Interviewed june 1997 by phone

Dean Wareham is getting a little tired his band keeps getting compared with The Velvet Underground. Dean: ‘Recently we were down in Paris for a promotional tour and every journalist we talked to said something about that. There was even one who said the new record sounded like a continuation of what the Velvet Underground did when they stopped.’ There’s a lot you can say about “Pup Tent”, but the comparison with the Velvet Underground is a bit farfetched.

Dean: ‘Well, it’s actually our own fault. The first record we made, “Lunapark”, did sound a lot alike. Sterling Morris did play on the second “Bewitched” and not long after they asked us to come on tour with them.’ Add the fact that they made some music for the soundtrack of “I Shot Andy Warhol”, then it’s really not that surprising that a lazy journalist is bound to start comparing. But it still isn’t fair, Luna does have many more interesting sides than just the VU reference. This is Deans second band, he used to be a bit of a foreman in Galaxie 500, a band that has become quite special to many in retrospect. Bassplayer and co-founder Justin Harwood played with The Chills once and former drummer Stanley Demeski used to drum with The Feelies. All veterans in music. Dean: ‘Yeah, I’ve started to realise I’ve been making music for quite a while. Seven records is a carreer in Rock something I can be proud on. If you’d asked me ten years ago if I would still make music now, I would probably have said no. But this is what I really like to do, so in ten years I’ll still make music.’

There’s a big chance he will still be busy making music with Luna. Dean: ‘We’re getting better at it. I really liked the last two records, but it’s getting harder to write a song, but that’s because I’ve become harder on myself.’ Dean’s way of writing songs is time-consuming, he uses the collage technique. Dean: ‘I write down anything that comes to mind on little pieces of paper and I keep those until I have to write a song, then I try to collect everything that fits within a certain song and by adding lyrics in the end it becomes a fitting story. Usually that is way to much for a song, so by taking away the things that aren’t really needed it becomes the final song. This process can take a lot of time, but in the end it all depends on how much time I get or allow myself to take.’

The new record “Pup Tent” is different than other records, the production is littered with strange little sounds and instruments. Dean: ‘It’s the first time we’ve really worked with a producer and allow him to fill in his vision on our music. Pat McCarthy is a perfectionist who has engineered with U2 or bands like that. That has influenced his style, because these bands have the time and money to experiment a lot in the studio. That’s what we had to do for this record. The first thing Pat asked me to do was to go to a toystore to buy things we could use on the record. On one of the songs we used the speaker of a toyrobot to sing through.’ Although the producer of “Pup Tent” may have used too many special effects, Dean isn’t unhappy about the result. Dean: ‘I’m not sure if we’ll use a producer on the next record, but it was nice to work with somebody else’s ideas for a change. It did take longer than normal, but the results are there.’ Now Luna is going back onstage to present these songs live. Dean: ‘That’s going to be a real problem simulating some of the instruments. We don’t have the many to take on more musicians, so we’ll have to do it ourselves. Justin plays the trumpet sometimes, but if he does that he won’t be able to play bass at the same time. Never mind, we’ll find a way to do it.’