Fables Of The Deconstruction

Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline tell how cheapo guitars, rubber bridges and sonic obliteration helped them find happiness on ode to joy.

To say that Wilco have their own thing going is a big understatement for a band that has been a defining force on the alternative-rock scene for the past quarter-century. The brain trust of the lineup — drummer Glenn Kotche, bassist John Stirratt, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone and guitarist/sonic sculptor Nels Cline — has remained unchanged for 15 years. That durability is a testament to the creative bond they have with vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Jeff Tweedy, who has been the mastermind behind Wilco’s sound since its inception in 1994. Typically working alone at his Loft studio in Chicago, Tweedy has unfettered freedom to steer the band wherever his muse leads, and thusly it’s completely in character that laying the groundwork for the new album, Ode to Joy (Wilco’s 11th studio release), would be anything but orthodox. Tweedy and Kotche paired up to strategize on constructing what the guitarist calls “really big folk songs… Monolithic, brutal structures that delicate feelings are hung on,” while simultaneously deconstructing what most would consider the unassailable foundation of any rock project: the beat.

“One of the things that Glenn and I talked about was what would it sound like if somebody was trying to make a rock record from memory, but they had no access to the actual source material,” Tweedy says. “Like, if 300 years from now you’d only heard about rock music from people talking about it. So we made a concerted effort to avoid talking about sound and things in reference to anyone else’s music or records. In other words, instead of saying, ‘What if the drums sounded like T. Rex?’ you might say, ‘What if the drums sounded so depressed they could hardly walk?’ And then you have to use your imagination and try and figure out what those sounds are and express yourself within those parameters.