Patrick Sansone, a member of Wilco since 2004, has an addiction.@@http://mississippilegends.com/articles/patrick-sansone/index.html@@
The guitarist/keyboardist of one of the most popular rock/pop bands in the past 20 years will be the first one to tell you that he is addicted to working hard and making music.
Sansone, who coproduced the band’s Grammy-nominated eighth studio album, “The Whole Love,”@@http://wilcoworld.net/#!/music/the-whole-love/@@released last September, has spent nearly eight years recording, touring and collaborating with Wilco since he joined the group in the second half of 2004.
But a quick glance at his biography reveals much more about the 42-year-old musician. In just the past eight years, Sansone has released two albums for his own group, The Autumn Defense,@@http://www.myspace.com/theautumndefense@@ helped write and record Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” (2007)@@http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10219-sky-blue-sky/@@ and “Wilco (The Album)” (2009),@@http://www.allmusic.com/album/wilco-the-album-r1585319@@ as well as working with such artists as Philip Selway (of Radiohead), Jamie Lidell (on several tracks on 2010’s Compass)@@http://www.amazon.com/Compass-Jamie-Lidell/dp/B003AVAJES@@ and in Mavis Staples’ 2010 album “You Are Not Alone.”@@http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14666-you-are-not-alone/@@
In preparation for Wilco’s performance at the Hult Center tomorrow night, the Emerald spoke with Sansone about joining the bank, making music and the transformation of his life.
ODE: You’ve had an incredible journey over the course of your life, from your early years growing up in a musical family, to your first days working in a recording studio at the age of 14, to being part of the internationally recognized band Wilco. What’s it been like? What are you doing today?
PS: Well, it’s been long (laughing). Fourteen was a long time ago now. It has been a long journey, but now I still do feel connected to that 14-year-old who was first working in the recording studio and discovering things.  I’m still discovering things all the time. That’s one of the great things about playing in this band: We’re still all very curious musicians. We’re all musicians with our ears open still.
Everybody in the band was the kind of person who was caught by music at a very early age and has followed that call through their entire lives. There have been a lot of ups and downs — I spent a lot of time in my 20s really struggling — struggling financially and struggling wondering if I should make music my profession. But I’ve never really had a choice — there’s never been a doubt that I had any other choice. I’m really lucky that down the line I’ve been able to stumble across these people.
I’ve been doing more producing in the last couple years as well. I’m kind of a workaholic; I love being in the studio, and I love performing as well.
Have you kept in contact with any of your friends from your 20s who haven’t had the same amount of popular success that you’ve been able to find?
I have friends who have taken all sorts of different paths in their lives. I have friends that I still do music with that have gone on to do some really cool musical things (on their own), too.
Dave King, who I was roommates with in New Orleans when I was in my 20s, we ended up playing in a band together for a few months. That was in the mid-’90s. He actually just made a record  — he’s a great drummer — he just made a new record, his first solo record. He would send me tracks over the Internet, and I would work on it at home before sending it back.
The album is called “The Heavy Dream,” by Dave King.@@http://www.theheavydream.com/bio.html@@ I think that’s a pretty cool example of how these musical friendships can last a long time. It’s funny, when we were living in that crappy apartment in New Orleans 15 years ago, it’s funny to think that now even though we’re not living in the same place anymore we’re still making music together after all of these years.
You joined Wilco in 2004, just before the band was about to leave on tour to promote its new album, “A Ghost is Born.” At the time, band leader Jeff Tweedy@@http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/wilco_1/artist.jhtml@@ was just coming out of a short stay in a drug rehab clinic. What was it like to play with Tweedy after he came out of rehab? Was this the first time you had met Jeff?
No, that was not the first time I’d met Jeff. I had met him many years before. John (Stirratt, bassist of Wilco)@@http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-stirratt-p128834/biography@@ and I had been friends since the late ’90s. I met Jeff not too long after I met John. I’d been around the guys in the band before. I was already friends with Jeff (when joining Wilco in 2004).
I immediately sat down to work on learning a lot of songs and then flew to Chicago for the first rehearsals.  And that was the day that Jeff checked into the hospital. It was a bit strange; we were kind of faced with “What do we do now?” but we were all there. We used it as an opportunity to get to know each other.
We forced ahead with rehearsals, and we rehearsed without him for about a week and a half. It was a good experience for the rest of us, taking that tough period and using it to get to know each other musically and as a band.
When Jeff came back, he was in a healthier spot than before. We were all happy to see Jeff get healthy.
What’s the first thing you plan to do when you get off this tour?
I’m going straight back to the recording studio to finish mixing an album that I’m working on. We only have a short break between this tour and our tour in Europe, and I have a deadline.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZAKTCeE70Y&w=560&h=315]
@@Wilco@@ @@Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center@@ @@Friday February 3, 2012@@ @@Show starts at 8 p.m.@@ @@$40-$45@@