American independent outfit: Okkervil

American independent outfit: Okkervil River.

May 8, 2009

Okkervil River are set to bring the street sounds of New York to our shores, writes Craig Mathieson.

WILL Sheff, vocalist and songwriter for the American independent music outfit Okkervil River, observes things that most people do not. Here is his take on New York, a city he now lives in after decamping from Austin, Texas: "There's something awe-inspiring about seeing such a huge concentration of people in a limited space that actually works," he says.

The 32-year-old still has the instincts of a critic, a discipline he practised as an English major at university and in the early days of Okkervil River, following their 1998 formation, when he wrote extensively about popular music and film. His answers sometimes come in the form of theories, and here is a particularly good one, about the notion of success and audience size.

"With any band there's only a limited group of people you can reach who'll truly get where you're coming from. Every band has that finite number: some never find them, others max it out. The point is that after a certain point if you keep growing you'll run out of people who get what you do in the fullest way, the true believers who truly care, and what's left over is people who flit from one thing to the next," he says.

"Indie rock and mainstream music has people like that. You can attract them, but they're not loyal and they don't care that much. I don't know if Okkervil River has reached all our hard-core fans, but it has become more true that more people say they like us because they believe it is a cool assertion to make."

There's a related sentiment at play on Pop Lie, a relatively concise piece of new wave-inflected pop on the group's fifth and latest album, 2008's The Stand Ins. "Words and music calculated/To make you sing along," Sheff suggests, creating a purposeful anthem about manufacturing a purposeful anthem. When the group appeared on American network television in January, as musical guests on Late Show with David Letterman, it was Pop Lie they performed.

"David Lynch, who is a huge influence for me, always sought out the largest audience possible, even if he alienated as many people as he charmed," says Sheff, considering the band's steady ascent. "And sometimes within the people who are interested in what's cool, there are people you can truly change with what you do."

Sheff's own criteria for satisfaction are more selective. The compliment he valued most was an endorsement by Lou Reed - "he was incredibly nice," says Sheff. "I never saw the Lou Reed people are scared of"' - which might indicate a veteran New Yorker recognising the arrival of a worthy new resident. The Stand Ins, like its predecessor, 2007's The Stage Names, is a record about intricately assembled protagonists and their place in a harsh, facile world.

"What I wanted out of New York was that fuzzy sound of people's voices in the background," Sheff says. "I would sit in my apartment, this little room above the street, with a guitar, bed and desk, with the window open, and put those voices into my songs."

Okkervil River play Groovin' the Moo festival in Bendigo on May 16 and Billboard on May 17.