Luna’s past year has been just a little nutty. Between being dropped from Elektra, their record label of nearly eight years, right before the release of their new album The Days of Our Nights, and their four month search to find a label just to put out their new CD, things couldn’t seem to get much harder. But a few months ago, Luna’s bassist Justin Harwood decided to move to New Zealand, leaving the band forever. Harwood has since been replaced with former bass player of Ultrababyfat, Britta Phillips (who you may also remember as Billy in the 1988 Julia Roberts flick Satisfaction and recognize as Jem’s signing voice in the ’80s rock ‘n’ roll cartoon, Jem and the Holograms.) So can Luna endure anymore changes? Find out in this revealing tell-all with Luna singer, guitarist and songwriter Dean Wareham. Louise Thach: First things first. What happened to Justin? Dean Wareham: Justin’s life has been split between New Zealand, where his family is and where he’s originally from, and New York, where the band is. He has a wife and now has a new baby, so he decided to live in New Zealand. That’s what happened. It’s weird after all this time, because it’s been, you know, eight years, but we will continue. LT: How did you decide on Britta? DW: We auditioned several people, and they were really good actually. But Britta plays and sings very nicely. When you audition people, part of it is what they’re like as musicians and part of it is what they’re like as human beings, if they’re your kind of person or not, you know, because a lot of people can play it. LT: Is she with you for good? DW: Yeah, we’re going to make a record together this fall, hopefully. LT: I know you were anxious to release The Days of Our Nights, so how disappointed were you when Elektra dropped you right before the releasing? DW: Yeah, well, it’s always that way, especially if you’re on a major label. Things often get delayed. You just have to roll with that. You have to find a way to slide in, where you’re, hopefully, not competing against other alternative rock records coming out at the same time. We don’t have that problem on Jericho. They really focus on Luna. They’ve already sold more records than Elektra did on the previous one. They just made an effort, like on a retail level, by making posters and all kinds of those things. They even managed to get us on some TV shows, and you have to twist some peoples’ arms to do that. LT: Yeah, you’re going to be on Craig Kilborn soon. Didn’t you say you wished you had a dollar for every time you heard you were going on Conan O’Brien? DW: Yeah. Not to be cynical, but whatever. I tend to believe, at this point, that things are going to happen when they actually do happen. LT: So does being on Craig Kilborn make up for Conan? DW: Sure it does. It’s good. It’s about time. Maybe someone at the Conan O’Brien show doesn’t like us. I don’t know. LT: What were those few months finding a record label like? DW: It was frustrating, I suppose. It sort of ruined our summer. You know, you make all these plans. We weren’t in the depths of despair or anything. We knew someone was going to put the record out. It was already out in Europe, you know, but part of me thought it would be amusing to have nobody put it out here out of spite. LT: So do you think Luna can endure any more changes? DW: That’s a good question, isn’t it? Well, hopefully we won’t have to. Everybody seems pretty happy right now. We all like each other. Sometimes we get annoyed with each other, but basically we like each other. LT: Elektra asked you to make some changes and do some remixes on the new album before they dropped you. Do you regret any of the alterations? DW: Well on a major label, that’s standard procedure. And I don’t care, because the remixes really don’t sound that different; it’s a silly thing really. And we were just asked to put “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on it, because we did record it as a B-side, and I didn’t have a problem with that. It’s not like they asked us to write more songs. LT: Your following varies from drunken college frat boys to die-hard fans who’ve been there since your old band Galaxie 500. What’s it like to play for such a diverse crowd? DW: Yeah, well, the last time we played Maxwell’s, we had to tell some drunken college frat boys off. They were standing in the front row, singing along to “Tiger Lily” really loudly and making up their own words, and they were like blowing smoke in my face. I couldn’t even hear myself sing. And I was like, ‘If you guys want to sing along and make up your own words, why don’t you stand in the back.’ And they were quiet the rest of the time. LT: Have you ever had any other obnoxious fans? DW: Well, there was this guy in Philadelphia who tried to punch me. I gave this fan, who came up to me before the show, some drink tickets. And then during the show, one of his friends got on stage and started dancing. It was a tiny stage, so I gently kind of gave him a shove to get off the stage; it was kind like of a foot down. Then the guy who I gave the drink tickets to jumped up on stage and said ‘you ain’t s—‘ and tried to punch me. He missed. It was kind of funny more than anything else. LT: How did you feel about Rolling Stone’s description of Luna as ‘the best band that no one has heard of?’ DW: It was nice. I liked it. It didn’t bother me. It’s not quite true, obviously. But we circulated that to Elektra and put it on everyone’s desk. LT: How would you describe the mood of your music? DW: It’s a moody mood. It’s a sexy mood. I don’t know. What do you think? LT: I wouldn’t dare. But I will say that your lyrics can be very dark and direct. Is that the way you are? DW: No, that’s not at all the way I am. It’s just a function of creative writing, no matter what you’re writing, really, lyrics, or novels, or plays, or poetry. That’s the stuff that comes out, sort of darker stuff, which everyone tends to exaggerate anyway. That’s what part of writing is, taking things, exaggerating them and making them seem more important than they are. You don’t sit down and write about what a lovely day it is and what a good mood you’re in. But, I’m not as paranoid and creepy as the narrator of the songs. At least, I hope not. LT: So it’s like a release? DW: Yes, it is a release, definitely, about my anxieties and fantasies. LT: So do the lyrics just flow out of you? DW: No, it’s hard work. I go through my notebooks and pull out sentences from here and there, and try and make them fit into a song, because it’s always the music first. And maybe I’ll get four or five pages worth of stuff and sort of go through it and trim it down. And then you only really know how you feel about it when you actually have to sing and stand in front of a microphone. Then some lines you’ll feel immediately and be like ‘eew, I can’t say that.’ It’s not easy. It’s rather torturous. The creative process can be very torturous. LT: What notebooks? DW: I have various notebooks that go back a while, where I write down little things like a line from a movie or something or just ideas. Most of the material on a new record comes from the last 12 to 18 months of my notebook. LT: You said that the making of the new album was a more enjoyable process than Pup Tent. Why? DW: We worked with a sane producer, as opposed to an insane producer. No, Pat McCarthy isn’t insane, but he’s a taskmaster, and he had a very roundabout way of doing things. Pup Tent took three and half months and I certainly did not like to work that way. You start going nutty. We spent the first three weeks in Minneapolis, working from one in the afternoon ’till four in the morning, and I really didn’t like that. We hadn’t seen the sun at all, and I was taking these sleeping pills after we’d finish, because I was so wound up, and then they were making me really cranky. It was like a vicious cycle. So, there was none of that this time. It was Paul Kimble, who’s a musician who’s been on the other side of the microphone, and he was a good communicator. LT: So a quote from your press kit says, ‘I’m not sure I really know how to craft a proper pop song.’ DW: Really? I don’t think I even said that, well maybe I did. Well, I don’t know what the rules are. Our songs tend to be sort of verse, chorus, verse, chorus and then a really long outro. But I like that. So screw everybody if the songs don’t have bridges. No, sometimes they have bridges. LT: So how do you feel about Stephan Jenkins from Third Eye Blind saying that he was highly influenced by you? DW: Yeah, I guess they were big Luna fans. It’s not my fault. Don’t blame me. I’m not responsible for Third Eye Blind. Maybe he got us dropped from Elektra? No, maybe he was the reason we were kept there so long, ’cause he told them, ‘keep them; they’re cool.’ LT: Do you think you could even sit through a Third Eye Blind CD? DW: (sighs) Uh, well. (laughs) He did send me one once. I listened to it, because he said one of the songs sounded like Luna. And I’m like ‘Luna?’ Because I don’t hear it. LT: What song was it? DW: I don’t remember. It’s not the one that goes, ‘Do, do, do, do…’ (singing the intro to “Semi-Charmed Life”) I haven’t heard their new record. Whatever. I’m sure he’s a really nice guy….not. Are you going to send this to him? LT: No. But you can’t sit through it, huh? DW: Sit through a Third Eye Blind CD? Why would I do that? LT: Because he sent you a copy. DW: (laughing) I don’t know if I listened to the whole thing, I might have. Probably not. Luna will be playing Maxwell’s this Friday and Saturday, May 26 and 27, at 10 p.m. Tickets are only $14, so stop in because they might even do a Third Eye Blind cover…not!
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
