A New Democracy: The Nels Cline Singers, 'Initiate,' at Black Cat

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The joke's over: The Nels Cline Singers have sung. While the band's name was originally a deliberate misnomer for the trio's avant-garde, entirely instrumental jazz, Cline finally opens his mouth on the group's fourth album, "Initiate." Though what comes out isn't exactly discernible.

"I've blown the irony of the name of the band," Cline said of the wordless, almost meditative vocals used sparingly on the record. "I decided I was going to free my mind and hopefully my ass would follow."

While the 54-year-old guitarist extraordinaire is no stranger to vocals — since 2004, he's been providing the lead guitar lines for Jeff Tweedy to sing over in alt-rock stalwarts Wilco — this is the first time he's sung on record.

"The use of the voice, to me, is to create a kind of intimacy and romanticism, and maybe on 'Divining,' a kind of celebratory feeling," he said.

As a guitarist, Cline's a master at movement. His pieces are cinematic, always building to something big.

"I'm a crescendo junkie," Cline said. "I think there is a need for relief and I really am into a cathartic sort of music. One can't feel [the music] if there isn't some kind of balance."

The Singers — Cline on guitar, Scott Amendola on drums and Devin Hoff on bass — have been together for nine years, but have only toured sparingly.

The band has "evolved really slowly because we haven't been able to do that many gigs," Cline said. "It's not just because of Wilco. Even before that, I tried to put together these ridiculous tours and they were horrible and we wouldn't make any money and it was all kind of sad and stressful. I kind of gave up on touring a lot playing my own music because it was difficult."

Express spoke with Cline about Wilco's new record label, the Solid Sound Festival the group is curating in August and the status of the band's eighth studio album.

» EXPRESS: Do you think the Singers show at Black Cat will be a long set? How long do you expect to be playing on this run?
» CLINE: Well, sometimes they have a curfew, [so] I don't know. We just got done playing this South America run and we were playing an hour and 45 minutes. I don't know if we'll be allowed to do that in the States; people don't have the same attention spans [here].

» EXPRESS: It's interesting you can only do an hour and 45 minutes with the Singers, but on the last Wilco tour you were able to play three hours every night.
» CLINE: That's totally different. God, that was tiring. I can't believe [Wilco frontman] Jeff [Tweedy] could stand there on his feet and sing those songs for three hours. We were pretty raggedy by the end. That was a great experience, I loved it.

» EXPRESS: I caught the show at Strathmore in Bethesda in March and thought it was the most impressive Wilco show I'd seen.
» CLINE: I really think there was something very special about that tour, but, that said, I think we need more nights off next time.

» EXPRESS: Do you think it's something Wilco will do again, play those marathon shows?
» CLINE: I never know. I know that musically everyone was completely down, but I think our main task now is to work on new material and a new album. And now that we have our own record label, there's going to be funny things to come out.

» EXPRESS: Oh, really. Wilco has its own label now?
» CLINE: Yeah, I don't know the name of it. Jeff was basically not wanting to be on a record label for a while — he didn't renew his contract with Nonesuch — so we're striking out on our own, our own label. There might be a 7-inch or something, a little souvenir when we do this Mass MoCA [Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Ma.] I'm not sure, really. Basically, Jeff and [Wilco manager] Tony Margherita are the masterminds, so I'm just cruising with what they want to do.

» EXPRESS: Since we're on the subject, I do want to touch on the next Wilco record and what's going on with that. There was an interview from April in which [bassist] John Stirratt was talking about how you were planning to record this summer. Is that still happening?
» CLINE: All I can tell you is I don't know anything. I know we're recording next month a little bit and we're recording a lot in October. The process of making the next Wilco record is going to be long in terms of the writing and arranging and demoing phase. I think that phase could go on for a while before the mastering phase. But that said, who knows? We may have this amazing productive time in October. I have no idea and there's been all kinds of verbal ideas bandied about, about what direction this record will take, but I don't believe in any of that stuff because everything changes.

» EXPRESS: Understandable. One thing John said was "jarring," in the way "Bull Black Nova" was a shock to the senses.
» CLINE: I think we'd love to make a really up-tempo alienating record — I think everyone agrees that would be enjoyable — but the natural course of music-making kind of precludes that. When things start to take form naturally, you kind of have to honor that. Who knows? There may be ballads. I don't really know, but I do think there is going to be some rocking. You can guarantee a fair quotient at least of some form of rock.

» EXPRESS: Has the Wilco writing process become a democracy in a sense, or is Jeff still leading the way and pushing you guys in different directions?
» CLINE: Well, it's different for each record. "Sky Blue Sky" was very democratic although it was very Jeff-generated because that's the way things go, but "Wilco (The Album)" was a Jeff album. It was a total Jeff album — look at the writing credits. He walked in with this batch of songs. Basically, he had a lump of songs that had exploded out of him so that was a Jeff record that we arranged. All the arranging is done collectively he has specific ideas and also gives us a lot of latitude and I'm sure he has an idea for how he'd like this next record to go, but once we start playing all bets are off, to me. I think that one should be open to music taking its natural course and so I don't know what's going to happen. I'm very curious.

» EXPRESS: So am I. You mentioned the Solid Sound Festival Wilco is curating earlier, can you explain the installation you'll be overseeing there?
» CLINE: This is what it's theoretically going to be — in reality it may end up being something quite different: I want to have five circles of effects pedals that play each other so there's no guitar or any instrument involved, and in the middle of each circle there's going to be this little ZT Lunchbox Amplifier and little pillows in front of each stomp box, so basically you can just kneel down and play a pedal and turn a knob and the whole room will be filled with horrendous sound and that's it. That's all it is. The interesting thing about that is when they play each other sometimes a slight change of parameter is not really audible for a long time, it goes down the chain and manifests. I'm going to tell people to move slowly. I think it will be fun for people to get a little hands-on action with these weird boutique pedals that I like and Jeff likes. It will just be bloops and beeps and growls.

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Thu., July 8, 9 p.m., $15; 202-667-4490. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photos courtesy Tony Margherita Management