by Matt Aucoin

            John Stirratt is a pretty busy man. A member of two internationally recognized bands – oh, one of them happens to be one of the most influential alternative bands of all time – he has released one record already this year (The Autumn Defense, written, produced, and performed with co-Wilco member Pat Sansone) and another is due in May (Wilco’s 6^th LP, Sky Blue Sky, on which he plays bass). He is currently on tour with the Autumn Defense, warming the souls of enthusiasts nationwide with his unique and gorgeous brand of orchestral folk. He is about to depart on an extensive tour with Wilco that will take them everywhere from Australia to Tennessee, with a dozen plus shows in Europe in May.

In person, however, one would never guess how wild his schedule is. I had the privilege of speaking with John in the Middle East bar in Cambridge a couple of hours  before the Autumn Defense’s show there, and he spoke with the relaxed warmth of a recent retiree, contentedly mulling over a career’s worth of triumphs and adventures (and this is not to say his career is anywhere near finished!). It quickly became evident how Wilco has enjoyed such long-lasting creative success: John bubbles with the sort of creative energy required to make the sort of extraordinary music that he has for two decades. Yet he is pensive and soft-spoken, full of a careful reserve that is rare in the world of rock’n’roll – just about as rare, one might say, as a group of rockers approaching middle age and still creating records like Sky Blue Sky.

Oh my god…we’ve had much better luck with all-ages shows; we have to figure out a way to do it because our crowd is…you know, it’s weird, a lot of the people that are our age – that are contemporaries or whatever – actually can’t! They have kids and really can’t go out.

Oh, it’s cool…it’s nice to be able to, you know, to kind of continuously make records…I never have ceased kind of feeling amazed by my good fortune. And the Autumn Defense thing is, you know, it’s kind of great how it worked out with Pat being in the band, being in Wilco.

Yeah, it did, I mean everyone knew him from around the loft and everything…yeah, it did (lead to it) pretty much directly.

We were in bands that played on the same bill in the late ‘80’s down in the Southern rock scene, the Southeastern rock scene, and…generally, you would know every kind of decent band in the region, and I got to know him just vaguely then. But then, by the time…we both found ourselves living in New Orleans in ’98, ’97-’98, got to know each other then. He was assisting in a studio there, I was interested in making a solo record, so he kind of came in and he started helping me arrange some of the stuff…I always knew he was a talented arranger, so that’s kind of how it started.

Kind of from the point of A.M. on – I had demoed quite a few songs for A.M. – and it was sort of… I was believing that I would probably have more of a songwriting impact in Wilco…at that point, Jeff had shared songwriting with people for so long – Jay Farrar (of Uncle Tupelo) – and it became kind of clear that he really didn’t want to share it as much as possible, although other sorts of partial collaboration was welcome, and it has been pretty much from the beginning.

But I think he was definitely wanting to be responsible for a kind of vision of the beginning and the end of a song or something, just the shape of it. So I kind of took that understanding and went on and realized that, for songs I really had written from the ground up, I needed my own venue for it…that’s just what it was about.

He does…After the first record, after The Green Hour, which is all my songs with his sort of, his production and his arrangement help – I guess we co-produced it - , I was really interested in bringing his voice into the mix on Circles… and for him to bring songs in. And he actually wrote 30%, 35% of the songs (on Circles). And we started writing together – and we did write separately as well as together. And what I found was that the best songs…it was my voice, and his voice, and then this sort of harmony, I like to call it the third voice, it was in songs like “The Answer,” things like that, which were written face-to-face and everything, and I’m still looking for even – some songs came out of that on the new record and everything – but I would love to have a majority of it kind of be that feel.

The setting was definitely responsible for some of the casualness! It was lovely, yeah, great day.

I see it – yeah, I do, I come across...it’s really ironic, because on the Autumn Defense tour, a lot of bands that were seriously influenced by Wilco – like they could have names that have Wilco connotations even, American Aquarium or something like that, just crazy overt…some, like, get on the bill. It’s kind of easy - it’s probably not that hard to get on an Autumn Defense bill at times.

I think it’s both. I think it represents the personnel in the band at the time, what we did the last time around and not wanting to make the same record, which has a whole subtext of feelings, like correcting wrongs that you think you did on the last record…There’s that period that I know that Jeff struggles with, that I think a lot of people do, the period when you close a record down, you get it mastered, and it’s there, stark, kind of looking at you, for the next few months before it comes out, so it’s a combination, it really is, it has to do with all that, but definitely I think not wanting to make the exact same record is foremost in everyone’s minds.

There’s been a backlash about that, really…I love it…it’s definitely evident from the beginning that there’s - not only in the subject matter/the lyrics - that there’s a sort of uplifting joyfulness. But I think (it was due to) overall health, Jeff’s overall health, and the overall sort of comfort that he felt with the ensemble, whereas in the past he didn’t feel comfortable with the entire band or what was going down. The tracks…especially the ones we had played on tour a bit, they just sounded so good going down! There was something that settled him down about that…you know, and I think it settled everyone down. And I think that’s maybe what’s really evident

Yeah, it was really the first time that we actually – we had done sort of circle arrangements and writing sessions before in Wilco in the very beginning, just sort of getting together, but I don’t think to this extent, like everything really being brought in and sort of put under the microscope in a circle, with this really high level of musical communication, I think more so due…verbally, orally…due to Nels and Pat. There’s a lot more theory bandied about on this record, and people arguing for certain really little points, you know – F natural over, you know, F major 7…really colorful and tonal sorts of arguments being made. It was deep, you know, a lot of really good players. I was kind of in awe of it in a way.

Definitely our combined love for baroque pop, late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s – the Left Bank – a lot of them – the Kinks, you know, mid-period Kinks…we really just check out a lot of records, check out basically what’s going on. Now, it’s really young bands who are using instruments like that a lot more…Sufjan being one of those people.

I think the first approach is firming down, weighing everything down – not weighing down, I’m really bad at bass terminology, actually – really holding down the groove, holding down the rudiments, seeing where everyone wants to be at that time and then getting into melodic territory. The additional song (an extra from the new record, presumably?), is probably the most melodic bass I’ve ever played, on the new record, the new Wilco. It’s funny, it’s this sort of descending lines and it’s obvious that nothing’s really going on, no one’s taking the forefront, there’s just too much space, and everyone’s just kind of looking at me…the bass is wonderful in that way, that sort of subtle melodic quality of it, especially in the masters, like McCartney, Brian Wilson.

Oh, a game plan? Well, I think it’s all kind of set, yeah. It’s all kind of set with Wilco and everything. You know, I think the U.S. (for a tour) in June and then maybe a Europe trip after that…but I’m sure just a good bit of touring. Back to the U.S. in the fall, I imagine. I haven’t seen dates yet.

You know, this is the big time…it’s always an exciting time when a record comes out, for sure.