Shawn Brackbrill
Audio By Carbonatix
A Venn diagram comparing indie folk stalwarts Bright Eyes and global pop goliaths Maroon 5 would not have a lot of overlap, but if you’re keyboardist/arranger Nate Walcott, you’d be right in the middle.
Walcott is probably the only person on Earth whose career includes contributing to songs as disparate as “We Are Nowhere and It’s Now” and “Ladykiller.” We spoke to the Bright Eyes member ahead of the band’s scheduled Dallas return on Friday, May 20, at the Factory in Deep Ellum with special guests Hurray for the Riff Raff.
“It’s a small world,” Walcott says. “You might be surprised to hear that [longtime Maroon 5 guitarist] James Valentine is from Lincoln, Nebraska, and he was one of my best friends growing up.”
Walcott says that he and Valentine’s musical germination sprouted from the same pool of musicianship until Valentine moved to Los Angeles after high school.
“He just called me one day and said, ‘Hey, we’re working on a record, can you come play piano or something?’ So, I worked on [Overexposed],” Walcott says. “Believe it or not, James has actually recorded a little bit on some Bright Eyes records. He played guitar on a Cassadaga B-side called ‘Susan Miller Rag.'”
While many Bright Eyes fans may feel antipathy toward the Top 40 darling Maroon 5, Walcott says he doesn’t feel like there’s that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.
“I think it was Duke Ellington who said, ‘There’s really only two kinds of music: good and bad.’ And who decides that? I don’t know,” Walcott says. “I guess each person has their own vision of that. I am lucky enough to work a lot with my friends, all of whom I have a lot of respect for. Something I think that a lot of my friends and associates have in common is that they are interested in working in a lot of different areas. In the case of someone like Danger Mouse, he’ll reach out if I will help him on an A$AP Rocky record, and next time it’s Parquet Courts.”
Walcott’s CV is deep and wide, cultivated both during and outside of Bright Eyes’ hiatus that lasted from 2011 until their 2020 reunion album Down in The Weeds, Where the World Once Was. In addition to contributing to recordings by Karen O, Broken Bells, Rilo Kiley, She and Him, Phoebe Bridgers, Seawolf, Cursive, Joseph, Mavis Staples and U2, among others, Walcott has composed the scores to five feature-length motion pictures in tandem with Bright Eyes bandmate Mike Mogis, including 2014’s hit film The Fault in Our Stars.
“I think it was Duke Ellington who said, ‘There’s really only two kinds of music: good and bad.’ And who decides that? I don’t know.” -Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott
“As long as it’s good and it’s enjoyable to work on,” he says, “especially with the last couple of years, recording stuff like that has to do with arrangements and orchestration. It’s like weeks or months where I’m in my studio writing arrangements, and that almost always starts somebody sending material ahead of time as opposed to being a sort of utility person when you just come into the studio for a couple of hours or a day or something and you’re just kind of doing whatever. Not there’s anything wrong with that.”
Walcott says the shortage of work during the 2020 lockdown whet his appetite for composing.
“There was sort of a slow-down to some degree in terms of people being in studios for a minute,” he says. “If I had my choice, I’d rather be involved in a way where I can go deeper, and that’s where I’m lucky because I get to work frequently as an arranger. I love doing that. Especially since with Bright Eyes, we sort of shifted a little bit towards writing more together as a group.”
While Bright Eyes has historically been the primary outlet for singer-songwriter Conor Oberst, Walcott says the band has been writing material together more often than in the past, a trend that is likely to continue, albeit in a less specific manner.
“I’m not sure I would refer to it as ‘songwriting,'” he says. “I would say, um, more in the realm of composing and production, things like that. But sure, I’ve been composing.”
