Okkervil River Not Cerebral

10/24/08 2:02pm

by Noah Love (CHARTattack)

Over the past three years, Okkervil River have become famous for their stylish, two-part concept records.

Starting with Black Sheep Boy and its subsequent appendix to last year's The Stage Names and this fall's counterpart, The Stand-Ins, singer-songwriter Will Sheff has crafted literary world set to barn-burning indie rock. But interestingly, Sheff says none of the concept albums have been planned as such.

"It's not so much that when I'm sitting down that right from the beginning, I have an idea or a framework; it's kind of the opposite," he reveals shortly before leaving for the band's current tour. "As I'm feeling around for the songs, and what they're about and what they're gonna sound like, stuff starts to suggest itself very slowly.

"So I'm just playing and feeling what feels fun to play. So it's just a matter of keeping your ear to the ground and to what's feeling good as you're playing. So it's not so much that I'm writing to order, it's that I'm just sort of pushing myself in a very organic direction while I'm working."

The new LP was recorded in pieces, starting during last year's recording sessions for The Stage Names and then continuing into this past winter. Last year's album was originally conceived as a double-record, but minds were changed and the concepts from the intended second disc were bumped to this year's release.

The Stand-Ins, despite being more upbeat than the ultra-poppy The Stage Names, actually represents kind of an antithesis to its predecessor.

"The Stand-Ins is sort of a critique of a lot of the stuff on The Stage Names," Sheff says. "I mean, you look at a song like 'On Tour With Zykos' and it kind of tells the girl's side of the story from 'A Girl In Port.' It kind of undercuts a lot of the sentiments in 'A Girl In Port,' kind of takes the wind out of the sails of that song.

"Or you look at 'Lost Coastlines,' which describes some of the fears and frustrations of tour. It kind of takes the wind out of 'Unless It's Kicks' on Stage Names, which is a celebration of being on tour. So I think in some ways you can almost look at The Stand-Ins as a way of saying we're opposed to a lot of things we're saying on The Stage Names [laughs]."

Okkervil River certainly have every reason to talk about both sides of life on the road. Since the release of Black Sheep Boy, they've been on tour almost non-stop.

Even as Sheff reels off a list of issues related to their stressful schedule, he's quick to dispel the notion that he'd have it any other way.

"I often lose my voice when I'm on tour, and I get really sick on tour because my immune system just wears down," he says. "There was one tour that we did that was, like, 23 shows in a row without a day off in Europe and then flew right back to North America and started touring — and I got Strep throat and cancelled a show.

"The shows are really fun, though. Playing live it a really meaningful thing to me. So I think that that's just sort of part of the game."