The song for this week’s Soothing Song Sundays is “First Day of My Life,” by Bright Eyes.

This three-man band, better known as Bright Eyes, was started by Conor Oberst in 1998. Little do people know, Oberst’s music career started way before then.

As a young boy growing up in Omaha, Nebraska,Oberst was exposed to music his entire life.Oberst was around ten years old when he learned a few guitar cords and began writing songs on his own.

At the young age of fourteen, he released his first album with an indie-punk rock band named Commander Venus, in which he was the lead guitarist and vocalist in 1994. Commander Venus signed to Saddle Creek Records, which was founded by Oberst’s brother, Justin, and Mike Mogis. In 1995, the band released its first album, Do You Feel At Home?, and in 1996, The Uneventful Vacation.

During Oberst’s adventures in Commander Venus, he started his own solo project, which he named Bright Eyes. In 1998,Oberst released his first album under Bright Eyes called A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997. As time went on, other local musicians joined him in his recordings for Bright Eyes, as Oberst continued to venture into the art of the music industry.

Mike Mogis, part owner of Saddle Creek Records, joined Oberst in multiple recording sessions that were featured on Bright Eyes‘ first solo project album. He, Mogis, later became a permanent member along with Nathaniel Walcott. After that, Bright Eyes was no longer a solo project, but now a band.

When Conor Oberst’s solo project, now band, started taking off, he dropped out of the University of Nebraska to go on tour and lead the band, Bright Eyes.

In 1999, Bright Eyes released their first album as a band called Letting Off the Happiness, which included more of indie-funk vibes. The band played around with adding banjo, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, electric guitar, organ, trumpet, accordion, and keytar sounds.

After Bright Eyes’ first album Letting Off the Happiness, the band released nine others during their adventures that included: Every Day and Every Night, Fevers and Mirrors, Lifted, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, Noise Floor, Motion Sickness, Cassadaga, and finally, The People’s Key in 2011.

One can say Bright Eyes was most definitely a successful band.

Their first album, Letting Off the Happiness, was actually recorded in Oberst’s family basement back in Omaha, Nevada.

Their album Every Day and Every Night was the second album released by the band also in the same year.

In 2000, Bright Eyes’ third album, Fevers and Mirrors, mainly featured songs about Oberst’s insecurities, along with mixed emotions as his band started to get more of the media’s attention.

In addition to Bright Eyes gaining the public eye, their two singles “Lua” and “Take It Easy” both hit the top two on Billboard’s Hot 100 Single Sales.

It was not until 2002 that Bright Eyes got the attention they deserved. In March of 2002, they released their fourth album, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, or better known as Lifted, making Bright Eyes one of the year’s most celebrated “new” artists, in which the The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, The Rolling Stone’s Magazine and many other magazine and news articles featured Conor Oberst and his band, Bright Eyes.

Lifted became their “big break” as a band. It sold over 250,000 copies, making Saddle Creek Records finally recover from financial problems.

One could easily argue that 2004 was just as busy and influential a year for the band as 2002 was. As Bright Eyes started to get the media’s attention even more, they decided to take a more political, more “dicey” attitude, to the music industry, as they used it to their advantage.

As the band released its fifth album, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, they definitely “dive-in” to a more folk-beat style of music. In early of 2004, Bright Eyes got the chance to tour with Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. on the “Vote for Change” tour, where Oberst got the chance to sing with Springsteen and Neil Young.

The song for this week’s Soothing Song Sundays is featured on this album.

In January of 2005, Bright Eyes released their sixth album called Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. One would think that after releasing back-to-back albums so quickly, the two albums would have the same kind of musical sound or beat. But no, that is not the case. While I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning was a more folk-influenced album, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn was electric-pop.

Not only did Bright Eyes release two albums in 2005, but three. Their third album, Motion Sickness, was a live version of the band’s top favorite songs that they had played around the world on their tours that year.

By the end of January 2005, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning was set at number 10 on Billboard’s music charts, while Digital Ash in a Digital Urn was set at number 15.

In October of 2006, Bright Eyes released their seventh album called Noise Floor, which included rare songs that never did make it onto any of the other albums earlier released. The reason behind Noise Floor, was due to the fact that Oberst and the band thought the world deserved to hear some of Bright Eyes’ unique music styles that they tried out but maybe just did not work.

Cassadaga was Bright Eyes’ eighth album, which was released in April of 2007. Despite Oberst’s comments about him saying that Bright Eyes was taking a well-deserved break after their release of Noise Floor, they hit the media and the charts with Cassadaga.

As the new tour went on, Bright Eyes welcomed multiple artists on tour to join them that included Gillian Welch, David Rawling, Lou Reed, Ben Kweller, Jenny Lewis, Johnathan Rice, Norah Hones, Little Willie, Nick Zinner Maria Taylor, Ben Gibbard. Steve Earle, and Britt Daniel.

In a June 2009 issue of Rolling Stone, Oberst announced he wanted to put Bright Eyes asleep, but how it would be fun to make one final album with the band. He said, “It does feel like it needs to stop at some point. I’d like to clean it up, lock the door say goodbye.”

After 15 years of making music, one could say that Oberst deserved a well-rested break as he put an end to his musical career.

In July of 2010, Bright Eyes did a concert for equality in their hometown, Omaha, Nebraska, with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Their tenth and final album, The People’s Key, was released on February 15, 2011, which was Oberst’s birthday. This album featured more of a punk-rock style, and less of an indie-slow beat. After making multiple appearances in interviews and on TV talk shows, Bright Eyes was successfully “shut-eyed,” and put to sleep, along with Oberst’s outstanding music career.

Throughout Oberst’s experiences of playing in multiple bands as a young man,  rocking his own all over the world, and being able to perform with his musical inspirations, he made a huge impression on the world from his ability to change his style of music to his powerful political motivation that he showed through his concerts and media.

Bright Eyes will certainly go down in history and will always catch one’s “eye,” no matter what age or music genre preference.