The best of an interview with Conor Oberst and Tim Kasher
Interviewer: That was obviously a long time ago. How has your relationship with each other changed over the years? Has it, even?
Oberst: Not really. I mean, like, sadly, just the way life's been, there's stretches where we don't get to hang out as much as we would like, but the sign of a good friendship is that, when you do get together, you just pick up where you left off.
Kasher: Everybody got busy. I don't get to see Bright Eyes shows that often because I'm always touring, so it's great to be here doing this.
Interviewer: Speaking of clichés, it's Valentine's day. Are you aware of the irony of the two of you playing a show together on this day, when your careers have been fuelled by this pessimistic, misanthropic, heartbroken fire?
Kasher: That's true! I made that joke earlier, that we're here to bum people out.
Oberst: I don't know. I never minded Valentine's Day too much for some reason. Because you get candy...
Kasher: My mother once - this is the weirdest Valentine's Day I ever had - my mother used to leave a Valentine's Day present at the end of our beds. It was a really sweet, motherly thing. But when I was a teenager, probably the last year I got one, it was red silk underwear! From my mum! Isn't that crazy?
Oberst: That's amazing!
Interviewer: You've both been painted at various points of your careers as Bukowskian figures who like the red wine a bit too much. How do you feel about that?
Oberst: There have been times in my life when I've leaned more on those kinds of things, but I don't think it defines me or Tim at all. Obviously you can romanticize those things, especially when you're young, but I've had enough people that I know either literally lose their life or lose their quality of life to drugs and alcohol. I'm definitely not an advocate for getting clean and AA and shit, as I think that's equally weird, but it's all about finding a balance. Which I occasionally strike, but then, like everyone, you falter and you fall down.
Kasher: Yeah. I don't want to be black and white and say that it's a mistake to be like that in lyrics and lifestyle, but what gets most tiresome about it is that it becomes this cliché of personality. I am a drinker. I'm not an alcoholic, but I like alcohol. And so I do drink, but now I think it sucks to drink in public because I turn into this clichéd asshole.
Oberst: I know we've both been in the situation where you're maybe at a bar before or after a show, and someone rolls up that doesn't know you but thinks they do through your music and you're like, 'No, I don't want to take a fucking shot of whatever sick shit you just had poured. I actually don't.' And then they think you're not living up to the certain standard of who they think you are.
Interviewer: You're clearly very close. Did you take comfort in the fact that you went through the same stuff as you grew up?
Kasher: I guess we've had an ongoing thread. We'd recognise that we were going through these same situations, but I don't think I've ever been able to offer much in the way of good advice!
Oberst: I know I've benefited, like I think a lot of people, from Tim's songs. They've made me feel better at points in my life. And I have the added benefit of being able to pick up the phone if I want and talk to him. His other fans don't get that!
Interveiwer: Are you his number one fan, then?
Oberst: I think I'm up there. I don't know. There are some crazy... I've seen some of his fans, and I think I might have been knocked from the number one spot. But I'm definitely top twenty.
Kasher: There's some creeps, but you're up there. You're still pretty creepy!
