Great Interview With Dean Wareham By Rick Moody
We are never surprised to read an intelligent essay on music by the novelist Rick Moody, whose thoughts on Brian Eno last year were, to our ears, note perfect. Now, over at Rumpus.net, Moody has turned his gimlet eye to Dean Wareham, on the occasion of excellent new mini-album, Emancipated Hearts, which we wrote about last week.
First, have we mentioned what a joy it is to have Wareham reengaged at this level — not just putting out a solo album with songs that rank with the best of his work with Luna or Galaxie 500, but also sitting for an interview with so intelligent an interlocutor? Wareham’s sensibility has been missed. It’s not just the melodies he writes, the tasteful lines woven by his guitar, his quirky, limited, but reassuring singing. His is a speaking voice that needs to be heard, or at least read on the page.
Read the piece, and the interview. It’s a calm conversation between two masters of their form. We greatly enjoyed Wareham’s definition of what he seeks when writing a song.
Rumpus: Is a “state of bliss” the more ordinary goal of the popular song?
Wareham: Well there are different kinds of blissful states. I can get there with Brahms’ “German Requiem” or Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” but also with “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk. But if I look at my own recordings, I think generally there is a focal point within the song and often it’s the instrumental bridge or a guitar solo where we try to do something unexpected, something beautiful or weird, or beautiful because it is weird. And of course I fail half the time, but yes that is the goal, to create even a few seconds of bliss, or sadness. The electric guitar is a great instrument for doing this because it is capable of surprising you. There are so many different sounds available.
There’s more like that there. And if you haven’t downloaded Emancipated Hearts yet, get cracking.
Tulip Frenzy 
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