Luna's Final Shimmering Light - Pt 1
By: Brett Hickman |
Monday February 21, 2005 |
| When the band announced it was breaking up on the heels of its most compelling full-length release in quite some time, 2004's "Rendezvous", Static was compelled to speak with Wareham. |
| There are some bands you tend to take for granted. The sort of band who is
dependable, never really slips up, is constantly enjoyable to listen to. But
for whatever reason, be it they don't clamor for the spotlight, they don't
sleep with the wrong (wrong being right) people, and generally don't
draw a lot of attention to themselves, and in turn, get lost in the shuffle.
Luna, specifically Dean Wareham, fits this description to a T. So when
the band announced it was breaking up on the heels of its most compelling
full-length release in quite some time, 2004's Rendezvous, Static was
compelled to speak with Wareham about why they decided to disband and what was
in store for Wareham in the future?
The following is the full transcription of Wareham's and Static's Senior Editor, Brett Hickman conversation the night of Luna's penultimate show in Chicago. Brett Hickman: What is the reason for ending? Dean Wareham: There's not just one reason. Anytime you move on in your life, make a big decision like that there's a lot of things sort of weighing on you, they build up inside. It just sort of becomes...it's sort of obvious to everyone...I don't know...you could go on forever, but bands aren't supposed to go on forever. You don't think they're going to last forever when you form them. Some have other notions. Especially when you consider that rock 'n roll has been going on for fifty years and a band like the Stones have been around for forty of those years. That's true, but if you asked them when they were younger they would have been all like "Yeah if I'm doing this when I'm forty, shoot me!" They go on tour and make a hundred million dollars... You see a lot of bands, even mid-level bands, even if they break up and reform, they oftentimes last longer than they had in their original incarnation. Like the Buzzcocks have been around longer than they were the first time. So, it's not about internal strife... There's some internal strife...I don't think you can be in bands together for twelve years and not have internal strife... But that's not the impetus for the breakup, then? It's not out of control...Like any kind of relationship there are ups and downs. I don't know...being in a band is different...when you turn forty it's all different... Is it a question of youth or of maturity, perhaps? Well, I'd say that some things are not as much fun at age forty as they are at twenty-five...life becomes more complicated ya know? I have a kid, it's just...I think that there's a reason that the lifestyle suits people more when they're twenty-two and don't have a care in the world. They can do whatever they want. They can go on a long tour and maybe not make any money... But things change when you gain more responsibility... That's true. It doesn't make it impossible, but it makes it more of a juggling act. Personally, I'm just tired of organizing my entire life around a rock 'n roll band. Making all the decisions as a committee of four. It kind of wears on you. There are great things about being in a band, too. Especially when it comes to playing live where you can depend on each other. It makes that aspect a lot easier. I've heard other people say this, too. Little things like picking a photo or a title or something. What are your plans afterward? Probably the next thing that I'll do is make another record with Britta. The first was more of a side project. We did one show here. That was rather difficult, actually. It's more difficult to make a Luna record, it takes like months of rehearsing. But when you come to play it live, because you've spent all of that time rehearsing and learning the songs together it's really easy. Which is the opposite experience with Britta and I. Because we had a record that wasn't made live and trying to recreate that was quite difficult. I'm talking to Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 about making a record with him. I don't know what else I could do...write my memoirs? I'd like to have more control over my life and to do what I want when I want. Does that sound selfish? No. People like to complain about touring. Touring is great...it can be exhilarating and it can also be depressing. On the one hand you get to go all kinds of places, and see the clubs and the dressing rooms. Sometimes the traveling is fun, but then sometimes it's just a bummer. You sort of feel like when you go away for four months you miss out on a chunk of life in a way. I don't know. (sarcastically) Poor me! When did these notions start to creep in, or were they around for a long time? When Justin left the band in 1999 I thought about it then. He left and we had also been dropped by Elektra. But then Britta joined the band, she kind of made it fun again. I think turnover within a band is essential. If you're going to last this long. If people really don't want to be doing it, you know, get out. Otherwise it's sort of miserable to have someone that doesn't want to be doing it. Was that the case with Justin? At the end there, yeah. He was burnt out a bit. Was he hanging in there out of some sort of personal responsibility? He left because he went back to New Zealand, because his wife had a baby. He was stressed out spending time in New York and then going back to New Zealand. So, any money he was making he had to spend on airline tickets...When you make a big decision in your life things start building up in your head... Did you feel some sort of pressure by being the mainstay of the band? Absolutely. I felt a pressure to provide an income for people. It's difficult in a musical climate. Is it possible that that was one of the reasons for not stopping sooner? No, because I was enjoying it. Despite something like Elektra letting us go. Despite some bad things happening...on another level the band was playing live to more people than ever. It was fun having no record company at all, doing whatever the hell we wanted. What was the reason for signing with JetSet records? They made us the best offer. We didn't even try to go to the major labels. At that time there weren't rock 'n roll bands being signed. Everyone was saying "Oh, rock 'n roll is dead! All that they're signing is 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys!" That's one thing you learn in this business...If it's something new you can go to people and go, "These guys could be huuuggeee!" Whereas with a band like us, never sold more than so many records...and they're not interested in that. Much worse things have happened to other artists on major labels. You hear about bands making albums and the label won't put it out and you have to buy it back... Especially with regards to the amount of money they throw at promoters. Which is payola in a different form. Not to mention that there are these giant conglomerates owning just about all of the radio stations. They like that they have to pay for radio because it keeps them in control. The book Hit Men was about this. What they did to try and get rid of payola was to have a program director at each station so that you couldn't influence individual DJs. But actually it just made it easier because they just had to approach one person. I just saw the Ray Charles film and they show Ahmet Ertegun handing a stack of money to the DJ while he talks up the new hit by Charles...it's funny to think that now they are trying to make it look more respectable, whereas the old way was probably a lot better and a lot more honest. Well now they have the "Pay to Play" things. Where you can actually play above the board as long as they say this is paid for by...I have a friend who's a program director in Philadelphia. He loves Luna. He's the biggest fan, but he's like "I can't play you on the radio." He went to business school and studied marketing and that's what it is. They're in a business. They identify the target audience and deliver what they think will pull the most listeners in. But there's always something that comes out of nowhere like Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand or The Killers. Yeah there's some money thrown at them, but originally Franz came from Domino records and they haven't the biggest pockets... It's true. This does happen. It's an interesting thing about youth culture. Things are sort of bubbling and they explode and nobody can predict it. There's some great stations out there, though. The internet is really where it's at. Anything good will most likely be corrupted. DW: That's true. Part 2 |
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