Sign up for our mailing list Real artists creating records on their own terms

Press

Tuesday, February 19th, 2019

The Dream Syndicate Bio (2019)

There are two phases of The Dream Syndicate. There was the band with revolving lineups that existed from 1982 to 1988 and made four albums including “The Days of Wine and Roses” and “Medicine Show,” both of which regularly show up on Best-Of lists and have influenced bands and delighted fans in the years since.

And then there’s the band that reunited in 2012 and is closing in on its seventh year, longer than the run of Phase One, with nary a lineup change. This 21st Century version of the Dream Syndicate released “How Did I Find Myself Here” in 2017 to universal acclaim, no small feat for a band reuniting after almost three decades.

I mean, go ahead. Try to name a band whose reunion record stacks up against the music they made the first time around. Go ahead. We’re waiting. 

“I felt like we threaded the needle pretty nicely on the last album,” says founder and singer/guitarist/songwriter Steve Wynn, “referencing who we were and what we had done the first time around but also taking it all someplace new and fresh. It’s a tough balance. Ignore your past and you’re just using the band’s name for convenience, mire yourself too much in the past and you’re a parody—you are your own Rutles. We did neither. We were proud of the record and it was really nice to see that our fans and newcomers alike felt the same way. We were able to go out and play shows of mostly new songs and it really made us feel good to see that the audience knew the record and it was what they had come out to hear us play.”

Therefore, with that reintroduction and a full year of touring behind them, the Dream Syndicate had the freedom to take it all somewhere new, to dig a little deeper, get outside of themselves a little bit. Their new album ‘These Times’ (May 3, ANTI-) feels like a late-night radio show that you might have heard as a kid, drifting off into dreams and wondering the next morning if any of it was real.  

“That was my favorite way to hear music” says Wynn. “Radio under the pillow, KPPC-FM in Pasadena playing the Persuasions, Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis, Neil Young, Yes, Curtis Mayfield and Roxy Music. It all fit together somehow, one hazy, psychedelic stew that held together mostly because of the late hour, the state of consciousness and the willingness to be absorbed by it all without filter or fear. Complete immersion in another world.”

So, what does it sound like?  If “How Did I Find Myself Here” was a 10 pm record, all swagger and cathartic explosion, then “These Times” is the 2 am sibling, moodier and more mercurial, the band acting as DJs of their own overnight radio station, riffing on an idea of what a Dream Syndicate album could be at this moment in time. It is Radio DS19.

“When I was writing the songs for the new album I was pretty obsessed with “Donuts” by J-Dilla. I loved the way that he approached record making as a DJ, a crate-digger, a music fan wanting to lay out all of his favorite music, twist and turn the results until he made them into his own. I was messing around with step sequencers, drum machines, loops—anything to take me out of my usual way of writing and try to feel as though I was working on a compilation rather than ‘more of the same’. You might not automatically put The Dream Syndicate and J-Dilla in the same sentence, but I hear that album when I hear our new one.”

There is the same lineup as the last album—Wynn, Jason Victor, Mark Walton, Dennis Duck and Chris Cacavas.  But the ace in the hole this time around is Stephen McCarthy of Long Ryders who added backing vocals to most of the songs and takes it all someplace new and dreamier, much as he did on “Medicine Show” way back when. Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends, Arthur Buck, The Baseball Project) adds backing vocals as well. “We did all of the backing vocals in one day, the last day of the session and they transformed what we had—they’re really as big a part of the end result as any other instrument on the record.  We were really never much of a harmony band but that changed this time around.”

The band recorded once again at Montrose Studios in Richmond, Virginia.  Co-produced this time around by John Agnello (Phosphorescent, Waxahatchee, Hold Steady, Dinosaur Jr and a good chunk of Wynn’s own records). “Almost all of the songs were written in the last year so it all feels really new to all of us which is pretty exciting,” Wynn explained. “Just like the last time, I wrote the lyrics after we finished tracking so that the words would be dictated by the sound rather than the other way around.”

So, what’s it all about?

