Glenn Kotche Encore interview

[Wise Enough]

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For those who can't be arsed to follow the link:

 

Most percussionists can only dream about having the kind of career Glenn Kotche has. He’s most famous for his work with Wilco—in which he’s played on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album)—but Kotche also has a sideproject band, On Fillmore, and has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, Loose Fur and the Minus 5. He’s also composed his own scores and written articles for Modern Drummer.

 

Kotche can effortlessly switch from playing with one of the world’s biggest bands to releasing an album he composed himself. He also recently took some time to speak to Encore before coming to New York for On Fillmore’s performance on July 15 at Le Poisson Rouge.

 

How did the idea of the Solid Sound Festival first come about? Was it a group decision?

 

That’s a little foggy, to be perfectly honest. We’ve talked in years past about doing a festival we’d able to curate ourselves, and I think there was a general feeling that we’d like to make it something that reflects our band. We wanted to make it more interesting than a festival tour.

 

A couple of years ago, we played Tanglewood and had a great show and experience there. We thought it might be a good idea to do something in that neck of the woods. And I think our management company thought it’d be a good idea for it to be held at MASS MoCA. The guy who heads that up, Joseph Thompson [MASS MoCA’s director], basically let us have free reign. I think there’s a lot of similarities between the ways they approach what they do there, just making it really interesting, and the way Wilco operates. This year, it just all came together.

 

How were the artists for the festival chosen? I know Mavis Staples works with Jeff Tweedy a lot, but what about the other non-sideproject groups?

 

Everyone made a wish list of bands that they wanted to have, and it came down to finding who’s available, and since we’re doing it all ourselves, there are budgetary restrictions. I think it turned out to be a diverse lineup that reflects the different interests of all of us in Wilco. But everyone’s pretty much chosen by someone in the band. That’s one aspect that I think is pretty cool. There’s not too many bands, but there’s just enough for some variety, and there’s also all the great galleries and comedy shows. A couple of us have exhibitions, too. I think there’s going to be a lot of cool stuff for the people who come out.

 

You mentioned the different exhibitions, including your “drumhead project.” What should people expect from that?

 

I make these prepared drumheads that I use when I play solo shows, and it’s kind of the same idea as a prepared piano. All I do is take different wires and springs and chords and put them through the drumhead, which acts as a resonator, something I can hit but also something that’s a vehicle for these other sounds. The drums have mics on them, so the little microscopic sounds can compete with the drum sounds. And this is something I came up with and utilize in my solo shows. I’ve used them on Wilco records, too. I get a lot of questions about them because they’re a little left field from what people are used to, and so the idea was proposed that Solid Sound might be a good time to show people firsthand what they’re about. I’m basically just going to build a lot of different prepared drumheads on different sets of drums, and it’ll be set up in the Sol LeWitt gallery with little contact microphones in the amps. People will be able to come in and play them.

 

On the second day of the festival, both Wilco and On Fillmore are playing. Are there any difficulties you face in playing with two bands on the same day?

 

I don’t think so. When the idea first came up, I thought, “Can I do this?” Then, “Yeah, it’ll be great!” The sets are so far apart and so completely different. With On Fillmore, I’ll be playing a lot of percussion and some drumming along with that, but it’s really different than Wilco. It’s nothing that’s going to wear me out. If anything, I think [On Fillmore has] played so little because of my touring schedule and we live in different cities, so this will be such a great opportunity for more people to hear us. I’ll be so happy after the show that I’ll have a bunch of energy for the Wilco show.

 

Who are some of your drumming inspirations?

 

We could seriously be here all day if I list all my inspirations. I’m an admirer of the philosophy of John Cage, and the way that he worked. I gotta say, and this may sound a little cheesy, but also our friend Jim O’Rourke, who produced a couple of Wilco’s records. He’s one guy who I find consistently inspiring, with all the different styles he works in and how well he’s able to do it. I think he consistently turns out really great, great work. John Luther Adams, the composer, too. He’s a down-to-Earth guy and doesn’t think in terms of popularity and doesn’t play the political game at all.

