For this one, we recorded about 30 different songs, took the ones we liked, and tried not to pay too much attention to whether they'd make a whole lot of sense together. With the other two records, there was more of an effort to make a homogeneous-sounding, old folk record, then a more trippy rock record. Was that a conscious effort?ĬO: It kind of just happened. On your new album, Cassadaga, they seem to come together. MC: On your simultaneously released previous efforts, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, you display different musical sides: the classic-folk side and the more modern, plugged-in one. You have to experience the whatever, the magic, along with everyone else. I find that if I try to premeditate anything too much, it ends up not coming out that great. Even when it seems to settle down for a bit, it can be inspiring. When you think it's going to get dull, it never really does. But now that you're 27 and on your seventh studio album, how do you find undiscovered territory to write about?ĬO: Well, life is always surprising to me. MC: You started your career as a teenage wunderkind.

Conor oberst opens up on effects