For years, I've known and loved Okkervil River. Their first few albums, Stars Too Small to Use and Don't Fall in Love in with Everyone You See (which is hard for me, so I still use it as a mantra) served as the official soundtrack to my book, This Big Fake World. I lived in a house on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, we called it the "manor" and I had just quit my job in a fury. I sat upstairs during my few months of glorious unemployment (I really LOVE my job right now, so don't get any ideas), and wrote a book essentially to their songs. I was completely broke, dating a fascinating and angry, aging actor/muscian (I based Lewis on him), and madly happy with the world. I hung all my pages up on the wall with tape, while T (next door in her room) wrote her play, Straight On 'Til Morning. Then we'd break for a drink in the afternoon and wonder if anyone in Williamsburg actually worked. (Nope, they don't.)
Things are different now. But the same, too. I still hang up my pages on the wall when I'm really writing, and if you come to visit you can hear them rattle around when the heat comes on. I live on a different street, but it's the same world. I still play those old songs, too.
But, I digress. All this to say, a few weeks back I conducted a brief interview with Will Sheff, singer/songwriter of Okkervil. It's up today, and for some reason it made me nostalgic for some place I've never been. If I go there again, I hope to see you.
Check out the interview here.