“These Times. That’s it. It’s all we’re talking about, all we’re thinking about. There’s no avoiding the existential panic of a world that’s hurtling somewhere quickly and evolving and shifting course by the hour.  It seems like a lie to not address or reflect the things that we can’t stop thinking about—the whole world’s watching indeed. The lyrics are just a mirror of the dread, panic, mania, speculation, melancholy and ultimately shrugging abandonment that just might follow. It’s just all about where we are.”

The Dream Syndicate has a long and storied history. But where are they right now? They’re here. Right here. In These Times.

The Dream Syndicate's artist page

Browse by Artist

2440All Artists 67Mavis Staples 58Neko Case 56Dr. Dog 55The Milk Carton Kids 52Son Little 51Sean Rowe 50Tinariwen
44Glen Hansard 43Lost In The Trees 41Andy Shauf 37Saintseneca 36Delicate Steve 33Michael Franti and Spe... 33Galactic 32Xenia Rubinos 31Jolie Holland 30Calexico 30The Drums 29Tom Waits 28William Elliott Whitmo... 28Madi Diaz 28Doe Paoro 27Man Man 27Half Waif 27Yves Jarvis 26Girlpool 26Christian Lee Hutson 25Lido Pimienta 25Bettye LaVette 24Foxwarren 23Christopher Paul Stell... 23Jason Lytle 23The Antlers 22Gary V 22Booker T. Jones 22Cass McCombs 22Sage Francis 21Islands 21Japandroids 21Leyla McCalla 21Danny Elfman 20DeVotchKa 20Jeremy Ivey 20Daniel Lanois 19The Dream Syndicate 19M. Ward 19Purr 19Combo Chimbita 18So Much Light 18Wilco 18Joe Henry 17Tim Fite 17Moor Mother 17Darrin Bradbury 17Jade Jackson 17Grinderman 16Porter Wagoner 16Peter Silberman 16High Pulp 16MJ Lenderman 15Glitterer 15Yann Tiersen 15Alfa Mist 15Rafiq Bhatia 14James Brandon Lewis 14John K. Samson 13Curtis Harding 13The Coup 13Busdriver 13Rain Machine 13Ben Harper 12The Melodic 12Waxahatchee 12Richard Reed Parry 12Deafheaven 12Hey, King! 12Josiah Johnson 11Ryan Pollie 11Keaton Henson 11Beth Orton 11Bonny Doon 11Kelly Hogan 10Roky Erickson 10Ben Harper and Charlie... 10Fleet Foxes 10The Tallest Man On Ear... 10Os Mutantes 10Bob Mould 10Xavier Rudd 10Beat Connection 10Wynonna 10Slow Pulp 10Katy Kirby 10Jasmyn 10Dead Man's Bones 9Marketa Irglova 9Kate Davis 9Cameron Avery 9Kate Bush 9Ezra Furman 9Mose Allison 9The Locust 8Art Moore 8Greg Graffin 8The Frames 8Sam Akpro 8A Girl Called Eddy 8Deradoorian 8Kristine Leschper 7Solillaquists of Sound 7sunking 7The Field 7Alec Ounsworth 7Scott McMicken and THE... 6Marc Ribot 6Broken Twin 6Pops Staples 6The Good Ones 6Pete Philly & Perquisi... 6Sparklehorse 6Ramblin Jack Elliott 6N.A.S.A. 6Kronos Quartet with Br... 5The Swell Season 5Tweedy 5Cadence Weapon 5Walter Wolfman Washing... 5Mothers 5Plains 5The Weakerthans 5Jackson+Sellers 4Petra Haden 4Arc Iris 4Eddie Izzard 4One Day As A Lion 4Muggs 4case/lang/veirs 4Antibalas 3Danny Cohen 3Mavis Staples & Levon... 3Marianne Faithfull 3Simian Mobile Disco 3Sierra Leones Refugee... 3The Book Of Knots 2Screaming Lights (Euro... 2Lyrics Born 2Spoon (Europe only) 2Billy Bragg 2Savath & Savalas 2Title Fight 2Chuck E. Weiss 2Jeff Tweedy 2Various Artists: RANGO 2Blackalicious 1Nick Cave & The Bad Se... 1Various Artists: ROGUE... 1Taylor Vick 1The Beths 1Solomon Burke 1Rogue's Gallery
See Full List+