Bringing Back Bright Eyes

Conor Oberst returns, but this time he’s happy not to be in the spotlight anymore.

- Brady Gerber

I HAVE THESE WEIRD bouts of insomnia,” says Conor Oberst, sitting in his living room in Omaha, his hometown. “Usually, it’ ll pass.” At 40, the indie-rock elder has a youthful air, but today he looks beat. For three days in a row, he has been sleeping just two hours a night. Still, he’s in good Midwest humor. At least the weather’s nice, he says.

Lack of sleep aside, Oberst appears healthier than the “nicotine-stained” frontman who last spoke to this magazine four years ago, following a 2015 health scare that forced him to cancel a tour with one of his bands, Desaparecidos, and return to Nebraska to rest. This year was meant to be a comeback of sorts—right now, he should be on tour for the first Bright Eyes record in nearly a decade. Though all three members of the influential aughts indie-rock band have collaborated over the years, Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was was billed as a reunion. It seemed like they’d picked a good year: 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of Fevers and Mirrors, a formative album for many of their fans, now too in their 40s. It’s also the 15th anniversary of the glitchy Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and the folkie