Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes is an indie rock group from Omaha, United States. It forms around singer, guitarist and songwriter Conor Oberst, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, and keyboard and trumpet player Nate Walcott, alongside a rotating cast of collaborators drawn mainly from Omaha’s indie scene.

Background and formation

Conor Oberst begins recording music at the age of 13. He issues his first three albums as Conor Oberst, on cassette, before moving on to Commander Venus, a band that releases two albums. After Commander Venus ends in 1997, Bright Eyes becomes his main project. The group starts releasing records in 1998.

Oberst and other local Omaha musicians co-found the independent label Saddle Creek Records, which releases the early Bright Eyes albums. The band is active from 1995 to the present.

Early releases

The first Bright Eyes album is A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, a compilation of 20 songs. Later in 1998, Letting Off the Happiness appears on Saddle Creek. It is recorded largely in the Oberst family basement in Omaha on an analogue eight-track reel-to-reel machine, with some additional work done at Andy Lemaster’s studio in Athens, Georgia. The record includes contributions from members of Lullaby for the Working Class, Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal. One track, June on the West Coast, is performed only with acoustic guitar and vocals, while Padraic My Prince tells a fictional story about the death of Oberst’s imagined baby brother.

Fevers and Mirrors, released in 2000, shows a marked increase in production quality and arrangement, bringing in instruments such as flute, piano and accordion. After An Attempt to Tip the Scales, the album includes a mock radio interview featuring Todd Fink of The Faint reading a script written by Oberst, with Matt Silcock of Lullaby for the Working Class as the interviewer. The segment responds to criticism that Oberst’s lyrics are exaggerated or insincere, while presenting them as open to interpretation.

2000s output and collaborators

Bright Eyes releases Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground in 2002. Around this period, Oberst also releases a steady stream of material on collaborative EPs, split singles, tribute releases and charity records.

He works with Tilly and the Wall as co-producer of their debut album Wild Like Children, issued on his label Team Love, which he establishes later. In January 2005, Bright Eyes releases two albums: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, a country-influenced set of acoustic songs featuring Emmylou Harris and Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, a more electronic record with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The singles Lua and Take It Easy (Love Nothing) take the top two positions on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, a first for an artist since 1997.

Bright Eyes recordings regularly involve a wide circle of musicians, including members of Rilo Kiley, Tilly and the Wall, Cursive, Now It’s Overhead, The Good Life, Azure Ray, The Faint, The Bruces, Neva Dinova, The Postal Service and Audrye Sessions.

Later albums

The band issues the rarities compilation Noise Floor: Rarities 1998-2005 in 2006. In 2007, it releases the album Cassadaga, preceded by the EP Four Winds. By this stage, Bright Eyes has recorded additional tracks in Portland, Oregon and New York City, with another session in Omaha, and some of these songs have already been performed live.

The seventh studio album, The People’s Key, follows in 2011. In 2020, Bright Eyes releases Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, its first album on Dead Oceans after a long association with Saddle Creek.

Style and place in the scene

Bright Eyes is associated with indie rock, folk, alternative country, alternative folk, emo, folk rock and indie folk. Its records are closely tied to the Omaha, Nebraska indie music scene, with Conor Oberst at the centre and Mogis and Walcott forming the core of the group’s later line-up.