On Playing Music Like A 14-Year-Old Again, Trump's America & His Brain Cyst

Conor Oberst's latest record, Ruminations, an album of demos released last October, was written and recorded over two days against the backdrop of a brutal winter in Omaha, Nebraska, Oberst's hometown. A kind of "seasonal depression" affects the mood of the album: "It's a real thing when your body's used to sunlight and it's deprived of it — it can mess with your physiology and stuff... I think it absolutely affects the way your mind works."

The album brings Oberst back "full circle" to a stripped-back writing and recording mode akin to his first records released as Bright Eyes when he was just a teenager. "I hadn't made a record that was so truly solo, where it was just me playing everything, and in one take, like basically playing live, since I was a teenager, so it's interesting that now I'm 37, I'm back to doing what I was doing when I was 14."

"It's so disgusting and criminal to me that they're being targeted by the Republicans, [who are] trying to shut down as many of them as they can, and defund it and everything else."

The ease of that twirl in direction stands as a testament to Oberst's longevity as a musician, making music for over 20 years that appeals to people across generations. "I'm a person who's trying to figure stuff out at whatever age I was. The songs I wrote when I was 19 sound like that. The songs I wrote when I was 26 sound like that to me, and now, whatever. I think that I was always writing as best I could from my perspective and my worldview at the time.

"It's been cool lately, I've noticed at shows that there is an even wider range of, like not elderly people, but like people in their 60s that are into it, and teenagers... That makes me think that it's not a fad or something, that it's actually something people can keep with them for a long time."

In late 2015, before beginning work on Ruminations, Oberst cancelled the North American Desaparecidos tour, due to "laryngitis, anxiety and exhaustion". But Oberst says that what he was suffering from when he was admitted to hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, was "actually even kind of worse than that". A CAT scan and MRI had revealed an anomaly in his brain. Oberst made his way to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where a high school friend, who had become brain researcher and doctor at the Clinic, ran tests to uncover what was found to be a benign cyst. "At the Mayo Clinic they were basically like, 'It could've been there your whole life.' I guess they can tell when they look at it if it's growing or mutating or whatever, and mine is the kind that isn't problematic, so that was a happy end to the whole saga."

The anxiety of that experience, combined with a dose of the winter blues, is reflected in Ruminations, and on Salutations, a full-band re-imagining of those same demos, due out in March. "Obviously the record's pretty dark, and I was in the midst of all that when I started writing the songs, so I got reflective in there, on top of the snow outside and all that. But happy days are here again, summer's coming soon, it's all good."

Oberst can look forward to catching a little of the tail-end of Australian summer when he plays at the Sydney Opera House for one night only at the end of February. He'll then head back to his home in Omaha — the other is in Los Angeles — to the house he shares with his wife, Corina Figueroa Escamilla, and two friends, Miwi La Lupa and Roger Lewis (and a couple dogs). "Everyone's a musician and everyone travels and does different things so people are in and out of the house... It's a big enough house where it's not like we're living like we're in college or something. I love 'em all, we're like a weird little family."

But it won't be long before Oberst heads back on the road, partnering for his US tour with Plus 1, so that $1 from every ticket sale will help support Planned Parenthood. "Obviously we're in a complete crisis over here with the new Trump America. It felt to me like Planned Parenthood, growing up, that was the place where you went. I remember going there as a teenager scared as shit, because 'Oh no, I think I have an STD,' or something. It's the place that kids turn to, girls turn to when they need help.

"It's so disgusting and criminal to me that they're being targeted by the Republicans, [who are] trying to shut down as many of them as they can, and defund it and everything else.

"At this point I feel like whatever you can do, even if it's just a little gesture, if everybody does something hopefully it will have a cumulative effect on the situation."