Dean Wareham

Dean Wareham established a dedicated following during the closing years of the 1980s through his role as vocalist, composer, and guitarist in the notable three-piece group Galaxie 500, recognized for a restrained vocal approach and poetic, frequently hallucinatory pop compositions. The trio’s mesmerizing, unpolished aesthetic contributed to the direction indie rock took both then and in subsequent decades. Following Galaxie 500’s dissolution, Wareham assembled Luna, whose buoyant, atmospheric style extended his admiration for acts such as Velvet Underground and Television along with composers including Jimmy Webb and Serge Gainsbourg. Releases such as 1994’s Bewitched, 1995’s Penthouse, and 2002’s Romantica received strong critical notice and became fixtures on alternative and college radio rotations. Wareham also issued several recordings as one member of the pair Dean & Britta with his Luna colleague Britta Phillips, created music for multiple films by director Noah Baumbach, and later put out solo efforts including the self-titled 2014 album and 2021’s I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1963, Wareham passed the greater part of his adolescence in New York City after his family relocated there in 1977. Upon finishing secondary school he attended college in Boston and spent one year abroad in Germany before returning to Boston. In 1987 he founded Galaxie 500 alongside drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang. The group secured a deal with the respected independent imprint Rough Trade and delivered its debut album, Today, in 1988. Although largely ignored by mainstream listeners, the ensemble’s unhurried, Velvet Underground-tinged material cultivated a loyal audience and anticipated several indie rock styles that emerged during the 1990s alternative era. Wareham recorded three albums with Galaxie 500 before departing the group in 1991. Concurrently, Rough Trade’s bankruptcy placed the band’s catalog in uncertainty; Krukowski later acquired the master tapes at auction and oversaw their reissue on Rykodisc in 1996. After striking out alone, Wareham returned to New York City, where he put out the EP Anesthesia and added vocals to Mercury Rev’s “Car Wash Hair.”

Before the close of 1991, Wareham had launched Luna with bassist Justin Harwood, formerly of the Chills, and drummer Stanley Demeski, formerly of the Feelies. Reportedly titled after Diane Keaton’s character in Woody Allen’s Sleeper, Luna released its first full-length, Lunapark, on Elektra; the song “Slash Your Tires” received noticeable airplay on college and alternative stations. With guitarist Sean Eden now aboard, Bewitched appeared in 1994 and showed the group refining its ethereal approach; the album also included a guest turn by Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison that symbolically transferred an art-rock lineage. After the record’s release Demeski exited and was succeeded by drummer Lee Wall.

Wareham reinforced his standing as an indie rock exemplar with 1995’s Penthouse. Esteemed contributors again appeared, among them Television’s Tom Verlaine and a duet between Wareham and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier on a version of Serge Gainsbourg’s 1968 composition “Bonnie and Clyde.” Pup Tent arrived two years afterward and found the band exploring horns and an expanded range of guitar textures. Despite favorable reviews, Elektra dropped Luna prior to the fifth album, The Days of Our Nights, which Jericho eventually released. The live set Luna Live surfaced on Arena Rock in 2001.

Around that period Harwood departed and was replaced by Britta Phillips, previously of Belltower and Ultrababyfat, who also sang and played bass. Phillips had begun her career providing the singing voice for the character Jem in the 1980s animated series Jem & the Holograms; she became central to Luna and appeared on the well-regarded 2002 album Romantica. In 2003 Wareham and Phillips, by then romantically linked, formed the chamber-pop duo Dean & Britta. Their first release, L’Avventura, blends original material and covers drawn from the 1960s pop of Serge Gainsbourg and Lee Hazlewood and was produced by Tony Visconti. The next year Luna announced its disbandment shortly before issuing its seventh album, Rendezvous.

Wareham and Phillips persisted after Luna’s conclusion, delivering the 2006 Dean & Britta EP Words You Used to Say. They married the following year and released the second Dean & Britta full-length, Back Numbers, a collaboration with Pete Kember (Sonic Boom) of Spacemen 3. During the same stretch they supplied the soundtrack to 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol Screen Tests, a project built around Andy Warhol’s silent-film portraits of figures including Nico and Lou Reed. Wareham next issued the solo EP Emancipated Hearts in 2013. Produced by Papercuts’ Jason Quever, the EP featured Phillips and drummer Anthony LaMarca.

In 2014 Wareham delivered his first solo full-length, the self-titled Dean Wareham, whose polished, synth-heavy sound was produced by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. The subsequent year he and Phillips scored another Baumbach film, Mistress America, while Wareham also contributed to Phillips’ own debut solo album, 2015’s Luck or Magic. The pair rejoined their Luna bandmates in 2017 for the covers collection A Sentimental Education and the six-track instrumental EP A Place of Greater Safety, then toured Spain and North America. Wareham’s next project paired him with dream-pop artist Cheval Sombre in 2018 for the psychedelic-tinged cowboy-ballad covers album Dean Wareham vs. Cheval Sombre. After multiple reunions, soundtrack assignments, and reinterpretations, Wareham had gone nearly seven years without composing original material. To restart the process he reserved a week at a California studio and worked under deadline pressure. The resulting songs, character portraits and reflections on contemporary existence, were realized with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Quever, drummer Roger Brogan, and Phillips. In addition to the new compositions, 2021’s I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. contains renditions of Scott Walker’s “The Duchess” and Lazy Smoke’s psych-pop obscurity “Under Skys.”