual panic attack — which I’ve had many in my life — but the first one I really remember having was watching “Requiem for a Dream.” I was like, I’m going to die. Why would anyone do this? But “Knives Out,” that’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Obviously, it’s basically “Clue” incarnate, but I always appreciate when I can’t tell where the twists are going to go, and I definitely didn’t predict the ending.
“Killing Eve” is kind of like “Knives Out,” where it’s suspenseful, it’s exciting, but it’s not overly dark; it has a comic edge to it. I’ve always been a fan of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and that’s how I started watching it because I had liked “Fleabag.” And I’m not at all a sports fan, but I did watch “The Last Dance.” I remember being a kid and when I’d watch [Michael Jordan] play, even I could recognize there was something different about the guy. He could basically fly. Anybody that achieves that level of international fame is kind of a fascinating character because he wasn’t just a basketball player — he was the most famous guy in the world for a long time.
Thursday Afternoon
We did a couple of radio performances up in the studio, which is right up the hill. I usually have three or four things in the afternoon, as far as interviews, so since I’ve been here I get my little call sheet from the managers, and then I just click onto the Zooms. I do that for a few hours. I’ve literally done, estimated, 10,000 interviews in my life. Once in a while, someone will surprise you; you’ll think they’re cool and then they’ll write something [expletive] or whatever, but nine times out of 10 I have a pretty accurate radar for this dynamic.
But I’m not scared of anybody. I’ve been through the worst [expletive] you could ever be through, so somebody telling me they don’t like my record or something like that is completely irrelevant to me. I’m pretty up front — all of my emotions, all of my feelings, all of my thoughts — and if they don’t get it at this point, it’s not even worth my time to try to explain. My whole 20s, and my whole early part of my life, was people trying to mold me and trying to make me want to be more famous or more successful or make more money, and I never succumbed to it. I just never did. Everything they told me to do, I did the [expletive] opposite. [Laughs]
Every Night
When I was 22, I had my first Lasik surgery, and I went from being able not to see anything to 20/20 vision. Well, turns out that they had to do it to me every six or seven years, and the last time, which was like a year and half ago, they were like, “We’ve cut your eyeball basically too many times, and it’s not safe to do anymore.” But they can give you this other laser surgery called EBK. It was honestly, one of the most painful things ever. I was almost completely blind for like two weeks while it healed. It didn’t help that at the time I was in Omaha, and it was the dead of winter; I survived it, but it was very traumatizing.
Long story short, reading for pleasure has been really hard, but I still listen to a lot of audiobooks. My qualifications for an audiobook to listen to at night: It’s just got to be long because I don’t want to wake up. But I’m telling you, if you’ve never [expletive] with it: “Moby-Dick,” man. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced with the English language. Maybe the Bible or something like that, but I’d totally take “Moby-Dick” over the Bible. I’ve taken my swing at James Joyce, “Gravity’s Rainbow,” some of the ones that they’re supposed to have remade language, but to me, they don’t really hold a candle to “Moby-Dick.” I was asleep for a lot of these hours, but I’ve probably listened to it 50 times.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
