A Love Supreme

“I adore your country and love being there,” smiles Jeff Tweedy. “We have spent a lot of time there over the years and I always look forward to it!”

Released on the band’s own dBm label, Kilmainham-bound Wilco’s new album, A Whole Love, is a finely wrought collection of gems that spans a multitude of genres and styles. It seems to bristle with a certain confidence as though a new-found freedom has pervaded the creative process.
“Well, I think everyone assumes that naturally it’s a big reason for having your own label,” muses Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. “But we have always dealt freely in creative matter whether we deserved it or not, and warranted ourselves a lot of freedom in our dealings with labels. [See excellent doc I Am Trying To Break Your Heart for an insight into their wranglings with former home Reprise]. There are certainly a lot of advantages to having your own record label and mainly for us it’s having a more direct connection with our fans and not having as much red tape when we want to make decisions. Also overall it’s a fairer economic situation.”
In celebration of their newly-liberated status the band chose to cover Nick Lowe’s ‘I Love My Label’ as a b-side to lead single ‘I Might’. The Stiff Records legend has toured extensively with the Chicago troupe over the last 18 months.
“I’ve been a long-time fan and basically we just asked if he would come out and tour with us. We hit it off and had some good camaraderie so I think we can list him among our friends now hopefully.”
Nick jammed with the band frequently and during one Chicago show Mavis Staples joined both artists on stage for a spine-tingling version of ‘The Weight’, which you can see them rehearsing on YouTube. Tweedy produced the gospel queen’s last album and is set to work on her next release.
“Any time around Mavis is very special,” he enthuses. “I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time with her through working on the record. She is kind of an angel and makes everyone feel better about themselves and it’s an amazing thing to get to be around.
“I just feel privileged to have Mavis Staples in my life and her sister Yvonne, you get to absorb a lot of that spirit. I guess on a more practical front it was nice to know I can apply some of the things I’ve learned over the years to someone else’s record, which I wasn’t sure I could do, so that was a big thing.”
Wilco posted a respectful message on their site following the recent passing of a contemporary of Mavis’s, Levon Helm, who performed at the band’s Solid Sound festival just last year.
“We played a few songs with Levon on the last day and spent some time with him,” Jeff reminisces fondly. “I actually met him about 20 years ago when I was in Uncle Tupelo. We were all on a tour with Michelle Shocked because we’d performed on her record Arkansas Traveller. It was a crazy tour that got booked but didn’t last very long due to internal squabbles! But he was an inspiration then and continues to be now. He’s a lot like Mavis in a way... people that just have this gift for being themselves.”
Certainly The Band are a key influence on Wilco that has echoed throughout their career. The Whole Love is the third album by the current incarnation of the outfit who’ve been together for eight years, making it the most solid line-up to date. How does that stability affect the creative process?
“I don’t know how to explain it but you just spend less time talking about things and more time playing,” Jeff proffers. “Musical communication is something you can’t just make happen. It develops over time and when it happens it’s a really great thing to get to explore. It’s probably the first time in my life since Uncle Tupelo that a band has been together long enough for that to become evident.”
This new stability has also created a fertile environment for artistic endeavours. Reportedly Tweedy had 60 songs going into the session for
the album.
“Well, what I call songs wouldn’t be songs to other people but, yeah, I had a lot of material,” he laughs. ”I call something a song when I have an idea I can hear in my head and I know I can make a song out of it but they don’t all get fleshed out. I don’t bother finishing a lot of stuff until I’m in the studio anyway. But I came in with what I consider to be 60 things that could be
songs (laughs).”
Will some of the ‘songs’ make the next long-player
we wonder?
“I don’t know, it’s possible. There are songs on this record that have been around for 15 years.” (‘Capitol City’ was written for the Being There sessions.)
Tweedy has been writing songs for most of his life and now finds there’s less tension in the process.
“I do feel more confident at this point and have less anxiety about it,” he nods. “It’s not going to hurt anybody if it’s the worst song in the world (laughs), it’s not going to hurt or kill anybody if it’s the greatest song in the world either! There’s a lot of pressure off at this point in my life. I’ve definitely learned things over the years and have a lot of different approaches in my toolbox to making something work that has come with experience. There are lots of things about writing songs that are so arbitrary though, whether or not they connect with people is something only time will tell. It is just a matter of keeping at it I think.”
The band, who have a reputation for continuous touring, took a break in the latter half of 2011. How did Jeff find the adjustment?
“Wilco are perceived as always being on the road. I think we’re always playing shows, but we don’t stay on the road for any longer than three weeks at any one time generally,” notes Jeff. “We’ve managed to have lives at home and the transition for me is pretty seamless at this point. I come home and I feel like I’m myself, and when I’m on the road I feel like I am myself, and that used to be more difficult back in
the day.
“The only big jump now is probably for my wife to get used to having me home!” he chuckles. “If I’m home too long I wake up and my bags are packed and she’s like, ‘Shouldn’t you be doing some shows somewhere?’”
The aforementioned transitional difficulties were just one aspect of Tweedy’s panic disorder and anxiety, which he has struggled with over the years. Happily now he’s conquered his demons.
“Absolutely, it’s a treatable condition and a manageable situation,” he explains. “I would characterise my relationship with that disorder as being very well managed at this point in my life.”
When asked about the relationship between his struggles and his music, he debunks the notion of the tortured artist transposing pain into creativity.
“I think part of the human condition is having struggles and I don’t look at it as being any different whether you’re a songwriter or anybody else,” he says. “I think a measure of your character is how much it takes to discourage you and having those challenges is the only way you find out whether you can survive and tolerate things that are uncomfortable. I think that sometimes people think songwriters just walk around having experiences just so they can write about them. I don’t feel that way at all, I feel like we’re having experiences in spite of the fact that all we want to do
is write!”
A stable line-up, label freedom and a healthy frontman. Would it be true to say Wilco 2012 is the best the band has been?
“When you say that it sounds like you’re smug and content and proud of yourself and I don’t look at it that way,” counters Tweedy. “I look at it as we are always pretty hungry and inspired to figure out what else we can do. It’s a constant work in progress to try and get better, but having said that I think we’re also appreciative of where we have gotten to. Headlining one of the nights at a festival like Forbidden Fruit is a major deal to us. I can’t think of any other time that the band has felt as good as it does right now, but I also don’t remember any times that I thought that the band really sucked! I think we’ve always worked hard to put on a show and get better so to answer your question, ‘yes we’re great!’ (laughs)”