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Interview - Wye Oak
Responsible for FDM's most downloaded Mp3 to date, Wye Oak are a bold, young Baltimore duo kicking at the barriers between folk-rock and early 90's British shoe-gazing. We spent an afternoon in the company of one half of that pair - Jenn Wasner - to discuss their debut album, the American indie landscape and, of course, Baltimore and The Wire.
FDM: Your name and music is evocative of a kind of Americana that us Brits are utterly absorbed by. Can you tell us a little about your home town, Wye Oak, Baltimore and the effect you think this location has had on your music?
WO: Well, to be honest, the Wye Oak itself is more a symbolic representation of our hometown than a physical one. Although I have distant memories of visiting the tree when I was a child, it actually stood a couple of hours outside of Baltimore itself and the areas where Andy and I grew up. Although we live in Baltimore city now, we both grew up just outside of the city limits, in the nothing-special suburbs. So, truthfully, I spent my upbringing dreaming of the same kind of Americana that you mentioned rather than immersed in it. I do feel that the city of Baltimore itself has shaped the way I understand music and songwriting. It's a very genuine and real city, for better or for worse, and its bad areas seem to make the good people and places all the more poignant. And there's no shortage on variety as far as the music and art worlds in Baltimore are concerned, which provides a constant influx of aesthetic ideas. I feel very lucky to live in such an imperfect city, surrounded by what I consider to be remarkably good, creative, sincere people.
FDM: You fuse the component parts of folk and shoe-gazing together and it's a pretty unique sound. How did you decide on such a distinctive sound and what influenced you to create it?
WO: There really wasn't ever any discussion or conscious decision made as to how we wanted our recordings to sound. We started with the basic outlines of the songs and overdubbed obsessively over the course of several months, so every song on that record took shape over many, many consecutive recording sessions. Andy and I share very similar musical tastes, but in many cases the songs turned out to sound very different from what we had originally imagined them to be. Because there are only two of us, and at the time we had no live setup at all, it was considered to be a recording project (bear in mind, although it's only just been released internationally, this record is nearly 2 years old for us!). We really had no choice other than to create these arrangements in the studio. Now that we've been playing live as a duo for quite some time, it's beginning to shape the kind of songs we're writing. I'll be curious to see if people still think 'folk-shoegaze' with our next record. Maybe so!
Is there a vibrant Baltimore guitar-scene? It's not an area of the USA that we are aware of much new music coming from? You certainly seem to suggest to the contrary.
WO: There are certainly some big bands coming out of Baltimore these days - Dan Deacon, Beach House, and Ponytail among many others - but it's true that we don't really sound like any of those bands. I think it's indicative of the aesthetic variety that I mentioned earlier that there's not really a definable Baltimore 'sound', although people have certainly tried to invent one!
It may seem silly but for most UK residents the location of Baltimore has become synonymous with TV show The Wire. In the show Baltimore as a whole is painted as quite a corrupt and stagnant part of America - is this really the case?
WO: There are dark parts to every American city, but Baltimore especially is rightfully understood as a troubled place. The Wire is an accurate depiction of Baltimore, but it's not the whole picture. There is plenty of good in our city, and there are many people who continue to live in Baltimore with the hope of watching and helping it improve. I'm proud to live there, and each time I see even the smallest of victories, I feel happy and connected to the place in which I live. That feeling, to me, is invaluable.
FDM: It feels like there's a story surrounding the 'If Children' album title. I know it's a cliche to ask, but what was the thinking behind it and what did you want it to say about Wye Oak?
WO: After we finished the record, we spent a while thinking about how these songs fit together, and I eventually came back to the track 'If Children Were Wishes'. I don't necessarily think of that song as the 'title' track, but it did inspire the name 'If Children' and if any song captures the ideas floating around in my head during the recording process, that would be it. But I like the title especially because of its ambiguity...I think of it as a question (If children?) but also a description of who we were when we made it (IF children.) Does that make any sense?
