Better Oblivion Community Center

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Phoebe: We knew we wanted to play with a band, so we kept that in mind while we were writing stuff. Trendell, Andrew (January 29, 2019). "Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst share 'Dylan Thomas' video and announce Better Oblivion Community Center UK and world tour". NME . Retrieved February 22, 2019.

Conor Oberst – vocals (1–10), guitar (1, 2, 4, 7–9), baritone guitar (3), piano (4, 10), keyboards (5), Whirly tube (7); production, photography a b c d Sodomsky, Sam (January 25, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center Album Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved January 25, 2019. Phoebe: Yeah, we didn’t know if it would be a single or an EP or what, but we knew we wanted to try writing together and for it to have its own identity with a band name.

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And some other talented friends, songwriter Christian Lee Hutson on guitar, and Anna Butterss on bass. They both played bass in Phoebe’s touring band at different times, right? How would you compare them as players? a b Murphy, Sarah (January 24, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community Center". Exclaim! . Retrieved January 24, 2019. He wasn’t kidding. After some trying years, Oberst’s recent work has been a vessel for stark, existential unburdening. On 2016’s Ruminations and its 2017 companion Salutations, he funneled first-person accounts of grief, depression, insomnia, paranoia, court appearances, and hospital visits into his most vivid and unsettled music in years. Drawing a direct line to the shaky downer anthems that made Bright Eyes an influence for so many young artists—Bridgers included—these newer songs sounded exhaustive and raw, like there was a punchline at the very bottom of all his anxieties and he’d dig through them like a pile of dirty laundry to uncover it. You’re going to tour this record in March and April. You’re putting a band together for it now, right? Snapes, Laura (January 25, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center review – indie power combo". The Guardian . Retrieved January 25, 2019.

So then you guys would guest at each others shows, right? And Conor, you were spending a lot of time in Los Angeles around this time. Cuz you’ve been in Omaha mostly the past few years but you have a spot in LA, on the West Side. Dutchcharts.nl – Better Oblivion Community Center – Better Oblivion Community Center" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 24, 2019.Did you guys ever sit down and talk about themes or how you wanted the album to sound? Did you discuss what kind of songs they’d be or did you just sit down and start writing to see what would happen? Right, and so you guys would show up and guest at shows. And you’re on Phoebe’s song “Would You Rather”. So really early on you started collaborating on music, right? That was kind of an immediate spark, this instinct to perform and sing together. And your voices, they really compliment one another. There’s something really special about when you duet. Particularly when you sing in unison, it really works. Phoebe, you have a really sweet, crystal clear voice and Conor, yours is more world weary and raspy, so there’s something really striking about them together. Yeah! Burmese. Right?And then you tagged your location but later on you typed those characters into Google Translate and it turned out not to be tagged from “Forest Lawn”. It actually translated as “Better Oblivion Community Center”. Is that right? Lynch, Ben (January 24, 2019). "Behind the smoke and mirrors, Better Oblivion Community Center is a melancholic delight". The Line of Best Fit . Retrieved January 30, 2019. You guys obviously compliment each other vocally, we talked about that, but you also feel an affinity with one another in that you admire each other’s songwriting. And you both generally write alone, right? It’s not your usual thing to write a song with someone else.

For Bridgers, this was essentially square one. Her songs, hushed and patient, often seek in-the-moment honesty over retrospective wisdom. She’s equally adept at capturing an omnipresent fog of melancholy and the cosmic joke looming just outside our periphery. Her debut was filled with odes to friends who died too young and woeful retellings of her stoned, late-night regrets, all sung with a lightness that made her worldview seem both chaotic and consoling. Late in the album, she invited Oberst to sing on a ballad called “Would You Rather.” Voicing the troubled family member who helped make Bridgers’ childhood survivable, he echoed her fluttering whisper in a low, empathetic wheeze: “I’m a can on a string/You’re on the end.” Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.Finn, Rachel (January 24, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center". DIY . Retrieved January 24, 2019. Phoebe Bridgers – vocals (1–10), guitar (1–4, 6–8), electric piano (2), baritone guitar (9, 10); production, photography Schatz, Lake (January 24, 2019). "Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers release surprise collaborative album Better Oblivion Community Center: Stream". Consequence of Sound . Retrieved January 24, 2019. Ah, okay. But you wrote them together. It’s not like Conor would have a song and send it to you, or you would have a song and he would just add bits to it. These songs you guys sat down and wrote together. In the same room? And you produced it yourselves with Andy LeMaster. Andy’s someone you’ve worked with for almost your whole career, Conor. So he’s someone you trust?

Ultratop.be – Better Oblivion Community Center – Better Oblivion Community Center" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 2, 2019. I wanted to talk about “Dylan Thomas” cuz that’s the first single, right? It’s the first single and the last song you wrote for the album. There’s a lot of death and ghosts on the album, and mentions of illness and feeling unwell and being anxious - and those are things you’ve both written about a lot - which is partly why this collaboration works so well. Dylan Thomas, we all know, is the esteemed Welsh poet who died in 1953 at the age of 39. He’s mentioned for ‘dying on the barroom floor’ and you know, he was definitely a big drinker. He was drinking at the White Horse in the West Village every night he was in New York before he died. And he fell into a coma at the Chelsea Hotel and died soon after at Saint Vincent’s on 8th Avenue. Did you know that he actually died of emphysema, pneumonia and bronchitis? And that in November 1953, the month he died, over 200 people died in New York City from air pollution? He probably died from smog. Alright. We can leave that in, I guess we answered it... So let’s get to when you two met. It was a show at the Bootleg in LA, and Conor you were playing a secret show and Phoebe, your friend at the venue got you to open for them. This was July 2016, so before Stranger In The Alps was out, and Conor, you were there early enough to watch her set. And afterwards you asked her to send you her record. You must’ve really been impressed with her set. Better Oblivion Community Center, the new band from Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, recently surprise-released their self-titled debut album. They kept their plans under wraps for months as they wrote and recorded in Los Angeles in the summer and fall of 2018. By the tail end of the year rumors were swirling and a mysterious phone number appeared on social media platforms. Fans of both artists began receiving enigmatic brochures in the mail and a bus stop advertising the Better Oblivion Community Center appeared in their hometown of LA. Then, the album appeared, without warning, on streaming services, and within the hour the band were performing, for the very first time, on network television. Because of their uniquely emo vocal styles and their tender subject matter, both Oberst and Bridgers are typically characterized as confessional songwriters, which can belie the complexity (and humor) of their work. In these songs, they push each other to write more in character. The opening “Didn’t Know What I Was in For” is an imagistic story-song that spirals out from dreary contentedness. Observing a friend who “says she cries at the news but doesn’t really” and eavesdropping on poolside conversations that start polite but “always sounds so cruel,” Bridgers implicates herself in a generational sense of helplessness: “I’ve never really done anything for anyone,” she sings over a mournfully strummed acoustic guitar.

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I guess my last question is do you think this is a one off or do you think there will be more Better Oblivion Community Center albums to follow? Trendell, Andrew (January 27, 2019). "Phoebe Bridgers & Conor Oberst – 'Better Oblivion Community Center' review". NME . Retrieved January 27, 2019. Bridgers and Oberst wrote and recorded the album in secret in Los Angeles in mid- to late 2018. [4] Music and themes [ edit ] a b Walker-Smart, Sam (January 24, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center". Clash . Retrieved January 24, 2019.