Baltimore future folk outfit Wye Oak are made up of just two people; vocalist Jenn Wasner and drummer Andy Stack. But you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
On Wye Oak’s last two records, Civilian from 2011 and this year’s Shriek, the band’s limited personnel didn’t prevent the incorporation of deft guitar and basslines, striking lead vocals, prancing synths and wily drumbeats. It’s true, the studio setting allows the pair to do some overdubbing, but when it comes to performance, Wye Oak go to extreme lengths to reproduce all the sounds live onstage.
“We don’t using backing tracks,” says Wasner. “However, we do use pre-recorded material, but it’s all chopped up into parts and samples that we ourselves are triggering. It’s sort of like we’re playing the song like an instrument, which is really difficult to do. People may assume, ‘You’re playing along to tracks,’ but if we were to drop dead onstage, the song would not be going [laughs].”
With four celebrated albums under their belts, and a continually expanding global following, Wasner and Stack will finally make the trip to Australia in January. Throughout Wye Oak’s eight-year existence, the band has never been far away from a stage. The obligation to tour incessantly is actually what motivated the duo to make live performance so demanding.
“I wanted to develop something that was challenging enough that it wouldn’t get boring,” Wasner says. “Or it would take a lot longer for it to get boring, but not so challenging that we couldn’t do it. Andy and I are both triggering things on samplers; he arranges his keyboard stuff so that he’s playing multiple parts with his five different fingers of his left hand … while also playing drums. There’s a high potential for complete and total meltdown, which is the downside to performing music this way. No matter how many times we do it, it’s still very, very difficult.”
Wye Oak’s disinclination to take the easy way out is reflected by the evolutionary progression of their four studio LPs. After the pleasing atmospheres of 2009’s The Knot, Civilian was an assertive showcase of Wasner’s exceptional guitar abilities. For the creation of Shriek, Wasner put her guitar aside and picked up an electric bass. The result is a comparatively stripped-back record, heavy on angular rhythms and icy synths.
“I knew I wanted to create this more minimal style of pop music,” she says. “Instead of just throwing the kitchen sink at the recording, take time and try to create something where every part had its place and there was no more than needed to be there.
“I don’t think we fully achieved that in the way I envisioned,” she adds, “but that’s the fun of a lot of these ideas. Conceptually, you go in with a certain thing in mind and then you get to find out what it’s actually going to turn into. And I like what it turned into.”
Over the last decade, Wye Oak’s hometown of Baltimore has bred a stack of similarly unique innovators. The likes of Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, Beach House, Lower Dens and Future Islands are just some that spring to mind. The calibre of artists that continue to emerge from Baltimore suggests the city is a musician’s paradise. Wasner makes no attempt to correct this impression.
“It’s a really close-knit community of people and we all support each other. It’s a really inspiring place to be making music, because you’re just surrounded by all these brilliant, hard-working people who are really excited about making things happen.”
Shriekis out now through Merge/Inertia. Wye Oak are also playing in the Aurora Spiegeltent on Friday January 9 as part of Sydney Festival. Tickets are sold through the Sydney Festival website.
