El Paso Saddle

The Irish Times - Friday, July 8, 2011

CONOR OBERST has never been a follower. He began making music as a teenager, and set up Saddle Creek Records some years later. This kind of drive set him apart early on, suspending him in a kind of musical ice. His idea of music is more of a calling, a vocation.

“I have never really daydreamed about another life, because music was always there. I was 13 when I made my first album, and have been really fortunate to continue doing it for so long. It has been the one thing I can rely on in the world, and makes me feel like I have some purpose and gives me motivation.”

This motivation led to him setting up Saddle Creek records with his brother, Justin. “That is a whole other story. When it started off it was completely idealistic. We were truly like children, just doing it for fun, as there was nothing going on where we were from. It was amazing for many years, but you learn lessons about money and friendship, and people get older and grow apart. Now it is just run like a business, and it’s fine. It is hard to keep that idealism when the world intervenes. Although, I have been very blessed with so many talented friends, and people who were always there to collaborate with. It was a very nurturing place to create at the beginning.”

Accepting change as progression is present in so many of Oberst’s records, particularly 2000’s Fevers and Mirrors  which involved Denny Brewer of Refried Ice Cream, who provides the eerie and brilliant spoken word introduction to the record, akin to a mountain talking sense.

“Ha! That’s a great description of Denny. He has such a cool, gravelly voice. We had spent some time previously in a place called Sonic Ranch in El Paso, which is this really cool studio in the middle of nowhere. Denny lives near there and is friends with the guy who runs the studio. We were there for six weeks, became friends, and then played some shows with Refried Ice Cream, who do all this really cool charity work – we even played a show in the world’s largest Harley Davidson dealership, which was pretty amazing.

“We have a slight tradition of including an awkward intro in records, which forces the listener to slow down, taking them to a place where they are in a better mindset to enjoy the record – or, at least, that is the hope – and I realised that a lot of these new songs reminded me of the late-night car stations I would listen to with Denny and his son Josh. So I asked him if he would record a conversation about his ideas, and he was gracious enough to do it. I thought maybe he would send us 15 minutes, but instead he sent 90! He said so many interesting things that we could have done a whole record with it.