Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner began Wye Oak during the mid-2000s when both were living in Baltimore. In the ensuing years, the duo has established themselves as one of rock’s most potent forces, releasing six albums, touring tirelessly, and lending their talents to other musicians’ projects. Their new tour, which comes to the Sinclair on Tuesday, is giving them a chance to reflect on who they’ve been — and to figure out possibilities for their future.
The tour, called JOIN, will shine a spotlight on the music they’ve made together as well as on their own — Wasner, who recently toured as part of Bon Iver’s band, has the solo project Flock of Dimes, while Stack released his first record as Joyero last year. Wye Oak’s sound has grown and deepened over the years, with Wasner and Stack pushing their dreamy, layered vision of folk to new extremes, but this year, both on record and in a live setting, they’re examining their approach to music’s fundamentals.
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“This is kind of our first attempt at putting together a tour and playing our music with the attitude and mindset of ‘What songs do we most want to play? What people do we most want to play them with? How do we want to tour — do we want to do a week on and a week off, or . . . ?’ ” says Wasner. “We’re just kind of trying to play games with the entire structure of being a band.”
That includes expanding their ranks to include other musicians — a shift for a band that’s mostly played as a duo in concert. Pinson Chanselle, who’s played with Natalie Prass and Matthew E. White, will take over Stack’s role as drummer, while multi-instrumentalists Adam Schatz and Arone Dyer (Buke & Gase) will round out the grander arrangements. “Andy will be playing guitar and bass and saxophone and electronics, and singing, and I will be doing all of those things, as well, except not saxophone, ’cause I don’t do that,” laughs Wasner
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"Some of these songs that we’re playing are ones that, honestly, we were never really able to play live, or didn’t work in the duo setting," notes Stack. "[This tour] offers us a chance to take songs that couldn’t have gotten stale or tired, because they existed in the studio and then they just went into this vault. Now it’s like dusting off little gems that we’re pulling out of a time machine."
Growing Wye Oak’s ranks lets Wasner and Stack open their collaborative process and put their songs in new light. “We’re just so used to being in a situation where every aspect of the arrangement comes down to a decision that the two of us have to make together,” says Wasner. “In this scenario, we’re entrusting these musicians who we really admire to make choices of their own. I’m excited to see what ideas people have, because that’s part of the joy of collaboration, but I’m also super excited that I just have to worry about singing the song."
After living in and working on music across different time zones for a few years, Wasner and Stack both now reside in Durham, N.C., which is also the home to the duo’s longtime label, Merge Records. “The defining characteristic of the spirit of the community down here is a very sincere unpretentiousness,” says Wasner. “There’s a lot of different kind of things going on, but there’s none of the sort of weird, competitive, judgmental energy. People who do very, very different kinds of things and make very, very different kinds of music are all friends and very supportive of what people are doing.”
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Being in the same city has also enabled Wye Oak to put the idea of working on an album aside for a bit and, instead, take advantage of digital music’s immediacy to release singles — since November they’ve released three, including the cavernous “Fortune” and the meticulously detailed “Walk Soft.”
“The thing that’s so special is that these songs are still brand new,” says Wasner. "We just recorded them, and we’re working on others to release right now that will be out soon after we finish them. It allows us to be a little bit more light on our feet, and, in a way, that sharing becomes more in line with the way that the creative process itself actually unfolds in real time. Things that are new still feel new, and that is really exciting.”
Maura Johnston can be reached at maura@maura.com.
WYE OAK
At the Sinclair, Cambridge, March 3 at 8 p.m. Tickets $25, 617-547-5200, www.sinclaircambridge.com
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Wye Oak expands its sound and setlist for concert tour - The Boston Globe
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