Conor Oberst has had quite the year. Last September, he and his longtime bandmates, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, released their 11th studio album as Bright Eyes , Five Dice, All Threes . That marked their first full-length in four years, following 2020’s comeback album Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was . But a couple of days before the album came out, the band was forced to cancel three release-week shows after Oberst suffered a severe vocal injury following several warm-up shows.

“I feel like it’s been, like, 10 years,” Oberst tells Rolling Stone from his home in Omaha, Nebraska. He still can’t wrap his head around the fact that it’s been a year since that happened. “I was blown away when I got these texts a few days ago — ‘Happy year anniversary of the record.

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