It’s no secret that we’re big Wilco fans here at the Haus of Hipstamatic. We love their most recent album, The Whole Love, and we were psyched to help with their limited edition cassette (which featured your Hipstamatic images!). So you can imagine our glee when bassist/multi-instrumentalist John Stirratt walked into the office this afternoon! We sat down with the founding Wilco member and talked travel, music, and Hipsta favorites.
John’s favorite Hipstamatic combo is the John S lens and Kodot XGrizzled film. They helped him create this awesome photo!
First of all, how did the Popeye-themed “Dawned On Me” video come about?
[The Popeye estate] wanted to release their first animated short in thirty years or so, and they’re fans of Wilco and thought it would be a good idea. They were really excited, and they sort of originated the project themselves and handed it to us. It fit in really nicely to the continued roll-out of the record; it seems like every two or three weeks we have a different clip, and people love it. I’m glad they like it. There’s a left-field quality to it that in retrospect is kind of cool.
Here at Hipstamatic, we’re all about capturing moments, telling stories through art. How does The Whole Love fit into your story? How is it a snapshot for where the band is now?
I think it’s the fruition of this lineup that’s been around since 2004 now. It’s the best representation we’ve had in terms of recording. I think we have a long way to go, we could make greater records than this, but in a way it’s hard having six people in the band—that’s been the challenge, to have everyone’s personalities represented in the music. I think this record really does that in a great way. I just hear everyone, everyone represented musically. There’s such nice empathy and generosity with these guys, in terms of listening and just being able to let things happen.
If you want to think of the analogy of the snapshot, I always think of a great take being a moment in time, and luckily we have the ability to remember it as it goes down. There were a few moments like that on this record. You can’t always hope for that to happen or expect that to happen, but… Like “Born Alone” just happened in one day; a lot of the other songs were constructed over time, but it’s always nice to have that musical moment.
You guys are definitely a ‘touring band’—and this latest stretch has been earning rave reviews. What’s your favorite part of touring?
It’s just the ability to find yourself in San Francisco on an afternoon, walking around. Or in Madrid. Traveling is completely in my blood now, I’ve been doing this for so long. It’s not only one-nighters, but we have the ability to have two or three days off in San Sebastian or Berlin, so you get to see family and friends. It’s unbelievable. Just to see the world.
Do you have a favorite city or venue?
I mean, the Bay Area is always up there. Band hospitality was perfected here, back in the Bill Graham days—so those years at the Fillmore you were always so well taken care of. But Austin remains one of the best live music audiences anywhere. In terms of towns to be in, Berlin right now is one of the most exciting cities. We’ve been able to go to Tokyo, that’s always an amazing place to be. The most beautiful place is New Zealand, I would say. Beauty in New Zealand is tops, but in terms of the crowd I think Austin is tough to beat.
