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Okkervil River.
 Okkervil River are traversing the United States. Their ringleader, Will Sheff, is speaking to me from a noisy tour van as the band travels to their next gig in Lawrence, Kansas. The other band members, most notably drummer Travis Nelsen, are trying to distract Sheff as he speaks on the phone by throwing things at him.
The band has also just released 'Black Sheep Boy Appendix', an eight track CD-EP which revisits and reframes the almost surreal themes of the original album. According to Sheff, many more songs were recorded for the group's most recent and most well-received album, 'Black Sheep Boy' and were all part and parcel of the mythology that the band had built up, so the only way Sheff could see the songs coming out was in this form.
Almost straight after we start talking, Sheff reveals the strain of constant touring on the back of the CD. "It's going well, it's just we maybe bit off a little more than we could maybe chew and swallow," confides Sheff with a loud chuckle. "Europe was 22 shows in 22 days. We only had a day or two off, and then we immediately embarked on this American tour. My immune system couldn't take it, and I got strep throat, so I had to cancel some of the shows. I was pretty much resorting to vocal steroids to keep singing."
"Dude, can you hold on a second?" asks Sheff. "Dude, I'm trying to talk to Australia over here!" he yells.
"I've never heard of it," Nelsen says in the background. "I've never heard of you!"
Sheff continues, ignoring Nelsen. "We're at the part of the tour where we've been driving through these really big states, on really long drives. Very cold, forboding, places. Everyone's sort of tired and starting to get kind of stir-crazy. We've been drinking all day in the van - everybody's just about had enough," he says with a laugh, before getting some audible revenge on Nelsen for his continuing antics.
After Europe and the US will be the band's first foray into Australia, but economic and other pressures have made for interesting lineup changes for each jaunt. "There's eight of us on tour. There are about six people in the band, though. In Europe it was just five of us," Sheff confirms with a loud yawn. "We go out in a lot of different lineups, depending on who can do what when, and what each thing seems to call for. Tours are expensive too, especially to your country. We can only bring three people for this tour. We have someone from New Zealand playing bass for us."
The three that will appear in Australia are Scheff, Nelsen, and long-time keyboard player, Jonathan Meiburg. I ask if we should expect a more stripped back, intimate affair than is presented on 'Black Sheep Boy', but get an altogether different answer. "Honestly, if I live to the end of this year after all the touring I'm having to do, then that will be nice. I really don't care about anything else," Sheff avows with another of his now familiar chuckles. "Nah, I'm just kidding," he says, not very convincingly. "Yeah, it'll be great. It's good to approach things differently. We've done this band with so many different lineups, so it's always interesting and challenging."
It sounds like Sheff has had a draining experience in the last few months, so I voice my concern that he might burn himself out before he gets to Adelaide. "It's all very interesting," he explains. "Sometimes I'll be totally burnt out, and I'll have nothing left to give, but those can be the times that I give a really good show. Because of all the nervous energy that may not be helpful gets burned off. You sort of express yourself more essentially sometimes when you're burned out. I find that I never know if a show will be good until I'm in it. I can totally not want to play and then get up and stage and get right into it. I've not at all lost my enthusiasm for playing shows, that's really fun and great, but I am losing my enthusiasm for always, always being in motion. You start to feel like you're unmoored from reality, like you have no meaningful connection to anything. Apart from a bunch of people who are in the van with you. Throwing things at you."
Eddie Chan
 | dB Magazine proudly present Okkervil River at the Jade Monkey on Thurs 8 Dec with Deloris and Subaudible Hum. |
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