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Robin Pecknold Of Fleet Foxes Puts His Broken Heart Online In Song

Robin Pecknold
Joel Didriksen
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Joel Didriksen
Robin Pecknold

How does anyone do this? How do you write a song about something that seems so private yet feels so universal? Not many hours ago, Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold tweeted that he'd broken up with his longtime girlfriend Olivia (those tweets have since been deleted), and shortly after posted this song on SoundCloud. It's called "Olivia, In a Separate Bed"

By all accounts, Pecknold is a pretty private person, but this is a flat-out biographical, in-the-moment song. We see this often. There's some comfort, some ability for introverted or private people to feel comfortable expressing passion and deeply personal feelings through their art.

One tweet from about 3:00 a.m. EST that still remains on his Twitter feed @rpecknold says, "Doing the song helped. Life is cool. Amazing friends and projects"

Still, it strikes me odd — tweeting about a breakup, writing a song and posting it online ... maybe it's generational, maybe it's just the comfortable way for some people to vent. Could you do this?

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In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.