Wye Oak singer melds deep feelings with soaring sound
The first words that Jenn Wasner sings on Wye Oak’s new album are “Suffering, I remember suffering” — but she sings them to a soaring, electronic pop backup. That particular mix of beauty and sadness is a large part of what this long-running indie duo is all about.
“That song, ‘The Instrument,’ is about the separation between mind and body, between appearance and substance,” Wasner said from a tour break this week. “Speaking as someone who is fairly cerebral and kind of anxious, I’ve done a lot of work to bring those parts of myself together. So what I’m trying to do is to take something that’s relevant to me, and to work through it within a classic musical form. And really, if I thought that every song about universal human experience that I’d ever want to hear had already been written, there’d be no point in my doing it.”
Wye Oak members Wasner and Andy Stack have been friends and musical partners since high school — he on drums and keyboards (which he plays onstage simultaneously), she on vocals, guitar and bass. Though not a couple, the partners are well acquainted with each other’s mindsets.
“Definitely, and sometimes to an almost unhealthy degree. Sometimes we make assumptions that don’t even prove to be true, because we’re convinced we know everything you can possibly know about each other,” Wasner said.
As a writer, Wasner regularly channels her deepest feelings into songs.
“I feel it’s the closest thing to magic that happens in my life. I’d consider myself to be a fairly rational person, not religious or even particularly spiritual. So if the process of creativity can feel like you’re tapping into something beyond yourself, that feels bizarre and miraculous. That’s the feeling that I keep showing up looking for, the thing that makes me tolerate all those hours upon hours of trying to feel inspired and getting nowhere.”
The uplifting nature of their music is also no accident.
“I’ve tried to make peace with the idea that music, at this point in my life, is something that I want to use to heal people. And the only way you can accomplish that is to trust yourself — not to say, ‘I’m going to sit down now and write something timeless and universal,’ but to say, ‘Is this true to what I’m feeling right now?’ ”
The duo’s latest album, “The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs,” has a richly produced sound, so for the first time their current tour features an expanded lineup — though expanded by only one, with Will Hackney joining them on bass.
“One of our band’s mission statements has always been to unite the organic and the synthetic,” Wasner said. “But it’s not cut and dry what constitutes what. You can use an analog synthesizer in a completely organic way. It becomes just another tool. So we try not to put too many rules in place. If something helps us achieve the emotional resonance we’re looking for, then it’s right.”
‘I feel it’s the closest thing to magic that happens in my life.’
— JEnn WASnEr on the creative process