Okkervil River’s Will Sheff Shares ‘Nothing Special’ Single

Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff released a new single. “Nothing Special” is set for Sheff’s upcoming solo album of the same name, arriving via ATO Records on October 7.

Sheff detailed Nothing Special in early August and shared the single, “Estrangement Zone.” Both Nothing Special and its title track see the singer-songwriter reflecting on the death of Okkervil River drummer Travis Nelsen as well as the myth of rock ‘n’ roll.

“I was a miserable, bullied kid and I really felt like there was no place for me,” Sheff said in a recent Vanity Fair profile on the circumstances that inspired “Nothing Special.” “I felt like, if I become a rock star, I’m gonna show everybody…We thought, ‘We’re going to party and get fucked up, and die young, and be legends,’ you know what I mean? And if that happens, then people will see that we were actually worth something.”

Sheff became disillusioned with the rock ‘n’ roll mythos, informing Nothing Special and it’s title track.

“I think rock and roll is all about Led Zeppelin trashing the hotel room,” he continued in Vanity Fair. “It’s not about the maid who works three jobs and has to come in and clean the hotel room afterwards. That was another thing that I realized—we have this image of the sexy, bad-boy pirate, crashing through the world and destroying things and leaving this path in his wake. But it’s only a certain kind of person who even is allowed to be that, and it is kind of gross.”

“Nothing Special” arrived with a music video directed by John Paul Horstmann. Watch it below: