For Villagers' second album, Awayland, Conor O'Brien says that he was more "open-minded," delving into electronic ambience, fresh instrumentation and a robust collaboration with his bandmates. The result, much to O'Brien's satisfaction, is a more confident album than 2010's Mercury Prize-nominated Becoming a Jackal.

Irish singer-songwriter O'Brien recently brought the acoustic — read that as solo — version of Viilagers to FUV and The Alternate Side to play songs from Awayland. Watch videos of O'Brien's performance and read highlights of his conversation with Alisa Ali on thealternateside.org.