Let’s talk about Let The War Against Music Begin and Because We Hate You. Some of the songs on either record could’ve gone on the other, if that makes sense.
Right. That was the record where the Minus 5 stuff started blurring into pop-rock or whatever, the kind of stuff the Fellows did. The songs became not so radically different as they were before, that’s for sure. The Minus 5 became more of a rock band around that time, and the Fellows stuff got a little more produced. That was mainly because by then I had my own home studio going and I could spend a lot of time doing backing vocals and weird instruments and stuff on the Fellows record, which we were never really able to do before. We always had a budget or were in some kind of a hurry. I was able to layer on the oohs and aahs and sleighbells on the Fellows record, whereas before I just kind of done that on Minus 5 records.

I think one of the best examples of that is “The Ballad Of Only You & The Can Prevent Forest Fires,” which closes Because We Hate You. That seems like a perfect fit for the Minus 5 record, but it wasn’t out of place at all on the Fellows record.
I can totally see what you mean. That song is about a fictional ‘60s band and what happened to them, and that was more Fellows-like for me. The Fellows were always kind of carrying on the grand tradition of Mott The Hoople, where you’re always self-involved and you’re always writing about rock ‘n’ roll and about being in a band. The Replacements—another favorite band of mine—kind of did that, too. I wanted [Because We Hate You] to be about being in a band and have most of the songs refer to what it’s like to be a fucking loser in a rock band. That song was not only delving into things I know about bands from the ‘60s, but I also kind of tried to make it sound like a production that could’ve been done during that time, with the vocal really loud and the band kind of quiet.

Talk about the creation of In Rock (2000, re-released this year) and how you came to reissue and revamp it. Initially, it was sort of a quickie record, but it certainly holds up with the best of the Minus 5.
In early 2000, the Minus 5 suddenly found itself with a rather solid lineup for live shows—me, John Ramberg on guitar, Peter on bass, Bill Rieflin on drums, plus Ken Stringfellow on keys whenever he was around—and we found ourselves playing in the Northwest fairly regularly. Meanwhile, due to typical record-label shenanigans, Let The War Against Music Begin’s release had gotten held up for close to a year. We had all these new songs and rather than wait interminably for our “next album” to be due, we decided to crank these out one day in the studio, press 1,000 copies and sell them at shows. A few years on, it seemed like an excellent time to make the record more widely available. We still feature most of the songs in the Minus 5 live set, and it offered up the chance of giving it a dust-up on the mastering end, which was done rather helter-skelter the first go-round. And since we had a few new songs that felt perfectly suited to In Rock, we went in the studio one day in November and put them down. With the new songs and the fact that we love playing all of the In Rock tracks live, it feels like a current album for us, really.

How did you hook up with Jeff Tweedy?
Uncle Tupelo opened up for the Fellows before they even made a record, then Jeff started hanging out in Chicago a lot with his eventual wife, Sue Miller (who co-owned the Lounge Ax club in Chicago). We played Lounge Ax all the time and stayed with her all the time, so we started running into each other a lot. We would hang out and play music for each other, whatever we were working on, and became really good friends that way. We kept talking about doing stuff together. Jeff played bass in a Minus 5 show back in Chicago in like 1996 at Lounge Ax. When the Lounge Ax was closing (in 2000), I flew out there to play one of the final shows. Jeff was like, “Fly out, Wilco will be your band.” Ever since then, we’d been talking about doing a record together, and finally we were able to make it work out with our schedules.

What were the Down With Wilco (2003) sessions like? How do you think the record turned out?
We started recording it on Sept. 10, 2001, so obviously the sessions got a little tainted the next day. It was really fucked up, but somehow we managed to produce some good music.

So you ended up working on 9/11?
Yeah. We weren’t going to, but it got to be later on in the day, and we were sitting around all day looking at TVs and feeling all freaked out. Eventually, everyone called each other and said, “Let’s go do something; let’s play some music and see what happens.” We did record a couple of songs that day. It was weird. We played a show on [the following] Saturday, which we were also going to cancel. It was the first night people were ready to go out and get drunk and share their miseries with each other. I’m glad we did it. It was hard, but once we got up there and played, it was great. It was a weird time to be making a record, but it was a weird time to be doing anything.

You had to audition for R.E.M., right?
Yeah. I mean, Peter couldn’t speak for everybody. It was kind of nerve-wracking for me, but it didn’t feel so much like you’d think an audition would feel like because I kind of knew the guys. I was nervous about it. They didn’t give me many guidelines about what songs to learn. They mentioned a few of them, and I learned them, then of course we didn’t play those. [Laughs] I remember Bill (Berry) really liked my bass playing for some reason, and that really helped. They don’t want some big flashy virtuoso player. They just want someone who can pick up an instrument and play various things in a somewhat competent fashion.

