Though it didn't start out as such, Wilco has sort of backed its way into being a supergroup. The lone holdout thus far had been keyboardist/programmer Mikael Jorgensen. Before him there was John Stirratt and Pat Sansone's Autumn Defense, the Nels Cline Singers and Glenn Kotche's solo work (as well as his work with Jeff Tweedy in Loose Fur).

Jorgensen has now joined them with Pronto, his own side project that has one disc under its belt (All is Golden from March) and another on the way with The Cheetah, out Sept. 8.

Jorgensen is an East Coast guy who came to Chicago earlier this decade to help John McEntire (Tortoise, Sea and Cake) build his SOMA recording studio. He joined Wilco in 2004, and has had a clear influence on the band's music since. But it wasn't clear until now just how solid his chops are.

Things get somewhat confusing from here, however. Pronto's first disc, All is Golden, is a poppy delight, a disc full of songs that could have served ably as B-sides to Wilco singles from the Summerteeth and A Ghost is Born eras. Tracks like "When I'm on the Rocks," in fact, would not be out of place on a Wilco album. Jorgensen's voice isn't the strongest in rock, but it works within the context of his solid, at times transcendent pop song constructions.

The band's new disc, however is a big sonic curve ball. The Cheetah is a mostly instrumental batch of electronic glitch-pop actually recorded before All is Golden. This isn't Four Tet -- Jorgensen's pop roots and adherence to classic song structure prevent anything too out there from emanating from the speakers -- but it's long way from All is Golden. Find a happy mid-point between these two poles, however, and you begin to see why Jorgensen fits so well in Wilco, and look forward to a future where Pronto finds a way to fuse these two aesthetics together to create something fresh and new.

Jorgensen is joined in Pronto by drummer Greg O'Keeffe, guitarist Erik Paparazzi and bassist Tunde Oyewole.

The sounds of All is Golden and The Cheetah are so different as to be completely different bands. Did you give any thought to issuing the latter under a different name?

Not even for a second. I enjoy, and expect, that Pronto will change and shift with whatever musical direction that we become curious about exploring. It's more interesting to me that a name can act as a container than a brand.

If I read things right, All is Golden was recorded after The Cheetah, but released before it. Is it safe to say that the sound of the current and future Pronto will more closely approximate that sound, and if so, will that confuse listeners who saw the shift between AIG and The Cheetah as indicative of that future direction?

Yes, All Is Golden was recorded well after The Cheetah, yet released before. AIG was a challenge I posed to myself: to make a pop /rock record. The synthesizers and laptop textures didn't really seem to have a natural place, except for a few moments, notably the beginning of "Mrs. Bruford" and the swirly outro of "I Think So."

The writing for The Cheetah is much different than for AIG. AIG was, in a way, easier because you can hold a guitar or sit at the piano and make modifications to a song very quickly, and then record it, and at that point your practically done. With The Cheetah, there seemed less conventions to rely upon, (i.e. verse, chorus, bridge) and the arrangement and musical decisions were based solely on repeated listening and applying our intuitions whilst sitting in front of the computer. The process is akin to abstract painting rather than portraiture.

In the light of AIG, perhaps a few people might be confused by The Cheetah, but my hope is that it will be exciting for folks to hear this considerably different side of what we do and plant a seed of expectation for what surprises may lay ahead.

How is your work as a studio engineer brought to bear on your own music? Do you find yourself trading hats and looking at things as an artist vs. engineer?

More often than not it's a total benefit. Knowing the different flavors of microphones, pre-amps, effects etc... and understanding the vocabulary in the studio, it's very helpful and speeds up parts of the recording process. My fear is that this understanding can act as a limitation by preempting experimentation. You do the best you can.

Because I know how to do it, I usually do all of the engineering and mixing, with the exception of tracking. When we're in full band mode, it's much better to have a talented and competent person managing all the knobs and levels rather than me trying to both play and worry about the technical side.

One of my goals with Pronto is to eventually remove myself from the technical/engineering aspects altogether and collaborate with an engineer/producer type.

You must juggle your Wilco schedule with other pursuits. How does that juggling affect the music you create, thinking particularly of having to perhaps leave things incomplete or do things piecemeal as opposed to conceive of and create something as a whole?

That's certainly a big challenge. We have a rehearsal/recording studio space in Brooklyn where we try and record as much as possible while I'm home. If we can crank out one relatively fleshed out idea every month or so, that feels like progress. By the end of a year, that's 12 or so songs. All the recording is done into the computer and then I have my laptop and can wiggle things around and make changes and then upload them for the guys to listen to. I have a hazy idea of how we're going to approach Pronto LP02, but for now, it remains an intriguing mystery.

At what point will there be an all-day Wilco festival with the band headlining a show featuring Pronto, Glenn Kotche solo, Loose Fur, the Nels Cline Singers and Autumn Defense?

Ha ha! I love it! I'll blue-sky this proposal to the Wilco Brass and see what sticks!

Labels: Monday Interview, music, Wilco