Wye Oak's debut album 'If Children' is available now through Merge/ Affairs of the Heart.
You can download a free Mp3 from the album by clicking here - http://www.freshdeermeat.com/mp3s.php
www.wyeoak.com
FDM: Your name and music is evocative of a kind of Americana that us Brits are utterly absorbed by. Can you tell us a little about your home town, Wye Oak, Baltimore and the effect you think this location has had on your music?
WO: Well, to be honest, the Wye Oak itself is more a symbolic representation of our hometown than a physical one. Although I have distant memories of visiting the tree when I was a child, it actually stood a couple of hours outside of Baltimore itself and the areas where Andy and I grew up. Although we live in Baltimore city now, we both grew up just outside of the city limits, in the nothing-special suburbs. So, truthfully, I spent my upbringing dreaming of the same kind of Americana that you mentioned rather than immersed in it. I do feel that the city of Baltimore itself has shaped the way I understand music and songwriting. It's a very genuine and real city, for better or for worse, and its bad areas seem to make the good people and places all the more poignant. And there's no shortage on variety as far as the music and art worlds in Baltimore are concerned, which provides a constant influx of aesthetic ideas. I feel very lucky to live in such an imperfect city, surrounded by what I consider to be remarkably good, creative, sincere people.
FDM: You fuse the component parts of folk and shoe-gazing together and it's a pretty unique sound. How did you decide on such a distinctive sound and what influenced you to create it?
WO: There really wasn't ever any discussion or conscious decision made as to how we wanted our recordings to sound. We started with the basic outlines of the songs and overdubbed obsessively over the course of several months, so every song on that record took shape over many, many consecutive recording sessions. Andy and I share very similar musical tastes, but in many cases the songs turned out to sound very different from what we had originally imagined them to be. Because there are only two of us, and at the time we had no live setup at all, it was considered to be a recording project (bear in mind, although it's only just been released internationally, this record is nearly 2 years old for us!). We really had no choice other than to create these arrangements in the studio. Now that we've been playing live as a duo for quite some time, it's beginning to shape the kind of songs we're writing. I'll be curious to see if people still think 'folk-shoegaze' with our next record. Maybe so!
Is there a vibrant Baltimore guitar-scene? It's not an area of the USA that we are aware of much new music coming from? You certainly seem to suggest to the contrary.
WO: There are certainly some big bands coming out of Baltimore these days - Dan Deacon, Beach House, and Ponytail among many others - but it's true that we don't really sound like any of those bands. I think it's indicative of the aesthetic variety that I mentioned earlier that there's not really a definable Baltimore 'sound', although people have certainly tried to invent one!
It may seem silly but for most UK residents the location of Baltimore has become synonymous with TV show The Wire. In the show Baltimore as a whole is painted as quite a corrupt and stagnant part of America - is this really the case?
WO: There are dark parts to every American city, but Baltimore especially is rightfully understood as a troubled place. The Wire is an accurate depiction of Baltimore, but it's not the whole picture. There is plenty of good in our city, and there are many people who continue to live in Baltimore with the hope of watching and helping it improve. I'm proud to live there, and each time I see even the smallest of victories, I feel happy and connected to the place in which I live. That feeling, to me, is invaluable.
FDM: It feels like there's a story surrounding the 'If Children' album title. I know it's a cliche to ask, but what was the thinking behind it and what did you want it to say about Wye Oak?
WO: After we finished the record, we spent a while thinking about how these songs fit together, and I eventually came back to the track 'If Children Were Wishes'. I don't necessarily think of that song as the 'title' track, but it did inspire the name 'If Children' and if any song captures the ideas floating around in my head during the recording process, that would be it. But I like the title especially because of its ambiguity...I think of it as a question (If children?) but also a description of who we were when we made it (IF children.) Does that make any sense?
Wye Oak's debut album 'If Children' is available now through Merge/ Affairs of the Heart.
You can download a free Mp3 from the album by clicking here - http://www.freshdeermeat.com/mp3s.php
www.wyeoak.com
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