Dream Syndicate - Psychedelic Flashes from the Underground

Arriving a full twenty-nine years after its predecessor, ”How Did I Find Myself Here?“ marked the recording comeback of Dream Syndicate, the band that, led by Steve Wynn, coined the Paisley Underground aesthetic. As if all that time had never passed, this new Dream Syndicate album picks up the conversation exactly where it left off, proving that the psychedelic fire that blazed through Los Angeles in the eighties to set the world alight is still burning. Dream Syndicate will soon be in Italy for three dates, and we took the opportunity to have a chat with Steve Wynn.

Hi Steve! First of all, how are you? Where are you right now?

I'm doing great, thanks for asking. Hmm, let me look out the window… Ah, we're in Sweden!

Listening to the latest, gorgeous Dream Syndicate album, the moment the first riff of “Filter Me Through You” started ringing through my headphones, I had a kind of vision. A rocker wakes up after a twenty-nine-year sleep, but he couldn't care less, picks up his guitar and starts playing as if nothing had happened. Since as a solo artist you never actually stopped playing, what was it like going back to doing it with Dream Syndicate? What was it like getting back to rehearsing, recording and touring with the “boys”?

Well, actually it wasn't all that different from the scenario in your Rip Van Winkle-style vision! The first time Dream Syndicate played together again was in a rehearsal room in Madrid, in 2012. We gave ourselves three days to find our chemistry again. But fifteen minutes were enough. It was just like we'd never stopped. Some things stay imprinted in your DNA, even after all these years.

The chorus of “Glide” (one of the singles from “HDIFMSH”) goes “I just glide/I may never get higher/I don’t have to come down”. Those lyrics sound like the perfect motto for a psychedelia pioneer like you. What do they mean to you?

At a certain point in your life, it no longer matters where you've been or where you're going. It's all about where you are right now. You know there are plenty of records behind you, just as you know there could be just as many ahead of you, but you don't need to think about that — you have to focus on what you want to play now. Anyway, that's what these lyrics mean to me. That meaning can be extended to the human condition too — I firmly believe we should focus on our present. That, especially once you've reached a certain stage in life, the focus of your attention should shift from the future to the here and now.

A long time ago, in Los Angeles, your band and a few others founded a musical genre that everyone now calls Paisley Underground. Basically one of the most sensual, visceral and intriguing forms of psychedelia of the last few decades. Can you tell me a bit about the atmosphere in L.A. while all this was happening?

We were actually a pretty small group of bands — anywhere from four to six, depending on how broadly you want to define it. We all loved and played a kind of music that was seriously out of step with the times: guitars, garage, '60s influences, noise, jam sessions, a “trip”-oriented approach. None of that stuff was fashionable in those “Reagan-era” days of clean lines and synthesizers. So we were all genuinely thrilled to find allies, and we soon started spending a lot of time together and sharing live bills. It was a real scene, and all of us were each other's biggest fans.

While you were forging this new musical language, were you aware of what was happening? Of what your music would come to represent?

We became famous pretty much overnight, and honestly, the whole thing was pretty shocking. We genuinely believed our music would turn away more people than it would attract. But actually, what happened is easy to explain. I think the fans were looking for the kind of music we played — our fans had the same need we did. Let me put it this way: if someone had already been making the music we wanted to hear, we wouldn't have had any reason to exist. Sometimes I close my eyes and picture this scene: I pick up a record, drop the needle on it, and it plays exactly the music I want to make. It's impossible. It was all so simple, but we only understood that once it was all over.

Which of your records do you consider the most crucial to the development of Paisley Underground?

“The Days Of Wine And Roses”, without a doubt. That's what we made when everything was moving at full speed. But I'm deeply attached to all our other records too. And, I'll tell you, this latest one is the one most closely connected to those days, to our beginnings.

I find that Dream Syndicate, along with Slowdive and a handful of others, is one of the most beautiful band names I've ever come across. How did you choose it?

There's no particular reason behind that name. But I'll tell you one thing: losing the name was one of the most awful things about our breakup. I've always loved that name with all my heart.

Now let's play a game I recently proposed to Alex Maas of the Black Angels too. Put together the greatest psychedelic lineup of all time, you can pick dead people too.

Wow, this is really fun, thanks. On guitar, Syd Barrett, Albert Ayler on sax, John Cale on bass, Denardo Coleman (Ornette's son, ed.) on drums, and Damo Suzuki on vocals. That would be an insane band.

Steve, is there any new band you find interesting that you'd like to recommend to our readers?

There are so many. I really love Eyelids, Steve Gunn, Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band, 75 Dollar Bill, Elephant Stone. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone just as good, but those are the names at the top of my list.

You'll soon be in Italy for three dates, do you enjoy playing here?

Why even ask? Last year alone I played 26 dates in Italy on my solo tour! What's not to like about Italy? You've got amazing food and wine, spectacular countryside, fans with great taste... Anyway, I think anyone coming to our Italian shows won't regret it. We are gonna blow some minds!

And that's all from Steve, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

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