Conor Oberst

Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes.

He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, the Faint (previously named Norman Bailer), Commander Venus, Park Ave., Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Monsters of Folk, and Better Oblivion Community Center.

Conor Mullen Oberst was born on February 15, 1980, the youngest of three boys, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, to Matthew Ryan Oberst Sr., an information manager for Mutual of Omaha, and Nancy Oberst, an elementary education director for Omaha Public Schools.

Oberst had two older brothers, Matthew Ryan Oberst Jr. and Justin H. Oberst.

One night in 1992, Ted Stevens (of Mayday and Cursive) invited Oberst onstage to play.

Bill Hoover, who was in attendance, invited Oberst to come back to play with him a couple of weeks later.

In that short amount of time, Oberst wrote enough songs to fill out the set, establishing himself as an artist.

Shortly thereafter, Oberst began committing his new repertoire to tape in his parents' basement with his father's four track cassette recorder and an acoustic guitar.

In mid-1993, Oberst self-released his debut album Water on cassette tape.

The release of the album was financed by his brother Justin on what they called Lumberjack Records, the indie label that would become Saddle Creek Records, making them founders and present day executives of the label.

In 1994, following a Slowdown Virginia show, Oberst, along with Joel Petersen and brothers Todd Fink and Clark Baechle, formed a band called Norman Bailer, later known as The Faint.

A few days later, Oberst told the other members of the band that they had a show in two weeks at Kilgore's. Despite having never performed together, they produced nine songs to perform.

Oberst formed the rock band Commander Venus in 1994 with Tim Kasher, Ben Armstrong, and Robb Nansel.

Shortly after his two solo recordings, Oberst began playing with four friends; they formed Commander Venus in mid-1995.

An album, Sine Sierra, was released (on cassette only) in 1995.

They recorded two albums: Do You Feel at Home? (1995) and The Uneventful Vacation (1997).

Kasher later went on to form Cursive and Nansel was the co-founder of Saddle Creek Records.

Kasher left the group to focus on Cursive as they were about to go into the studio to record their second album, and was replaced by Todd Baechle.

Oberst founded Bright Eyes as a solo project in 1995, and after the disbanding of Commander Venus, released A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997 in January 1998.

This was followed quickly by Letting Off the Happiness, released in November of the same year.

It featured members of numerous bands and was recorded in the Oberst family basement.

One year later, Bright Eyes released its first EP, Every Day and Every Night.

Here's to Special Treatment was followed by 1996's The Soundtrack to My Movie, a cassette only released on Sing Eunuchs!.

Kill the Monster Before It Eats Baby, a split 7-inch vinyl with Bill Hoover, was also released around this time.

The Magnetas were only active for a very brief period of time in 1996 in Omaha.

Along with Oberst, band members included Todd Fink (the Faint) and Chris Hughes (Beep Beep).

They recorded three songs, only one of which ("Annex Anex") was released on Ghostmeat Records Parts compilation album.

Two other confirmed recordings exist: "Clatter" and "Science Fiction in Schools".

In January 1996, Oberst began playing drums in a group named Park Ave., alongside Clark Baechle, Jenn Bernard, Neely Jenkins (now in the band Tilly and the Wall), and Jamie Williams (also in Tilly and the Wall).

The group only played between 10 and 15 shows and made a handful of recordings (several of them with Mike Mogis as producer).

Commander Venus disbanded in 1998.

The group disbanded in 1998 when Williams, the singer and primary songwriter, moved to London, England.

In 1999, Urinine Records released their only album, When Jamie Went to London ... We Broke Up, which has also now been re-released under Team Love.

Oberst was named the Best Songwriter of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine.

Matthew was a teacher and part-time musician until his death in 2016, and helped finance one of Oberst's self-released independent albums.

Matt was also in the indie band Sorry About Dresden, which Conor played in from time to time.

Conor has been writing and releasing music from a very young age, releasing his first solo album when he was 13.

Oberst was educated at St. Pius X/St.

Leo School in Omaha, Nebraska, where he was in the school choir and other musical groups, and Creighton Preparatory School, also in Omaha, Nebraska.

He briefly was enrolled at the University of Nebraska and dropped out after three semesters to tour.