What was the first gig you played with them?
It was Saturday Night Live in October ‘94. That was pretty crazy for a first show. We did three songs, which was pretty cool. I still see that show every once in a while on Comedy Central. There we are bashing out “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”

What was the first proper gig?
It was in Perth, Australia. That’s where we started the ‘95 tour. We went out there and rehearsed for about a week and then did a couple of shows at a smaller venue. It was 7-8,000 people, which is still pretty big.

Was that the biggest you’d ever played?
No, the Fellows played a show once that was about 10,000 people, opening for Belinda Carlisle. [Laughs] We also opened up for Kenny G once.

What’s the story behind that one?
The Kenny G thing was before he was famous. We played at this college in Tacoma. It was pretty funny. They soundchecked their congas for about 45 minutes. [Laughs]

With R.E.M., what is it like going from the leader of a band playing clubs to a hired gun that plays someone else’s songs in front of larger crowds?
It’s really different and it’s really the same. I have a different role, and I have to keep my wits about me a little bit more. You’d think it would be the opposite, because being the singer of a band you need a little more responsibility, but I feel more of a duty to not be as much of a fuckup in R.E.M. as I am in my bands. That’s not to say that I’m not an occasional fuckup with R.E.M., but I do try to keep it together a little more. In that way it’s different. It’s a little more serious for me as far as trying to play the right notes and put on a good show in that way. But at the same time, you’re playing rock music with your friends and people are getting off on it, hopefully, so that part of it’s totally the same, whether there’s 15,000 people or 150.

You guys are friends, but it is R.E.M, after all, and they surely want to sound a certain way.
Oh, yeah. When we’re playing Saturday Night Live, you don’t want to get out there and make the songs suck. [Laughs]

When you started playing with R.E.M., did you have any indication at all that it would be a continuing thing and that you’d end up on the records, too?
No, I really didn’t. As far as I knew, they were going to do this long tour and they needed someone to play with them. I just kind of take it as it comes. But now it’s a pretty steady thing, so I count it. I don’t have to be there the whole time during the making of a record. They use me when they need me. After we get all of the tracks down for this record, they’ll probably work on it for a couple more months, and I probably won’t be involved in that. The first record I really worked on a lot was Up. I played on New Adventures In Hi-Fi because we did a lot of that during the tour.

Talk about your friend (late Seattle musician) Jimmy Silva, whose records you played on from time to time.
He was one of the guys that first really got me into recording and writing songs. He was a guy who wrote rock operas and stuff when I met him when I was 17 or 18. I thought, “Oh, my god, this guy’s Pete Townshend or something.” He showed me how to do overdubs, which I had no idea about. We just ended up being really good friends and writing songs together and playing together a lot. I love his records. I think he’s written some of the best songs ever. Unfortunately, he’s not with us any longer, and I really miss him. I still play his songs. We’ll probably do a whole record of them at some point. I’ve been talking about it for years, and Peter really wants to do it, too. It’ll be a Minus 5 project that will be Silva-themed.

How did he pass away?
He got chicken pox when he was 42. He got really sick. He didn’t know what was wrong, so he went to the hospital, and they told him he had chicken pox. Then he just died. It was really, really weird. Chicken pox is very serious when you’re older. That’s why you want to get it when you’re a little kid. It’s not something you’d normally die from, but it can cause organ failure.

You brought up the Presidents Of The United States Of America earlier. You’re friends with those guys, but they sort of hit with the kind of stuff you had been doing. Did you have any pangs of “That could’ve been us”?
Oh, no. I was just happy that a really fun rock ‘n’ roll band like that actually got popular. They were always up front about saying they were big Fellows fans. I was kind of the one that found them and led them to Conrad Uno and Popllama. They wanted to be on Popllama because they liked the Fellows. When their record took off, it worked out well for everybody. When they toured with that record (in ‘96), they took the Fellows with them.

How did you go over with their crowd?
We did OK. Some of their crowds were pretty young, so I think they were like, “Who are these fucking losers?” But we can usually win over a crowd. We’re pretty entertaining. Sometimes even confrontational. [Laughs] There was a little bit of that. People rained money on us once. I was playing a real slow country song, trying to get their goat a little bit. And it worked. [Laughs]

Since you’re so busy, I was wondering how you fill whatever free time you might have.
Most of my free time would be hanging out in Seattle and getting up at 6:30 and driving my daughter (Nadine) to school, that kind of stuff. I don’t really go on vacations or anything like that. My free time would be staying at home and doing the family thing, trying to be there, because a lot of the time I’m not there. That’s what I do, and then even when I’m doing that, I’m usually doing music. I’ll record stuff in the basement, or I’ll be playing a show with somebody somewhere. I just try to spend my free time at home so my wife (Christy McWilson of the Picketts) and daughter can have some semblance of recognition of me.