This Friday, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy releases his fifth solo album, Twilight Override. It’s a wildly eclectic three disc spread that veers from slanted acoustic tracks, glammy ‘70s rock and even ‘80s dream pop. You can read MOJO’s ★★★★ review of the album HERE!
Below, Tweedy discusses how Twilight Override was influenced by The Beatles’ White Album, his Stakhanovite work ethic, and what we might be able to expect from the next Wilco album. “There’s always a ton of Wilco stuff started and in various degrees of being finished...” he tells Tom Doyle.
Apart from the people involved, how does the process differ between making Wilco albums and solo records?
Jeff Tweedy: They’re both pretty open-ended processes, starting with me making something in the studio, and then showcasing it to everybody. It’s just mostly about what songs Wilco resonates with… there’s a band identity.
You’re remarkably prolific – what do you attribute that to? Partly work ethic?
I mean, it has to be partly that. I like going to work every day. I think when you’re lucky enough to have something that you enjoy doing, and then you get to do it for a living… Y’know, my dad went to work every day.
Any lyrical themes that developed – or became apparent to you – as you were writing the songs?
I think that the same obsessions are there from probably when I first started writing songs – like identity, mortality, connection, the difficulties of communicating. What I have to write from is how I’ve aged through that obsession. I have all of the perspective of the past ‘me’s also swimming around in there (laughs). That’s a lot of what I think this record seems to be… reconciling a lot of that with maybe a newer outlook.
You might even call it maturity?
I think it’s actually the opposite. Like you’re learning how much you really were right as a kid to value a childlike and frivolous profession.
Thirty tracks, like The White Album, a song called Cry Baby Cry. Was The Beatles’ double opus on your mind?
That probably made a huge dent in my mind a long time ago. So I don’t think I’ve ever shaken that idea. That’s always been an aspiration. There’s something I’ve always really loved about the eclectic nature of that record. The scope of Helter Skelter and Dear Prudence being on the same record. It always felt more honest to me than some narrowed-down or curated single viewpoint.
Any other triple albums that were an inspiration? George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass?Sandinista! by The Clash?
Yeah, those are the two really big major ones. Y’know, The Concert For Bangladesh. We were originally calling the record Triple Rainbow. Maybe half-joking, like, Am I really going to make a triple record? It’s part of my lifelong dream of leaving them wanting less, y’know.
Does this song splurge clear the decks for the next Wilco album? Is there much left?
Yeah, there’s always a ton of Wilco stuff started and in various degrees of being finished. And I continue to write. At the moment, I’m writing with a specific idea in mind about what I would like the next Wilco record to be. Right now, I think that the limitation might be to avoid acoustic instruments for a while. But I think one of my deepest fears, if I’m being completely honest, is to have a completely clear deck.
Any tips on how to listen to this record?
Well, I think ideally it’s… if you can… slow yourself down. That’s kind of the point, is to go against the societal momentum of being shorter and quicker and faster. If you can settle yourself down for two hours, I do think it propels you along. I mean, I listen to it all the way through, and I will say I’ve made other records that are shorter that have felt longer to me (laughs).
This interview features in the latest issue of MOJO, starring Bob Dylan, The Who, David Byrne, Patti Smith, Syd Barrett, and more! More info and to order a copy HERE!
