If we asked you what came to mind when you thought about Baltimore, you might mention Hannibal Lecter or that great earworm of a tune from Hairspray. Well, turns out there's more to the Maryland-based city than fictional serial killers and corny musicals -- there's Wye Oak, too. The musical pair, comprised of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, make the kind of dreamy pop songs that we'd happily have wiggling around in our noggins for an awfully long time. It's lucky, then, that they're headed our way next month for Sydney Festival, and popping by Melbourne and Brisbane for a ditty or two while they're around the traps.



How did you and Andy first meet and get together as a band? Andy and I have been playing music together for about 10 years now, and I joined his high school band when I was very young to play keyboards. When that band disintegrated, we kept in touch and decided we still wanted to play music together, and the two of us became a band after that. We had a lot of mutual friends and we grew up in adjacent neighbourhoods. So basically, for as long as I've played music in groups, I've been playing with Andy.

What was the first song you worked on together like? Oh my goodness, our first band was like adolescent garage rock – like any good teenager.

What's the story behind the band name? Wye Oak is the Maryland state tree – Maryland is the state that we're from, so, you know. At the time we got signed to Merge Records, our label, we were called Monarch, and we needed to change our name because apparently there was another band called Monarch. We kept the reference to our home state, though.

So you're from Baltimore – is there more to the city than Hannibal Lecter and Hairspray? Yeah, Baltimore is awesome. It's a classic small American city in that it went through some really hard times. It's very poor, it can be very dangerous, and it's sort of a struggling city in a lot of ways, but because of that it's very affordable – probably the most affordable east coast city at this point. So it attracts a lot of musicians and artists who want to work and live very cheaply, and for that reason it's got an amazing music scene, a lot of amazing writers, artists, musicians... there are a lot of great bands coming out of that area.

Can you tell me five words to describe Wye Oak? Oh my goodness! That's a tough one... Reflective, restrained – hopefully, subtle. Maybe vulnerable and straightforward.

What is your favourite thing about the new record? I love our new record, I'm so proud of it. It was a huge risk to make a record like that in the wake of the success of our previous record, Civillian. I knew it was the record I wanted to make, it was how I wanted to progress creatively and personally. In the end I'm really, really proud of the record itself but also for taking a step that might be considered risky in the position we were in, and doing what we wanted to do in the face of what we were told was the smart thing to do. There was, and continues to be, a lot of backlash about the lack of guitar. I know for a fact it's the best thing I've ever done, and I'm really proud of us for taking it where we wanted to take it and for not giving in to those pressures.

What was the hardest part about putting the record together? The hardest part for me, honestly, was learning how to write songs again, because that was how it came to be the kind of record it is. But after Civillian came out we toured for two years straight and played over 220 shows, and we really just drove it into the ground. We left out homes – we really did nothing but tour for two years – and I don't really believe that that sort of repetition is healthy, creatively or personally. On a human level, it's just brutal. In order to cope with it I sort of detached from the lifestyle and from the music itself. I grew really tired of the music, and I drank a lot to cope with it. By the time we came to the end of that album cycle, I was miserable and I didn't like playing our music at all. It got to the point where it was so serious I honestly thought I'd never play music again, and so the process of making Shriek was such a challenge because I had to totally reinvent the way I thought about writing and start from scratch in order to feel inspired and excited. So the fact that it exists and that I was able to do it and sort of reinvent myself and my writing process and feel excited creatively again after going into such a heavy dark place is just an incredible feeling.

When you're not being half of Wye Oak, what do you like to do? I have a solo project that I spend a lot of time on and I'm working on making a record now; it's called Flock of Dimes. Other that I just like hanging out in Baltimore, working on music, doing yoga and seeing my friends. I go to a lot of shows, but just as often I like to stay home and read a book, cook a meal or exercise, being very grateful to spend time at home with some close friends.

What are you looking forward to on your first trip to Australia? I'll tell you what, in January in Baltimore it will be frozen and snowy and miserable, and I gather it will be quite the opposite of that in Australia, so I don't really care what we do. I'll just be happy to be there. It's going to be a weird experience going from a complete frozen wasteland to the height of summer, but I think it will be a very welcome change.

What's in the pipeline for the band? Once we do these tours we have some really exciting stuff coming up in the spring, which I don't think we can talk about yet. But we'll be starting on making a new record as soon as possible. Andy and I love making music together and the writing process is our favourite part, so we'll probably be tinkering with stuff before too long.

TOUR DATES:

Friday January 9th – The Aurora, Sydney
Saturday January 10th – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne
Sunday January 11th – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane

Check out the official Wye Oak website for tour info.