For Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff, the new SoundTown festival will be a homecoming of sorts. Sheff attended Macalester College in St. Paul from 1994 to '98, but didn't really make his name as a musician until he formed his flagship group in Austin, Texas, shortly after graduation.

Now a national indie-rock favorite, Okkervil River is sharing the two-day festival bill with a hefty crop of Twin Cities acts. We caught up with Sheff last week to talk about his college years, fear of artistic stagnation and the rotten state of independent music.

Q: What's your history with the Twin Cities scene?

A: When I was at Mac, I couldn't even really get into First Avenue to see a show, let alone have any concept of being in a [local] band. I was a quiet, church-mouse kind of guy when I went to college. That has actually caused me to be more excited whenever I'm playing in Minnesota. I feel on some level like I'm making good, because I felt I was so invisible when I lived there.

Q: Big, outdoor stages or clubs?

A: I actually really love playing big stages. You have this gigantic organism in front of you that's made up of all these individual humans, but they want so badly to fuse together into this big thing and forget themselves, to focus all their energy on the stage and all that energy comes back to them. When it's not connecting it can be really frustrating, and you think, 'God, I wish I was in a sweaty, filthy bar right now.'"

Q: You're very critical of your old albums in interviews. Explain.

A: It [focusing on your old work] becomes this cage where you're franchising some past version of yourself and I think that's kind of icky. It's like that old Bob Dylan quote: "He not busy being born is busy dying." I think that's really true. You should never be trying to make something that's "good enough." We should always be trying to make something that's the best. To me, worshipping your old work is the enemy in that scenario.

Q: Don't balk at this term, but how is being an indie-rock star in 2011 different from in 2005?

A: I'm balking! Well, I don't ever feel like I'm an indie-rock star and certainly wasn't then. When we were starting out there were the last little remnants of the old-fashioned indie scene, where you just got in a van and busted your ass; eventually people had to kind of respect it, and that was really how we got successful.

I don't know if you can do it that way anymore. Back in the day you wanted to make the ultimate, most respected record. Now I think everybody's highest goal is to get a Volkswagen ad. The way that we did it, that door is closed for most bands -- and it's a fucking shame. Everything has become about buzz bands. There's a real careerism that's crept in.

Then again, Titus Andronicus -- who we just toured with -- they're out their busting their asses off in the van really, really hard and it's working for them.

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