Okkervil River - Come back, we are waiting

Okkervil River’s Will Sheff is not the kind of person to pause for interviews. Whether he’s driving a car or at the supermarket, he seems to rarely be doing less than two things at once. When he receives the call from The Dwarf, he is busy rearranging his furniture.

“I’ll be moving a bed while we’re talking,” he explains. “I’m getting sick of sleeping on the floor so I’m dragging a bed in!”

To his credit, Sheff is a very easy person to talk to, whether or not he is preoccupied. After months of constant touring following the release of Black Sheep Boy in April last year, it would be perfectly understandable if he were sick to death with running the media gauntlet.

“No, I’m not sick of it,” he insists. “But touring in general gets wearing after a few years, and I think I’m already a few years past that point, so… The day can be fun or it can be excruciating. But we’ve had a wonderful time,” he adds.

So, it seems, have the press, who can’t get enough of this Texan collective and their inspired, atmospheric brand of pop. Their 2003 release Down the River of Golden Dreams spawned an unprecedented volume of hyperboles, with music writers the world around heralding Sheff’s intricate and melancholic songwriting. The band’s latest full-length, Black Sheep Boy, is a response to Tim Hardin’s song of the same name and, according to a post by Sheff on Okkervil River’s website, the idea for the album “started out as a joke with myself but slowly began turning into something I couldn’t leave alone and I always had rattling around in the back of my head.”

When asked whether he usually attempts to follow a narrative thread when planning an album, Sheff responds, “It works differently for different albums. Black Sheep Boy was consciously planned and that was nice. It came together very organically. I think there’s a part of my brain that is always ticking over; thinking things through conceptually and cracking away at ideas.”

But, according to him, the potential for destruction through over-analysis is not a hazard.

“Jonathan (Meiburg, keyboards) once said to me, and it was the loveliest compliment I’ve ever been given, ‘You’re the only person I know who can overthink something without ruining it,’” he laughs.

“I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me!”

Meiburg should know. After all, he corroborates with Sheff for not one but two projects, the other being Shearwater. However, Sheff maintains, the latter is very much Meiburg’s baby and not, as some critics have claimed, simply a side project of Okkervil River.

“Shearwater has never been a testing ground for Okkervil,” he states firmly. “It started as a fun thing for me and Jonathan while Okkervil was running a little slowly. We wanted to put together a record just for fun. But over time, it very much became Jonathan’s band, his ideas and visions.”

The emotive and often quite intense nature of Okkervil River’s music has earned them a dedicated and ever-growing fan base. When asked if he realises the impact his songs have had on many listeners, Sheff responds with enthusiasm.

“Yeah, absolutely. And I’m happy with that - I mean, I have no idea what it is. I could be vain and say that it’s because I kept a promise not to write crap.” He adds, “My grandfather made me promise that. But I really don’t understand; we’ve been lucky.”

However, being an artist who is capable of speaking to their audience on a very deep level brings with it the risk of over-enthusiasm.

“We’ve managed to attract some pretty freaky, weird fans,” he admits. “It’s a bit scary, but in general we’re very grateful for the responses we’ve had.”

Indeed, the members of Okkervil River pay a lot of attention to what their fans think. For their recent US tour, the band invited email requests for songs and constructed many of their setlists accordingly.

“We do take requests sometimes,” says Sheff. “We’re not taking them for this tour but we have in the past.”

So which tunes seem to crop up most often?

“All kind of stuff, actually. That’s the best part – people don’t only ask for the singles. We often get requests for quite rare tracks. People like us for different reasons… lots of people ask for For Real, but yeah. It’s definitely a mixed bag.”

While they may not being taking requests, there is another exciting event taking place on this tour than fans will not want to miss out on. That is, filming of the very first Okkervil River DVD. Sheff went on the record recently as claming that the finished product was to be along similar lines as The Beatles’ Help! When queried about this, he laughs.

“I was joking about the Beatles thing. Clearly my sense of humour wasn’t understood. But we will be filming this tour. See if we can make something special out of it. We want to capture the performances and the experience – I’m not sure what it will end up being. You kind of work with what you end up having, really.”

He exhibits the same shoulder-shrugging aloofness when asked about the direction Okkervil River’s next full-length is likely to take.

“Did you really think I would answer that?”

Well, it was certainly worth a try.

“The truth is, I don’t really even know. The songs are there, but they might change, you never know. I generally like to just start working and see what happens. It’s easy to get distracted by what you think you want. And sometimes what you think you want isn’t as good as what you’ve got. So I don’t really want to think about it too much myself.”

While this, coming from the Great Overthinker himself, may appear as coyness, the fact remains that an Okkervil River album is worth the wait. In the meantime we have several great releases and an impending tour to tide us over. You can catch Okkervil River in most capital cities during September.

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