We’ve Got A File On You: Jenn Wasner
INTERVIEW
July 15, 2020
We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.
For almost 15 years now, we've known Jenn Wasner as the frontwoman of Wye Oak. We've known her as the person with the haunting, gorgeous voice singing their songs, the person who once made their songs erupt through her guitar and later remade them from the ground up with synths and bass. Once upon a time, it seemed like a big deal that Wye Oak changed so much between their breakthrough Civilian and its successor Shriek. But in the years since, we've really just come to know Wasner as more and more different versions of herself. Her career is becoming one of constant little transformations.
In just these past couple of weeks, for example, we've heard her as Flock Of Dimes, her other project that just signed to Sub Pop and surprise-released an intimate, sparse EP called Like So Much Desire. Soon after, Wye Oak announced their latest project, too. Following some standalone singles and the JOIN tour -- which sought to combine Wye Oak with the other projects of Wasner and her longtime bandmate Andy Stack, while expanding Wye Oak's lineup onstage -- they're returning with the No Horizon EP at the end of this month. It finds Wye Oak once more expanding, or undoing, the definitions of their own music, collaborating with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus on music that is celestial and reflective.
Along the way, Wasner's not only started a handful of different bands for her own music. She's appeared on other people's albums, she's collaborated with other musicians in new ways, she's taken over the producer chair. Between Like So Much Desire and No Horizon, she's embarked on a 2020 that shows just how prolific and rewarding a songwriter she has become over the course of her career. So, on that occasion, we caught up with Wasner about her past, present, and future endeavors. Read More »
