Wild Nothing, a Brooklyn band, began as the musical project of Jack Tatum while he was in college at Virginia Tech. He’s since put out two albums and two EPs of dream pop greatness, including Empty Estate that came out in May on Captured Tracks. At Austin City Limits music festival, The Daily Texan sat down with Tatum to talk about the new EP and touring nonstop.
The Daily Texan: How do you like being back in Austin?
Jack Tatum: It’s great, man. We got in late last night and got here at 8 in the morning, so we haven’t seen much of Austin yet. I do always enjoy coming here.
DT: You released Nocturne last year, spent all year touring, and just put out Empty Estate in May. Do you ever take a break?
JT: Yeah, yeah I do. It might not seem like it, but we’ve had a couple pretty good breaks this year. It’s true, we have been touring a lot, so that sort of becomes your norm, which is strange in a way. I feel, at this point, that I’ve been touring with this band so long that the idea of being stationary seems so foreign and really appealing right now. We’re about to take a pretty good break from playing shows and hopefully I’ll just work on music and do other projects.
DT: What other projects?
JT: I don’t know. I’d love to try and play music with other people, whatever that might mean. Whether that’s playing with another band or writing songs for other people is something I’m interested in. There’s producing too. I’ve always been interested in production and trying to step into that.
DT: On Empty Estate, there are a couple of instrumentals there that are really cool. Is that a direction you want to take Wild Nothing?
JT: Usually when I’m making music I’m not too concerned about the trajectory of it or what it might mean. For me, it was just something I was interested in doing at the time. The best thing about that EP for me was that it just felt very natural and happened very quickly. It really was just a matter of me coming up with these song ideas, recording them and handing them to the label all within a matter of a month and a half or something. It’s a really good feeling because there’s not that drawn out process that happens when making a record, which is kind of how Nocturne was. I spent practically a year writing a lot of those songs. It was kind of strange that at the time when your album comes out that some of those songs are a year old. It’s funny but that’s just the way it goes, I guess.
DT: Do you have any plans for another album coming soon?
JT: I’m always working on music, and especially after being on a long tour like this. This has been about five weeks once we get back home. It’s always a good creative inspiration, being on the road, with a lot of experiences to pull from. Also because I feel like I’m not able to make a lot of music on the road, I feel that when I come home I have this well of creativity to pull from. I don’t have any plans necessarily but imagine it will only be a matter of time before I’m back writing songs and recording.
DT: You’re playing a show tonight with Autre Ne Veut. What is it like playing a show at 11 a.m. and then again at midnight the same day?
JT: It’s weird. We haven’t done something like this in a while, but we’re not strangers to it. We’ve done it before. A couple of years ago at CMJ we had to do a ton of shows in a short period of time. We’ve actually never played South By Southwest, but you hear from so many bands that play that it’s a total clusterfuck.
DT: I know Bleached played like 13 shows once there.
JT: I can’t imagine. I’m so glad I’ve never had to do that, to be honest. I’m actually really excited for the show tonight. I prefer to play club shows.
DT: I think your music’s more suited for those types of shows.
JT: I think so, too.
DT: Are you friends with Autre Ne Veut?
JT: I haven’t met him, but I actually know Al Carlson who I think worked on his record. [Al] produced and helped me produce and record Empty Estate, but no I haven’t met [Autre Ne Veut]. I’m excited for it. It should be cool.
DT: What has been your favorite album of 2013?
JT: Shoot, I don’t know. It’s really hard to say. Of new things that have come out this year, there’s this song by Ariel Pink that was really good. I was just thinking about this the other day because someone asked me the same thing and I blanked. It’s not because I don’t care what’s going on but it’s easy to get out of the loop when you’re constantly touring so I’m not super up on what records came out this year, so I can’t remember. There was the new My Bloody Valentine record of course, which was always great.
Catch Wild Nothing Friday, Oct. 11 on the Samsung Galaxy Stage at 11:15 a.m.
