Eat That Question with…. Wild Nothing
WC: Who are you and what’s the origin of Wild Nothing?
Jack: Well my name is Jack Tatum. I started writing songs as Wild Nothing only recently, last summer to be exact. I just felt like I needed a change stylistically so this is it.
WC: What instruments do you play?
Jack: Mostly guitar, but I play all the instruments on my recordings. Bass, synth, drum programming. Anything I can get my hands on and try to figure out.
WC: How long have you been making music?
Jack: I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 11, but I didn’t really start trying to write songs and record until I was 15 or 16.
WC: How would you describe your music?
Jack: I think that’s a hard question for anyone that makes music, but I usually just give it some sort of generic, vague title like indie pop or jangly dream pop. Lyrically its pretty nostalgic.
WC: Who are your musical influences?
Jack: I pull heavily from older indie, jangle, synth, dream pop, post-punk, shoegaze. All kinds of stuff really, everything from Fleetwood Mac to Motown. I have a lot of respect for contemporary bands too though, swedish pop in particular. I really like Jens Lekman, The Radio Dept., El Perro Del Mar. Pop in general really.
WC: Outside the music world, what influences and inspires you?
Jack: Oh, I don’t know. I think a lot of people are influenced by fashion and art and whatever, but to be perfectly honest I’m not so sure I think about those things when I’m making music. That’s not to say I’m not interested in other things though. I really enjoy comic art, pop art. Homemade things always get me excited about creating and song-writing. More than anything I’m probably just inspired by my supportive friends and living in a small town. I think you do a lot more sitting around and talking when you live in a place where there is nothing to do, which is kind of nice.
WC: Your cover of Kate Bush’s Cloud Busting got everybody hot around the collars, what other well-known tracks have you covered/ have you a hankering to cover?
Jack: I’ve covered “Baby It’s You” by The Shirelles before. I don’t know though! I always think of songs I want to cover and then forget about them. I’ve recently started to dig into Morrissey’s solo stuff and I’ve been addicted to Kill Uncle, which is the album that no one else seems to like at all. But I’d like to cover “Mute Witness”. I’ve also always wanted to cover “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.
WC: What’s the first record you bought?
Jack: It’s kind of a tie between the Lion King soundtrack and Green Day’s “Dookie”. I was weird.
WC: What’s the last record you bought?
Jack: I think I download more than I should…. but I bought a handful of records not too long ago. The Go-Betweens, Modern English, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Smiths “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” single. I also found Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Heaven Up Here” on cassette recently and I’ve been wearing it out in my car.
WC: 5 of your all-time favourite records?
Jack: The Smiths “The Queen is Dead”, My Bloody Valentine “Isn’t Anything”, The Go-Betweens “Spring Hill Fair”, Jens Lekman “Night Falls Over Kortedala”, The Microphones “The Glow Pt. 2”. There are way more but those 5 are pretty honest.
WC: Some of your favourite album artwork and why?
Jack: I’ve always liked Phil Elverum’s artwork for The Microphones and Mount Eerie. Just the homemade feel and really beautiful, creepy nature photographs. I’ll probably like any Factory records album art you throw at me too, for the exact opposite reason. They are just so clean and sensible. I appreciate both methods.
WC: What book are you reading at the moment?
Jack: Unfortunately with music and school I don’t get a lot of free time to read anything. Actually I started reading “Anagrams” by Lorrie Moore in like September but haven’t picked it up since then. Kind of sad. Been too busy!
WC: Last gig you went to?
Jack: I don’t get to see a lot of music that isn’t local where I live, but we recently played with Real Estate and Woods in NY which was fun to see. Real Estate in particular really impressed me as a live band. It was a really good time.
WC: Best musical moment so far?
Jack: The show I just mentioned was certainly a highlight. It’s all been great though, I can’t pick a particular moment. I’ve just been in touch with a lot of interesting people lately and getting to make my own music on my own time. It’s really nice. I’m looking forward to this summer mostly, coming to Europe. I’ll have some “best musical moments” then hopefully!
WC: What’s the most important object that you own?
Jack: My Telecaster which I write most of my songs on probably.I don’t really own a lot of stuff, I live in a little apartment. My book and record collections. My girlfriend’s gold wisdom tooth? Ha, I don’t know.
WC: What hangs on your bedroom walls?
Jack: I’ve got some photographs of friends and things, a few Roy Lichtenstein paintings, some goopy monster screenprints my friend Mike made, a giant poster from a Mount Eerie album. Pretty boring and “college” really.
WC: Alive or dead, who would your dream collaboration be with?
Jack: Morrissey and Kate Bush singing a forbidden love duet over a song that the three of us wrote together.
WC: If you had to choose one record to take with you on a desert island, which would it be?
Jack: Oh, I don’t know! That’s just impossible for me. Probably some best-of Smiths album or something. “Louder Than Bombs”. Can’t help it.
WC: How would you spend an ‘ideal’ day?
Jack: Well in an “ideal” day I would wake up at the crack of dawn and not be tired in the slightest, eat some eggs and fruit, sit down and write the best song ever, start recording it. Then I’d call some friends and we’d grab lunch and then go swimming in the river that’s close to my town, because obviously it would be gorgeous outside. Then maybe play some music with my bandmates, maybe have a cookout somewhere. Just hang out and have some drinks with the people I love. Go home, play some Zelda with the girlfriend and go to bed. Sounds pretty ideal to me.
WC: What keeps you awake at night?
Jack: The internet. I have a really bad habit of telling myself I should go to bed and then just laying there in bed with my computer looking at random nonsense for hours. It’s terrible.
