“We play a bunch of new stuff until the audience is like, ‘Well…’” jokes Dean Wareham; singer, songwriter, and guitarist of Galaxie 500, Luna, and Dean & Britta; who has spent the past several months touring behind That’s the Price of Loving Me, his fourth solo LP, which dropped March 28th via Carpark Records. “The day after the album came out, we headed out to do eight shows in a row, starting in Glasgow. I think my booking agent thinks I’m twenty-five years-old [laughs],” Wareham tells me during a May phone chat, the afternoon of a show at Lodge Room in LA. “I am good! I got a lot going on, got a show tonight, counting the T-shirts right now,” he says as we jump on the phone, admitting that he’s thankful for a 15 minute break from the mundane responsibilities that accompany being an independent artist in this day and age.
The two previous nights had Dean’s band – which also features Britta Phillips, Wareham’s wife, longtime Luna member, co-founder of Dean & Britta, and childhood resident of Bucks County – joined by our buddy Jess Cornelius, who opened the show and who Dean and Britta are apparently also fans of: “She’s amazing. Britta and I saw her last year. We didn’t know her, we were there to see someone else, and she played as a trio and it was amazing. She opened for Luna last year, and I heard she was gonna be solo, and it was like, “Oh, no!” but her solo show is great, too!” Dean and Jess also share a similar origin story: “She’s like me, she hails from New Zealand, but moved to Australia, and is now based in LA.”
That’s the Price of Loving Me saw Dean Wareham reuniting, for the first time in nearly three-and-a-half decades, with producer Kramer, who was responsible for production duties on all three of Galaxie 500’s studio albums. However, when I ask how this experience compared to the pair’s previous work, Wareham tells me that it has more similarities than differences: “There’s a lot of new technology, like files you can hear, which makes it a little easier, and there’s pitch correction, but it’s pretty much the same, other than things like that… We were in a better studio in LA, but sometimes I think that’s overstated. It’s not so much the equipment.” The album — which was recorded in just six days with generally about two takes per song — was tracked with a live band, featuring Kramer, but Dean says Kramer’s biggest strength might be his ability to play the role of an authority figure in the studio.
“His real talent, in addition to being an incredible musician, is arranging. He does the arranging all in his head. And he takes charge! It’s kind of nice to have someone in the studio take charge. It’s like the joke, ‘How many producers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?’ And the punchline is, ‘What do you think?’”
The album has been getting an abundance of critical praise, with MOJO (in a 4-star review) saying, “it all sounds great, a set of excellent songs that range from the Galaxie 500-ish ‘New World Julie’ to the ‘parallel inlays’ and ‘polymer pearl’ of the madrigal-sweet ‘We’re Not Finished Yet,” and Brooklyn Vegan proclaiming it to be, “Wareham’s finest solo record to date.” Apparently others agree, although Dean himself admits that, while he’s very happy with the finished product, it can be hard for him to accurately reflect on his own work: “I’m so close to it, it’s hard for me to judge, but I really like my last two records and Britta thinks this is my best solo record. There’s an exciting moment in every song. It’s got a Side 1 and a Side 2 and it works all the way through, which you don’t have with a lot of records these days.”
Dean Wareham is currently nearing the end of dates behind That’s the Price of Loving Me, which will have him headlining the Music Hall at World Café Live this Tuesday, June 10th [where he’ll be joined by special guest Escape-Ism, featuring Ian Svenonious (the Make-Up, Chain & the Gang, Nation of Ulysses), who Wareham is a big fan of: “They are amazing. He’s just an entertaining performer and he’s a great rock singer.”] And while recent sets have featured about half of That’s the Price of Loving Me, Dean tells me that he’s also more than happy to include a bunch of classics: “It’s fun to see people get excited, and I feed off of that… although I wouldn’t wanna just do that. I have done that with Galaxie 500, but after a few weeks of doing that, I get bored… And like, with the Luna songs, I’m not trying to replicate Luna; I’m doing something different with it.” But Wareham has played the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection a lot with his other bands over the years, noting an abundance of great Luna shows at The Trocadero and The TLA. And he has a pretty vivid memory of his first stop in the 215.
“I can think back to the very first time. Some guy came up onstage and like tried to punch me [laughs]. I think he wanted to do a dance, and I like pushed him, the slightest push, off of the stage – it was like a one-foot stage – and he got mad. And the thing is, I gave him a drink ticket earlier that night! I think he was just super drunk [laughs].”
*Get your tickets here.
