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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > October > 29 > Entry
Okkervil River overflow
One of my favorite feature writing techniques for when I know the space in the newspaper is going to be tight is to make a list of all the interesting things I want to try to work into the article. Usually I’m able to shoehorn most of the tidbits, but after I was finished with the Okkervil River profile which runs Tuesday in Life & Arts I saw that I had left out quite a bit. The beauty (and downfall) of online is that space is unlimited, so here are some more things I wanted to tell you about Okkervil Riverboat captain Will Sheff:
Sheff had tried to get the band to change its name after the first few gigs. He just didn’t see much of a future for a band called Okkervil River, plus a lot of people thought they were a country band that couldn’t spell. “They told me I was putting too much thought into it,” Sheff says, adding that he wished he had been more forceful in getting his way. Indeed, if the new record was called “Okkervil River” by a band called the Stage Names it would probably do even better.
Producer Brian Beattie thought the idea to segue “John Allyn Smith Sails” into “Sloop John B” was a terrible idea, according to Sheff. But the band, who receive co-producer credit, convinced Beattie to give it a try. Critics have called the unlikely mash-up a highlight of the record.
Sheff attended Macalester College in Minnesota to take creative writing courses, but turned to songwriting after growing increasingly frustrated about his teachers’ methods.
Much of the material on “The Stage Names” was inspired by the fidgety fandom Sheff has encountered since “Black Sheep Boy” made him a generational beacon. But the situation flipped when he met Lou Reed, one of his all-time idols. “I was literally shaking in my boots,” says Sheff, no doubt aware of Reed’s rep as “so-not-mister-feelgood.” But Sheff said Reed couldn’t have been more personable.
Sheff’s enthusiasm for music, classic and new, makes him come off a little like the Andy Kaufman character where he’s wide-eyed and enthused. “Thriller,” which came out when Sheff was six, was his first favorite record. But the first adventurous band that had an influence was the psych folk pioneer Incredible String Band, also an influence on Led Zeppelin.
Even though he grew up in New England, Sheff has never been much of a Springsteen fan, besides parts of “Nebraska.” He does have one weakness concerning the Boss. “That song ‘The River’ just kills me. It’ll start playing and I’ll tell myself ‘OK, this is just a corny song,’ but then it gets near the end and I have tears in my eyes every time.”
Shearwater is a spinoff band created to give keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg an outlet for his songwriting. Sheff plays guitar in the group. Sometimes Okkervil and Shearwater tour together, which makes the stage changes between sets a cinch.
Sheff really hates the “lit rock” tag, even as such acts as the Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens seem to embrace it.
Here’s a good quote that I had to leave out because it was too long (and he said something similar in that really terrific Pitchfork interview a few weeks ago.) “There’s a sadness to that connection you so desperately want from your idols. What you want out of them isn’t even articulated in yourself. Do you want to be friends with them? Do you want to marry them? Do you want them to give you advice? What you really want is for them to be the music they make, personified.”
One of the songs his parents played for him to fall asleep to when he was an infant was “House At Pooh Corner” by Kenny Loggins. “I just heard that song and it all just came back to me. It was not the words, but the voices, the harmonies and the melody that stirred up the memories.”
The best concert he ever went to was Iggy and the Stooges in Seattle last year. “Here were these old guys and they were owning up to their age, like, ‘Yeah, we’re old guys; now we’re gonna tear this place up.’ It was so powerful. I’ve seen these young stand-ins playing with, say the New York Dolls, and they’re panting just trying to keep up. “
Sheff’s voice has been described in many ways- “caterwauling” and “gut-wrenching” are the two most commonly misused. The word that best describes Sheff’s high and elastic voice is “enthusiastic.” His is not the classic rock star voice (“I’d love to be able to sing like Rod Stewart,” he says), but it’s the voice that belongs to the songs. You can’t separate them.
All Sheff’s stuff is in storage in Austin. “It just doesn’t make sense to pay rent when you’re touring all the time,” he said. After Fun Fun Fun Fest, the band doesn’t get back to Austin until January.
A proud parent pointed out that the article omitted the names of other Okkervillains. They are Patrick Pestorius, Jonathan Meiburg, Travis Nelsen, Scott Brackett and Brian Cassidy.
“The Stage Names” is the best album by an Austin act since “Gimme Fiction” by Spoon.
- SoundCheck360: Okkervil River
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