Wilco's Jeff Tweedy took the production reins for Transmitter, the latest LP by Max Clarke – better known by his stage name, Cut Worms.
It’s a decision that goes against the Brooklyn, New York-based indie pop songwriter’s usual DIY intuition.
During the process, Clarke learned to make the most of it: to let someone else put their fingerprints all over his ideas while also immersing himself in Tweedy’s extensive and almost definitely expensive guitar collection.
“Historically, I’ve white-knuckled it through other people’s playing,” he tells Guitar World. “I did it all myself a lot of the time. I had a stranglehold on the thing. This time, I trusted that somebody else could bring something to the music that I couldn’t.”
It’s helpful, too, when relinquishing a little control, that his producer came with a wealth of gear.
“Tweedy wasn’t precious about his expensive guitars,” he nods. “They are meant to be played.”
But there was one Clarke was too terrified to get close to.
“If you wanted to use an instrument, you just picked it up and used it,” he says. “At one point, when we were sitting there in the control room area, I reached for an acoustic guitar to idly play or strum. Jeff’s like, ‘That’s the most expensive guitar in this building… Just so you know.’
“I didn’t ask how much it was,” he adds. “I was just like, ‘Get it away from me.’ It’s good to know that Tweedy’s on-stage, chill dad persona translates to the studio.”
Gentle demeanor or not, the fear of scaring an instrument worth an eye-watering amount was enough to stop him tinkering. Luckily, he didn’t need to. There was plenty more on offer.
“He had 15 original Rickenbackers from the ’60s,” he says. “Even though there was all this really cool old gear and things that could be in museums, Jeff wasn’t precious about any of it.”
The 10-track album was released in March and clearly benefits from Tweedy’s excess of six-strings.
Clarke’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitar World, which sees David Bowie gracing the cover. His former foils have given new interviews about what it was like to work for the chameleonic hitmaker.
Print and digital copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.