 

When you play a song off Summerteeth or any of the pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot albums that you didn’t originally drum on, do you try to add something new to it? Or do you use the way it’s recorded as a blueprint?

 

I do use it as a blueprint because there’s something about the feel and personality of those performances that have an impact on the overall song. I set up to play pretty close to what Ken Coomer did, at least in terms of the groove and the feel, and of course all the fills and other little things. But my personality is going to come out, and I think it naturally morphs itself into sounding like me, even though they’re his parts. With any song, even the songs I recorded in the last 9 or 10 years, once we play it night after night, little things evolve in the songs.

 

Do you get a sense of why this Wilco lineup has worked so much better than any of the other previous ones?

 

I’m sure it’s a lot of factors. I’ve never really questioned it, other than knowing it feels great and we get along. It seems like we can get through any issue that comes along. And that just wasn’t the case with previous lineups. It’s just not the case with a lot of bands. I don’t know if we just got lucky with this combination of people, or the way that everything’s set up to wrong works well enough that it’s keeping us all sane. I don’t know. I just know it does work, and Jeff and John, the original members of the band, say that this is the definitive lineup. It’s the longest running lineup, and this is what Wilco is, in their minds at least.

 

You guys have certainly been in the news a lot this past week ever since Nels’ interview. Is there anything you know about the possibility of starting your own label or if anything else has been decided?

 

I didn’t read exactly what Nels said, but we’ve talked in the past about exploring different options, rather than a traditional record deal. At this point, there’s anything decided upon if we’re starting our own label, or if we’re looking for another label. I think the first priority is to make the next record. We start in July, and we’ll be recording all fall and winter. So I think in the coming months we’ll know exactly how we want to do this. To be perfectly honest, I think everything’s up in the air right now.

 

On the new album, is there a sound that Wilco will be going for? Will it more along the lines of Wilco (The Album), or something closer to A Ghost is Born?

 

I know it won’t sound like any of those records because after any record comes out, we play those songs on the road a lot, so the last thing we want to do is go back in the studio and put out another record that sounds exactly like it. And I think we’re all anxious enough musically that we want to try different things. We’re all very happy with the last few records we’ve made, but there’s a lot of different areas that this particular lineup is perfectly capable of exploring that we haven’t yet. We’re going to try a lot of different ideas, and not restrict ourselves at all to a certain sound.

 

Tickets for On Fillmore’s July 15th show at Le Poisson Rouge can be purchased here.

 

Information on the Solid Sound Festival can be found here.

[jff]

Thanks for that. That was an interesting read.

[uncool2pillow]

Anyone else get nervous when any members of Wilco start talking abut the state of the current lineup and how well it's lasted and how well the get along? It's like someone telling the pitcher they're working on a no hitter.

[jff]

Anyone else get nervous when any members of Wilco start talking abut the state of the current lineup and how well it's lasted and how well the get along? It's like someone telling the pitcher they're working on a no hitter.

 

Not really. Frankly, for purely selfish reasons, if the next album isn't stellar, I'd like to see them shake up the lineup.

[uncool2pillow]

I understand where you're coming from. I mostly like the last 2 albums. I'm not sure, however, the lineup is the problem for those who disliked them. I think it comes down to Tweedy's songwriting. In one of the interviews posted recently, Nels basically said W(TA) is a Tweedy album. Some of my favorite artists have really changed their songwriting (for the worse) when their lives become more stable and happy. Tweedy and Bob Mould are prime examples. Tweedy's songwriting has maintained much more than Mould's.

[Magnetized]

Thanks for posting this! Hmm, it sounds like there's a little backtracking going on re: the new label. It may be that Nels said a bit more than he was supposed to!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing this stompbox exhibit at the festival.