NATIONAL FEATURE CREDIT: GILES CLASEN JEFF TWEEDY: ONE SONG AT A TIME BY GILES CLASEN JEFF TWEEDY, founder and frontman of the band Wilco, finds the act of creating — whether it is a song, a book, or any other art form — to be about intentionally interacting with your imagination and have benefits that go far beyond the final product. Tweedy spoke about his career, creative process, and thoughts about justice in the music business at the Paramount Theater Denver on April 9 in “A Conversation with Jeff Tweedy.” The talk was in support of his recently published book, “How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back.” Excerpts from his conversation with comedian John Hodgman have been edited for clarity and length. ON “HOW TO WRITE ONE SONG” JT: I came up with the title trying to give a little direction on creativity. I thought, “Where am I going to start if I want to write a book about creativity?” I tried to boil it down to what I start with when I create. I have realized over time I can’t create songs, or create an album, without first creating one song. That subtle distinction helps simplify things for me because it automatically takes up the ego-side of my brain, which is a little more ambitious and wants lots of songs. That side of me wants to write lots of songs and wants to be somebody and puts it squarely in the world of one task. I just want to make one song that wasn’t there when I woke up this morning. To me, a song is something really simple. The simplest definition of a song is to intentionally create a moment and then be able to recreate it again. CREATING IS AN EXALTED THING Whatever you think of God, I guess the center of the concept of God is creation. I was in a mental hospital. I was in group therapy and art therapy class. The counselor was a very kind and sweet woman who was kind of drawing people out of catatonia. People who had struggled with heroin abuse and other things. People who were real human wreckage struggling to even feel human again. I was probably one of them. The counselor described it as something that “puts you closer to God.” At first, I was like, “That is a lot of weight to put on it.” But it was the opposite. There would be a real, and beautiful, transformation in people. I was good at art. That was my conflict-free zone. I had a lot of trouble in other types of therapeutic environments. The art therapy, I was going to ace that. I was going to get an A-plus there. BEING CREATIVE CHANGES YOU One of the other reasons being creative is so uncomfortable for people is that you can’t spend time in your imagination without learning about yourself, and there are things you don’t necessarily want to know about yourself. Everybody has junk thoughts and things they don’t want to think about — to be free to create and spend time in your imagination, you confront these things all the time. That, I get that. I get not wanting to spend that much time there. WRITE WHAT YOU EMPATHIZE WITH JH: In your book, you point out that Woody Guthrie is the one who said, “Write what you know.” Why is he wrong? JT: Far be it from me to say that anything Woody Guthrie did was wrong. I think he said the right thing, but it has been taken and misinterpreted by a lot of people. People have taken it to mean that if you don’t have an experience, you can’t write about it. I know enough about Woody Guthrie to know he wrote about a lot of things that he didn’t experience, but he did it well because he had empathy, and because he had an imagination. 6 DENVER VOICE May 2022 I think a lot of songwriters have taken that advice and intentionally lived harder lives than they needed to live in order to have something to write about. I want to tell you that is unnecessary. You should take care of yourself and live to write another day. JUSTICE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY I don’t understand why it is hard for people to wrap their heads around the idea that when you have more people comfortable, happy, taken care of, and feeling like they can live safely, that you have a better world for everybody and a better community. I don’t understand why that’s a weird thing to suggest. There is a racial component in the music business that is undeniable to me in terms of which particular artists were taken the most advantage of, and how much that genius has transformed our culture without being acknowledged as the major contribution in all of our lives. I’m not saying it’s not acknowledged at all; I just don’t think people understand how deeply it touches every type of musical entertainment that you have in your life — from country to, obviously, soul music. But rock n’ roll — Black genius — that’s where it comes from. I think as a band, Wilco always looked at itself as part of the community in every city we play. We donate a portion of our poster sales to a local charity because for that day we are a citizen of that community. We’re using their streets, we’re using whatever resources in every city, so I think it just makes sense that you want to be a good citizen wherever you are. ■ If you liked this story, check out these events at the Paramount Theater: Neil Gaiman, 7:30 p.m. May 9 Annie Leibovitz, 7 p.m. June 15 ticketnetwork.com/venues/paramount-theatre-denver-tickets
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