Jeff Tweedy Launches Substack Newsletter ‘Starship Casual’
Jeff Tweedy, like many of your favorite writers, is launching a Substack. On Wednesday, the Wilco unveiled Starship Casual, a paid newsletter where he will talk about his favorite music, dole out advice, tell stories from his lengthy career, and share unreleased music.
“I always have way more music recorded than I could ever put out and I can’t wait to share a ton of stuff you’ve never heard,” Tweedy wrote in his introductory post. “Basically it’s Jeff Tweedy (me) digging a little deeper into the types of connections one can make with strangers when one shuts off a few of the filters neurotic worry brings and lets shit fly.”
Starship Casual is Tweedy’s latest endeavor in the written word, following his recent memoirs How to Write One Song and Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back).
“I know I’ve shared a lot — been pretty prolific for a scary long time now. But a couple of things happened this past year (which I’ll get to in a sec) that have me craving a bit more of a direct experience with my collaborators (you),” Tweedy writes. “Social media has never quite met these needs for me. Occasionally I’ve dabbled with tweets and whatnot, but I’ve never been able to quite put my finger on the reason for the emptiness I feel trying to engage with all of you while using those formats.”
The singer added that his Substack was inspired by his intimate, near-daily The Tweedy Show livestreams that he uploaded on social media; with Wilco heading back out on tour — the trek kicks off Thursday, August 5th — the livestream is going on hiatus, but Tweedy hopes to maintain that sense of community with Starship Casual.
“I really want this newsletter to be an extension of that experience, and to put into practice some of the insight I’ve gained about my past attempts to make social media feel worthwhile and honest to me. It’s the community I’ve always missed,” he wrote. “Blue checks or not I’m not sure anyone is really themself — really who they say they are in that climate over there. I’m going to settle in here and share all kinds of things with an added emphasis on a feeling of direct interaction. Mostly, I just want to be here where you can find me. If you need me. Because I like you. Let’s spend some time together.”
In his introductory post, Tweedy also answered the question, “Why the paywall?” “Well, good question. I’d like to point out that at least half of what I’ll be doing here will be free,” he wrote. “However, after a year and a half with no shows and close to 200 totally free live streams [with The Tweedy Show], we’ve come to the conclusion that I should in fact get paid for what I do occasionally. I really think it’s gonna be worth it if you have the spare cash.”
