Sunday, February 04, 2018

London O'Connor: Nobody Hangs Out Anymore



This turned up on Radio 3's Late Junction the other night and sounded good. It starts off like a lost Tim Booth song.

London O'Connor was profiled in the Guardian a couple of years ago:
O’Connor is a wanderer. Originally from San Marcos, California, he has spent the past two years hopping around, crashing with friends here and there, making a quick trip to Europe last year to play some shows, but mostly embracing a life of rootlessness. "Couch life is a little awkward sometimes," he tells me, thinking out loud about how he never gets to be alone. We talk and walk aimlessly in circles around the park, past the park’s usual characters who play chess, shoot the shit on benches, skateboard on the basketball court. 
"I wear the same thing every day because it simplifies life for me," he says. "It lets me just focus on how I feel on the inside. When I started doing it, part me was frustrated with this feeling that you’re supposed to change, or give up on your dreams. So I’m just not changing."
As to the burden of this song:
"Growing up on the internet gave so many of us a voice that we wouldn’t really have otherwise," he says. “But recently, it makes me more and more uncomfortable. Because it feels like on social, some of the values are the opposite of what I value and care about as an artist. 
"As an artist, all I care about is figuring out what’s true to me, and saying that. Regardless of how it’s going to be received. So much of Twitter is people saying things that they don’t feel, based on how often it’s going to get favorited or retweeted. It just gets in the way."

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