Wild Nothing

As a listener — or consumer — of music, it seems that things have never been better. Anything and everything musical is accessible and immediate. The music comes in the form of a constant stream and musicians are closer to their fans than ever before. While it’s never been better for us, the opposite could perhaps be said for musicians. There are an extraordinary number of talented musicians that fight to be heard — or to be paid. Part of the fallout in this new landscape is the exhausting promotional treadmill that musicians must maintain to stay top-of-mind for listeners. Sometimes this seems to be more important than the music itself. Once you’ve caught a bit of the wave, just work your ass off to stay on the wave for as long as possible.

It’s refreshing, then, to hear from someone who knows enough about himself that he doesn’t just know what to do, he also knows why he’s doing it. Jack Tatum of Wild Nothing seems to be one of those people. He’s out on the road with Wild Nothing right now, and what is he looking forward to most? Not doing Wild Nothing. “[After touring] I’m gonna bake more. I’ll probably get roped into a juice cleanse by my girlfriend. Visit my family for the holidays. Not think about Wild Nothing for a while.” Now granted, he is on tour, and I’m sure that most musicians have a love/hate relationship with touring, but this sounds different.

I get the sense from our brief email conversation that Tatum isn’t pinning his long-term success on Wild Nothing. “It’s hard for me to see it as anything in particular. I want to continue changing. I don’t want it to be something that gets stale on me. It’s gotten a bit stale on me. I want it to remain an outlet. I don’t really care much about conventional success for this band at this point in time. We’ve been playing so many shows and working towards an imagined point and the music starts to lose its meaning. I definitely want to retain meaning in what I do.”

I get the stale bit. When you get known for something as an artist, there’s a tension between staying familiar and showing progression. Everything you put out is judged against what you’ve done before. That can get old fast. But Tatum is pragmatic. “The inclination to fight habits is a good one. I think I always know that ultimately I’m going to end up with something that makes sense for me, or makes sense for Wild Nothing, but the desire to fuck with what feels safe is what will take you to the next step. It doesn’t always have to be drastic. In fact I think it’s better to build slowly. If you’re not building in some way then what’s the point? It’d be like becoming a well-known artist for painting pictures of dogs and then only painting dogs for the rest of your life. Draw a cat or something.” We’ve all known people who draw way too many dogs, when we’d love to see what they could do with a cat.

So what is the point? For Wild Nothing right now, it seems that it’s still about doing what he set out to do with the project: making noises that work well together, putting together some lyrics that perhaps speak some sort of universal truth and to play those songs in front of audiences that appreciate it. None of those things is simple or straightforward — so maybe that’s what keeps Wild Nothing worth doing for Tatum. After three major releases, what’s the most important thing to keep, right? “I still find that getting a sense of environment is most important. I like the wash. I’ve realized that I really like un-dynamic music. I think it’s why I was initially so drawn to shoegaze music. The rise and fall doesn’t do much for me, if that makes sense. I like getting lost.”

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The inclination to fight habits is a good one…the desire to mess with what feels safe is what will take you to the next step.

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For now, Wild Nothing is something that is still an outlet for Tatum’s creativity. At some point, it may not be, and he’s okay with that. “Eventually I think I’ll transition into engineering and production. I like writing music and having people hear my music but I’ve become fairly uncomfortable having attention focused on me at shows or whatever it might be. I’m not an over-sharer. So many people do that shit these days and it bugs me. I think I come across as safe or even boring to some people because I don’t care to show them my business. It feels like to get news these days in music you have to tweet every clever thought you have and do or say ridiculous shit in the public forum. That’s not for me.”

For most, when you ask what’s next, you hear about plans for the new album, or an extended tour, etc. etc. Not Tatum. What’s next for Wild Nothing? Not much. “It’s hibernation time. It’ll come back when it’s ready. There are no plans to tour or record for a while. No plans are the best plans.” Great words to end on. In some ways you’ll be happiest when you know exactly what you like: getting lost.