Autumn Defense Interview

No Tweedy, no problem
Interview
by Scott Bolohan
Staff Writer

When your other band is one of America’s most popular, people are bound to slap the dreaded "side project" label on any work you do outside the band. But The Autumn Defense, consisting of Pat Sansone and John Stirratt, is a rare band that has been able to establish itself with its own style and sound separate from their day jobs with Wilco. On their third, self-titled album, The Autumn Defense’s lush soft-rock sounds straight out of the 60’s or 70’s. The Chicago based band is coming home for a show at Park West, joined by a string quartet on March 3.

Stirratt is the founding bass player of Wilco, while Sansone joined the band recently to replace multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach. Sansone already knew most of the band through Stirratt and said he felt like he was already "part of the family. I was a natural person for them to ask [to join the band]." Although Wilco has now taken over much of his schedule, he doesn’t write off The Autumn Defense as just a side project.

"We’ve been doing The Autumn Defense for eight years. When we were making our first record, we were just making a record. It never felt like a side project to us, it just felt like a project," Sansone said. "When we’re making the record and singing the songs, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything ‘side’ about it."

Sansone said the band formed because of their similar musical interests in bands such as The Zombies, The Byrds and David Crosby.

"We’ve known each other for a long time. We just all knew each other from being around the Mississippi music scene back in the late 80’s and early 90’s," Sansone said. "I reconnected with John when I moved to New Orleans around ’97. John was living in New Orleans as well, so we just started hanging out and listening to records and we realized we had the same tastes at the time and we started strumming and singing and realized we had a real great vocal blend, which was really the reason we started the band."

The new album was recorded in Chicago and released on Stirratt’s Chicago based Broadmoor Records. Sansone said that Chicago definitely had an influence on the album.

"I think that Chicago kind of lends itself, especially if you’re recording in the winter time, which we did; it lends itself to locking yourself inside because it’s so cold outside. It’s kind of easy to focus and concentrate because you want to be inside. I think that probably did influence this record in trying to make it warm sounding."

The Autumn Defense managed to create a distinct sound from Wilco, although it wasn’t necessarily a goal of the band.

"We certainly didn’t make a conscious effort to make something different from Wilco or different from anything else. Neither of us have the kind of voices that are made to fight against loud guitars. The way that we sing lends us to softer guitars and softer arrangements. I think that’s really what dictates what kinds of instruments that we use, the kind of arrangements we do."
Sansone has also made a name for himself producing and playing with other artists such as Ryan Adams, Andrew Bird and Josh Rouse, as well as producing all three of The Autumn Defense’s albums.

"I think I come to every project that I produce on its own terms. I’m sure I do have a style, but I don’t see it myself," Sansone said. "On this record I was really excited about doing some real string arrangements because I hadn’t really done that before. That was definitely a challenge for me on this record to do something new."

One of Wilco’s strengths is the ability for the members to work on other projects when they’re not working on Wilco, Sansone said. "I think it can only help the whole situation. I think it makes Wilco better."

Unlike the world famous Wilco, Sansone has some modest goals for The Autumn Defense.
"I think one thing we really want to do is get the record released overseas," Sansone said. "I think the other goal is to not have it be three years between releasing records."

The new Wilco album, "Sky Blue Sky," will be the first that Sansone recorded with the band.
"It was great. It was just kind of an extension of what we do live, just the six of us sitting in a room making music," Sansone said. "A lot of the stuff was recorded live. It was really easy, actually."

Sansone said he wasn’t really allowed to talk about the new Wilco record, scheduled for a May 15 release date, but he did give a little hint.

"It’s going to be good, I can tell you that."