Wilco’s bassist, John Stirratt, and multi-instrumentalist, Pat Sansone, on 1960s pop, New Orleans rock and their other life in The Autumn Defense.

Early Autumn
JS: Pat and I met over 14 years ago, long before he joined Wilco, inNew Orleans. I was living there and doing some studio work. New Orleans is known for its jazz and funk, but both of us existed in this other world, so we first bonded over that and put together The Autumn Defense. Through The Autumn Defense he got to know everyone in Wilco and was a natural fit to join the band.

PS: When I was living in New Orleans there was an incredible excitement about music. I actually did some work [in the South] with Andrew Bird when he was with Squirrel Nut Zippers. At that point he wouldn’t even have a conversation with you about pop music, he was such a purist [laughs]. He was an amazing violinist, but was only interested in playing this period music. We played this 1930s hot jazz stuff which was great and then, all of a sudden, something opened his ears to modern rock music and it’s been uphill from there.

Two Heads, Once Voice

JS: Early on it was all my material and Pat just arranged and played on things. His songs were brought in on Circles in 2003.

PS: Now, the majority of [Autumn Defense’s] material begins with one of us bringing in an idea and then the other one rounding it out. Occasionally there are times when we sit around with a guitar and come up with songs together. But we have known each other for so long that there is a certain amount of  E.S.P. in the writing anyway. Playing together in Wilco has only increased that chemistry.

Family Factory

PS: I am the credited producer on the new record. John had a really busy year. He fell in love, got married and became a father all in one year. He was in family production[laughs]. So on thi  particular record I sort of handled the production end of things if nothing else because I could spend the late nights in the studio.

Pop Tarts

JS: For me, ‘60s pop generally refers to the golden age of pop. Bands like The Kinks, The Zombies,The Beatles and the Stones, especially the Between the Buttons era through 1972 or so. We were trying to capture an element of that on The Autumn Defense.

PS: There are certainly elements of 1960s pop on The Autumn Defense. Some people say it reminds them of 1960s pop, others say it’s straight-up 1970s easy soft rock. We both listen to a lot of music from that period, of course, so it’s making its way into our music. I hope it doesn’t feel like it is completely a throwback. It is not something that happened completely consciously, but if the record can make sense after listening to a Cat Stevens record or a Simon and Garfunkel record, I would be happy with it.

Mixed Background

JS: Everyone in Wilco comes from such different backgrounds. Pat and I kind of represent more of the pop side and Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche come from a more avant-garde background. Mikael Jorgensen falls more into the post rockor experimental side, though he might not agree with that. He does have a huge appreciation formore organic bands like The Band, but his background is rooted in Chicago’s Soma sound. Jeff  Tweedy has a very wide scope of musical knowledge and probably wouldn’t fall one way or another; he sort of transcends it with his songwriting.

The Autumn Defense’s self-titledalbum was released in January on Broadmoor Records. Wilco’s SkyBlue Sky is scheduled for releaseMay 15 on Nonesuch Records.