Words and Pictures: An interview with Okkervil River

Words and Pictures: An interview with Okkervil River

18 November, 2011
by: Domzig

Wordy Rappinghood

Everyone's heard the stereotype that says that all indie boys are sensitive, bookish types who are really in touch with their emotions, but for Okkervil River’s lead singer Will Sheff, it could almost be a police description.

Coming in somewhere between Morrissey back when he quoted Wilde and hung around grave yards, and the wild theatrical pomp of The Decemberists and The Arcade Fire, musically speaking, Okkervil River exist in that fertile middle ground between indie pop and folk rock. However, the thing that really sets them apart from the fold is the sheer emotional force that Sheff pours into each and every lyric. Seriously, what other band can turn the crushing disappointment of finding out your missus is seeing your best mate into a toe-tapping country rocker as good as ‘Song for our So-Called Friend’ or turn the Sloop John B into a song so confessional it can actually make grown men cry.

Due to play KOKO next week, I caught up with Will to chat about his love of the English language. Turns out he’s really into hip hop.

Okkervil River Piratess by Sovaié

‘I Am Very Far’ is a pretty varied record. Was that intentional?

Absolutely. You can easily find yourself going through the motions as a musician for whatever reason. It could be conservatism, lack of imagination or anxiety towards what your fans want, whatever. I totally understand that, but I really like the idea of pushing yourself, so on this record I wanted to try a different approach, not only with the music and production but also lyrically as well. I took the lyrics and rebuilt them from the ground level.

Oh yeah? How so?

I wanted to do something that my conscience told me was better writing. In the past I think my lyrics suffered from a need to be ‘clever’ all the time, so I wanted to make the words a lot more direct and a lot less showy.

I didn’t want to impress people straight away, I wanted to make something that hits on a deeper level, so the lyrics on 'I Am Very Far' might not jump out and grab you by the lapels, but then, they’re not supposed to. They’re like something glittering in the back of a cave, and you have to head in there to discover what they are.

So when you listen to music do you hear the melodies or do you try and listen to the lyrics?

Well I always do listen to the lyrics, but I definitely don’t feel that lyrics need to be good or erudite for me to like them.  For example, I really like Iggy Pop’s lyrics; not because they’re genteel or well read but more because they’re straight up and to the point.

There’s certain kind of lyric that speaks to me, and it doesn’t have to be cerebral at all. It can be a very, very simple soul lyric, a really basic country melody that really hits you in the gut, or a garage rock lyric that means nothing but sound cools. It’s a fine balance, but when it works it works. I listen to a lot of celebrated songwriters like Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan, and they leave me cold a lot of the time. They can be very self-indulgent, it’s almost like they can do whatever they want just because they are who they are.

You can definitely be a bit too smart for own good sometimes...

Yeah, absolutely, there’s a real danger that if you say too much you don’t end up saying anything. Hip hop doesn’t have that problem; you can go incredibly crazy with language and say all these things because there’s so much room for it, but in rock music saying too much is just annoying.

Talking about keeping things simple, is it true you wrote the lyrics for ‘The Valley’ in your sleep?

I had a dream about those lyrics where I pictured them like a nursery rhyme. It’s weird because it’s disturbing, but in the dream it wasn’t really scary, it was more like gallows humour or something. I remember I wrote up laughing and wrote it down.  A couple of weeks later I found them again and wrote a goofy pentatonic scale to go with them. The whole song took, like, 10 minutes to write.

Just how honest are your songs? After all writing from a dream is pretty much writing direct from your sub conscience. Do you ever think, ‘wow, what was I thinking when I wrote this?’

Oh yeah, all the time, but then that’s the point of writing songs right? I’ve always thought if something’s bullshit I have to throw it away no matter how pretty it is. I’m not saying a song has to be true, as you can completely articulate someone’s self delusion, or you can tell a lie that when you think about it later is clearly a lie, but if you deliberately tell people something that’s not true, then I think you’ve committed an artistic sin.

For example, there are so many songs out there that say ‘things are going to be OK’, which is clearly not true at all. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in telling people that everything is always doom and gloom as that’s not true either, but I really hate those songs that just make out that everything is alright, all the time. It’s such a blatant lie. It’s like you’re a doctor and you tell people they have cancer, but y’know it’s no big deal. You should be struck off as a songwriter if you do that....

Okkervil River play KOKO on the 22nd of November . I Am Very Far is out now on Jagjaguwar.

Domzig