Conor Oberst
The indie folk and alternative rock currents that ran through American independent music in the early 2000s drew on confessional traditions while finding new expression in small-label recordings and genre-crossing work. Conor Oberst, born on February 15, 1980, in Omaha, is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and composer whose practice spans indie folk, indie rock, emo, and alternative rock.
Oberst was educated at the University of Nebraska Omaha and works in the English language. His roles as performer, guitarist, and composer place him within a set of genres that overlap in significant ways — indie folk's acoustic sensibility, the broader electric range of alternative rock and indie rock, and emo's emphasis on direct emotional expression. The combination of those four genres defines the terrain he occupies as a musician.
The facts of his formation are rooted in Omaha, where he was born and educated, and his work as a singer-songwriter and composer continues from that base. His engagement with multiple genres — rather than a single one — describes an output that does not resolve neatly into any one category, which is itself a characteristic feature of the independent music world he works within.
Quotes by Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst's insights on:
I've thought about the idea of, 'Can happiness and creativity co-exist?' So much of what I've done, I think, has been based on being dissatisfied or incomplete or lonely. The answer is, 'There isn't an answer, necessarily.'
The idea of forever is kind of ridiculous, which is unfortunate because it's kind of a nice thing to say, you know. I think it softens the blow of mortality and having to say goodbye to everything you know and everyone you love and all that kind of thing.
I’ve been part of running a label since I was a kid, so I understand how it works. But the more and more I learn about it, the less and less interested I am in it.
With science and reason throughout history, what people believed turned out to be false. So I like to keep an open mind to all perspectives and learn and become more fully realised as a person. I just feel we’re never going to know what the full picture is.