T onight’s A&O Ball features some well-rehearsed entertainment. Wilco has been warming up for the big event in sold-out venues along the East Coast for the past week. The band just released the best album of their career, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an entire year after it was completed because of now-legendary industry drama that saw the band get dropped from its former label, Reprise Records, only to be picked up months later by its current label, Nonesuch Records.
A week before the ball, nyou spoke with the band’s bassist, John Stirratt, the morning between a double-header at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Stirratt was walking outside as he spoke on his cell phone, strolling through SoHo after visiting Ground Zero for the first time. Fighting a bad connection and a world of distracting stimuli on the street in front of him, he spoke generously about recording Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, parting with a bandmate and what Wilco will have in store for Northwestern tonight.
Q: Listening to your new album brings to mind Brian Eno’s claim that the studio in itself is a musical instrument.
A: Oh definitely. God, it’s funny. I think the first person I heard reference that was probably Brian Wilson. This time we gave ourselves a lot of time with the said “instrument.” We had unlimited recording time, and I think we used it. (laughs) We ended up just putting a million things on tape, and wound up with just a huge palette to work with, in terms of sound. It was great to have all those options, but I think when it came to actually making decisions, it became a little harder in terms of mixing and finalizing the record. That’s really when (mixer Jim) O’Rourke came in and really helped us. We trusted him in terms of presenting the more interesting sounds and direction … but yeah, this was definitely the most intensive “studio” album we’ve made.
Q: So O’Rourke mostly came in after you guys had recorded a lot already?
A: Right, absolutely. It was really late. I guess we’d been recording as early as late ’99, right after Summer Teeth. Jim did a few overdubs and I think he left his mark in a few other ways as well. It was just great to work with him.
Q: When did you put the absolute final touches on the album?
A: Late April of last year, during the mixing. The final overdubs were actually done then.
Q: And then just sitting on it for a year. What does that feel like?
A: Well, usually it’s a nightmare. But this record … it really wore well – unlike the last one. The last one (Summer Teeth) was really strange, and I think the only way to explain it was that the last record was based around a single session and all the work involved in that. There was actually a lot of retrospective work, a lot of studio work done later to try to correct … well, not to correct but to try to shape the record from a post-production standpoint. Whereas this record, from a song standpoint and from a lyrical standpoint, was a little more thought out. The essence of what we wanted was kind of there from the start.
Q: Can I ask about (former Wilco member) Jay Bennett and what it’s like to not play with him after having made this record with him?
A:Well his role in the making of the record was more from a production standpoint than anything else. Well, not production – excuse me – engineering. He kind of spearheaded the buying of recording gear and everything like that, and once we got into it, he did collaborate – although in a small way – to the songwriting. I think he really kind of removed himself from the band in a certain way. I think in his own words, he “put his engineer’s hat on.”
I think he kind of became obsessed with himself as this kind of … um, maybe genius … or this multi-instrumentalist/producer/ engineer type. We’ve always been very open to anyone’s interests and talents and how it might reflect on the music and the recording, but he … really didn’t play very much on the record. Later on, he started to crank out the overdubs – or tried to crank out the overdubs – while we were in the mixing stage. He would be in the studio overdubbing, and we would be sending these reels over to Jim (but) a lot of that stuff wasn’t really used. I think he felt like maybe he was trying to catch up a little bit towards the end.
In many ways the playing field was a lot more level (on this record) in terms of everyone contributing because it was so abstract. The sounds are not really conducive to necessarily being musically proficient or excellent in that standard kind of way – which Jay is on the guitar, and, to some extent, on the keys. So it wasn’t exactly his bag so much.
I think he was just trying … (laughs) to get engineering credit on a major label record, frankly, and he became a little too interested in (that). Well, I hate to call him a careerist (but)… he just kind of took himself out of the band in certain ways. It was kind of hard to deal with him. Not to be harsh. I mean the guy’s super-talented, we enjoyed playing with him until the latter stages of the record, (but) it just became like he had an agenda or something.
Q: You just said, “We’ve always been very open to anyone’s interests and talents.” By that, do you mean “you and Jeff (Tweedy, the band’s vocalist)”?
A: Well if you think about it … I mean maybe it’s amazing that I’m still playing with Jeff. People talk about Jeff not being able to work with anyone for too long. Well, it’s like, “Wait a minute, man.” We were with Jay Bennett for fucking six years – that’s an eternity in rock! I’ve always had a really honest relationship with Jeff. I don’t know how I could explain it other than … I think we have a good friendship.
Q: So you’re playing this show at the Riviera Theater that’s going to be just Northwestern students.
A: Yeah, that’s going to be kind of strange just to be at the Riv but in a private party setting. Well … they won’t oversell it at least …
Q: Do you have any message for the people who will be reading this?
A: Oh, a message? Well, we’ll be playing a lot of the record and we’ll touch on various records in the band’s career. I guess we’ll do Mermaid Avenue stuff and Summer Teeth stuff. I guess for all the people reading this, it’s going to be a big rock ‘n’ roll blowout, so show up!
Q: OK.
A: I mean, it’s free with a student ID, right?
Q: Well, it’s discounted.
A: (laughs) What? OK, well, how much is it?
Q: $15.
A: Oh my God!
Q: How much have you guys been charging?
A:Well, I hate to say it but it’s been pretty expensive. Fifteen (dollars) and up lately … so it’s a bargain! No, I would never say that. But anyway, come out and… (pause) I’m not very good at selling the band (laughs). No, just go with the “rock blowout” line. nyou
