Chronologically, the next musical ‘big thing’ in Sean’s life after Kings of Leon and Against Me! was Elliott Smith. This was a departure for Sean … more moody and introspective than his usual taste.
He loved the movie Good Will Hunting (as I do) … it was one of his all-time favourites. There are several Elliott Smith songs on the soundtrack, which work very well. This, I presume, is what first drew Sean to Smith’s music.
For a while, Sean played Smith an awful lot, not only in the office but on the laptop in the sitting-room on a Friday night, say, when Pauline and I were relaxing and drinking wine. We got an overdose, and the songs started to seem dreary and ‘samey’ (‘Oh God, not Elliott Smith again!’). We expressed this to Sean, diplomatically, but he was always a proselytizer for music he believed in, and didn’t discourage easily. He thought it would grow on us. Continue reading
The road to God knows where ... Brendan O'Brien 