by christina wagner
WHO: Conrad Oberg
WHERE: 9th and Main
WHEN: Saturday, June 23rd
The first time I met Conrad, I wasn't sure what to think. He was very quiet, very polite and extremely dedicated. I thought for sure the fascists that make up this evil society we call the music business would swallow him up whole; I was wrong. I should have known better. Conrad has always been a fighter. Born in the summer of 1994, Oberg was brought into this world more than three months premature, weighing only one pound, three ounces. As a result, he remained in intensive care for three and months and came out of it with no vision in his left eye and only fifteen percent in his right eye.
Conrad was given an electronic piano at the age of 2 and a half, six months later he had taught himself enough to play along with almost any song that appealed to him. He hasn't really slowed down since.
Accompanied by his father Michael Oberg, "The world's most underpaid roadie" (Not that he's complaining), Conrad has already met and performed with some of the most influential blues legends our country has to offer. If that's not enough, he even has fans flying in from all over the country just to catch his gigs. Nonetheless, he keeps a good head on his shoulders, never gets star struck, and has never been afraid of the stage. Amazing. I was able to catch up with Conrad and his father, Michael, one afternoon in San Marco where we discussed music, future goals, and this family's obvious obsession with halves.
EU: How old are you now?
CO: I'm going to be 13 in three and a half days.
EU: You've said that you've felt comfortable with both guitar and piano. What do you like more about the guitar compared to the piano and vice versa?
CO: Umm, on the guitar you can, like, bend strings and you can basically do a lot of experimental sounds that you can't do on the piano. And on the piano, it's a bit easier to improvise, you can do more with it because it has a bigger range.
EU: I know you play the standards, but how many are original compositions?
CO: I really don't have all that many, but we try to put at least one original composition on each album.
MO: We try to do at least one album a year, and on that, there's usually at least one original song. And that started about when he was nine. He did a rockabilly song called 'Blonde Headed Woman.'
EU: Ha ha, nice.
MO: It was about a girl in his class.
EU: Blues seems to be an unlikely influence for a young man your age. What about the genre hooked you?
CO: Well, the feeling and the emotion behind it and also, like, the history, and all of the guys really made it sound good. So that's basically what made me love it so much.
EU: I saw you jump up with Guitar Shorty when he last performed at Jack Rabbits. Do you still get a bit of stage fright when performing in front of legends?
CO: I don't and I don't ever think I have gotten stage fright, and when I'm playing with Guitar Shorty or Buddy Guy and people like that, I'm usually very honored to get to play with them. You know, because they've played with a lot of the different people that I like.
EU: You've been traveling quite a bit lately. Do you enjoy touring and is it going to be a steady part of your future?
CO: I do like touring a lot and I definitely hope that we're going to tour in the future, like going overseas and stuff like that.
EU: When you were ten years old you recorded on Jerry Lee Lewis' Wurlitzer piano, while being backed by several of his former members, how was that experience?
CO: It was pretty fun. Yeah, that was uh, a really fun time because, you know, we actually got to hang out with people that actually know one of the people that I loved most at that time. It was pretty cool, it was really fun and it was my birthday on that trip too, so yeah.
EU: Oh Awesome.
MO: He turned ten in the studio recording.
CO: That's when I got my first guitar too.
MO: I told him I was never going to be able to beat that birthday, so remember it forever. And the next day he got to meet Jerry Lee at the airport. They told us what gate to go to and stuff and they checked it out with him and made sure it was ok. So we went out to the Memphis airport to visit with him before he left, so that was a pretty fun birthday for him. (Laughing)
CO: He was a real nice guy, too. One of the nicest people you'd ever hope to meet.
EU: George's Music named you a "featured artist" for the 2007 Springing the blues festival. That's quite an honor. You have accomplished so much for such a young age. What are some of the goals you have set up for yourself?
CO: Umm, as I said earlier, I hope to go overseas, like in Ireland and all sorts of, like, the European countries and stuff like that. And I hope to go to a good high school too. Just kinda see what happens from there.
EU: Ever thought about going to Douglas Anderson?
CO: Yeah. That's what we are thinking about doing.
EU: The girls have and will always love the musicians. How many do you have beating down your door?
CO: Umm, none. I don't mind it though. I usually get past that and focus on the music.
EU: So no love life?
CO: Not really.
Catch Conrad Oberg live at 9th and Main in Springfield on June 23rd to take in the spectacle of this child prodigy's performance and see why he is turning heads all across the country.
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