Conor Oberst

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Conor Oberst's music is dynamic, deeply smart, captivating, funny, and sometimes biting. His extensive catalogue dates back to the early '90s and includes music with Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos, the Mystic Valley band, the Faint, Commander Venus, Monsters of Folk, a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, and of course his solo material.

On today's episode Justin Richmond and Conor Oberst discuss Conor's deep catalogue, and Conor recalls how he got his start by sending valentines to his favorite indie labels. He also explains how he was able to build an independent musical movement in his native Omaha, Nebraska.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Conor Oberst songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:10.8	Today we're welcoming to the show Connor Oberst.
0:13.9	Ahead of my interview with Connor, I spent two weeks catching up on albums of his that are
0:17.3	perennial favorites, or albums that I missed missed or albums and EPs I just haven't
0:21.8	heard in a long time. And in that two weeks, I remember just how wonderful his catalog of music
0:26.7	is. Often his music gets pegged as being maybe only sad, but Conner's music, whether it's with
0:32.8	bright eyes, Desa Paracidos, the Mystic Valley band, Monsters of Folk, Commander Venus, his solo works or his stuff with Phoebe Bridgers is not one-dimensional.
0:42.7	It's dynamic. It's deeply smart, captivating, funny, sometimes biting. And because it's a lovely blend of all these things along with, yes, sometimes melancholy, it's above all joyful. His catalog is also
0:57.4	deceptively large, especially when considering his age, which overwhelmed me a bit going into this
1:02.4	conversation. What do you start with someone who's been making music and writing songs at a high
1:06.1	level since around 1995? And I guess the answer is you start at the beginning, which is what we did.
1:12.3	But I hope longtime fans, new fans,
1:14.5	and even people who've never given his music a shot
1:16.5	get a lot out of this episode.
1:18.5	Conner's a real force in music
1:20.1	and at the risk of sounding trite,
1:21.7	all the way from his earliest records
1:23.6	through his latest, five dices, all threes.
1:26.1	He's done it his way on his terms. And there's a lot to
1:29.1	respect in that. This is Broken Record. Liner Notes for the Digital Age. I'm Justin Richman.
1:39.6	Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced.
1:45.6	Oh yeah.
	...

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