When Will Sheff, lead singer of Texas's Okkervil River, took on the task of producing an album for one his state's great, emblematic musical figures, he was handed a catalogue of over 60 demos, of songs written over the past few decades of Roky Erikson's life, career, and battle with mental illness. To have whittled them down to 12, and be charged with the task of reworking this important archive for public consumption, was a job akin to restoring a lost work of art, or turning a series of letters and diaries into a coherent life story. In short, Sheff had to act as Erickson's biographer.
Source: Drowned In Sound
