Photo credit: Matthew Yake
Less than a year after their acclaimed, dark triumph The Knot, Baltimore’s Wye Oak offer My Neighbor/My Creator, a vibrant EP that brims with melody and creative detours over five new recordings.
Collaborating with outside producers for the first time, Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack’s four new songs feel loose and direct, from the tumbling opener “My Neighbor” to the propulsive “Emmylou.” “My Creator” and “I Hope You Die” begin like ballads but soon reveal unexpected layers of saxophone and percussion over Wasner’s cascading vocals. Chris and Mickey Freeland, brothers with ties to everything from Oxes’ math-rock explorations … [read more]to Baltimore’s indie hip-hop scene, helmed the new EP’s recordings in their own Beat Babies studio, and they bring new textures to Wye Oak’s ever-expanding sound. There’s a heavier reliance on keyboards, culminating in Mickey’s own stunning remix of The Knot’s “That I Do” which must be heard to be believed.
“I hope you die” from My Neightbour / My Creator
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AM: You’re on a pretty extensive tour at the moment, taking in much of the US – is this the largest string of dates that you have undertaken as a band so far?
WO: Nah, this is probably the third or fourth US tour that we’ve done in the past couple of years that has hovered around 8 or 9 weeks. We’re always trying to tour as much as we possibly can.
You must be pretty pleased with the way that things are going for Wye Oak at the moment? Did you ever imagine that the band would achieve what it has when you first began to play together?
Andy and I both try to be very careful to have grounded, realistic expectations about our band and our futures. We’re extremely pleased and grateful that some people have taken to the music that we make, but we don’t have any desires more complicated than simply being able to continue to make music we’re excited about and share it with anyone interested in listening. Honestly, I have several moments every single day when I sit back and marvel at what we’ve been able to do with our lives so far. We’re very, very grateful
Release Date: March 12, 2010
© (c) & (p) Merge Records
You have a new ep due out in June, how would you describe the sound of My Neighbor / My Creator? Is it a departure from the sound that fans are now familiar, or is it treading new ground for Wye Oak?
I think the brevity and ease with which we recorded the EP shows through in the songs and arrangements. Not that we didn’t take great care with the process, but I think we felt a bit more free to experiment with unfamiliar sounds and ideas because we were working with a very different batch of songs. I’ve been writing the next full length for a while, and the songs on the EP were ones that I was certainly proud of, but that didn’t quite fit in with my vision of what the next full length was about. It was great fun to try on a few different musical personalities, and although I think of the EP as a bit of a departure for us, I feel that we really hit upon arrangements that were right for the songs we were working with.
Are there any other bands that you can think of from the Baltimore area that we should check out? Is there much of a scene in your home town?
Baltimore’s music scene is extremely vibrant and exciting right now, haven’t you heard? Aside from the big, obvious names (Dan Deacon, Beach House, Ponytail, etc etc) there is a whole slew of talented, inspired people creating unique and incredible music and art. Right now, there’s no place I’d rather be.
What does the future hold for Wye Oak? Do you have any plans to visit the UK?
After the tour we’re currently on, we’ll be settling in for a bit to finish writing and recording the next full length. And we’re planning a trip to the UK and EU in August. Stay tuned.
Andy Maddison
