The Dean Wareham interview

I was looking forward to talking to Dean Wareham because I admired his work with Galaxie 500 and with Luna. And his soundtrack work. But I was nervous too - because I have read his memoir, Black Postcards.

It's an excellent book, one of the best rock memoirs I've read. But you get a very obvious picture that Wareham is wary of journalists - he reads his own press too; takes things seriously.

And when I made the first call through to him - to discuss the show 13 Most Beautiful that he and his wife Britta Phillips are bringing to Wellington as part of the International Arts Festival - Wareham seemed put out; he was shopping. He was convinced I had phoned early (I hadn't) - but I agreed to call back in two hours. And then started pondering how that would go.

Two hours later Wareham is on the line - friendly - curious about my location in New Zealand. It's not often that you speak to a musician in America and have them asking where you are in New Zealand. Even stranger to have them knowing, almost exactly, the location - I tell Dean I am out the back of Napier and he replies, "oh, near Taradale, is it? Yeah, I vaguely remember that...I've been there, I think, but it was a long time ago..."

Wareham was born in Wellington ("I was born in Seatoun; I still have some family in Lower Hutt") but the family moved to Australia when he was young. And then on to America.

Galaxie 500 was formed by Wareham in 1987 - they split up, three albums completed, in 1991. He says now, "the thing about that band is - the material seems to have grown for people with time. Obviously I'm proud of some of the songs, because they're my songs. But they're also very naïve and it's a surprise - a nice surprise - to see the band mentioned by people. To see compilations on the market, to hear the odd song from time to time."

The next band was Luna.

Luna lasted longer (1991-2005) and featured another Kiwi-born musician (Justin Harwood of The Chills).

"Actually," Wareham tells me, "Justin came from Taradale, or around that Napier area, so that's why I know it." He adds a chuckle and dismisses rumours that there might be a Luna reunion on the cards ("I think people announce that there will be reunions as soon as a band announces they are over, these days").

 And then it is down to the business at hand.

Dean and Britta - Phillips was a member of Luna but they now perform as a duo (called, in fact, Dean and Britta) - will bring their show 13 Most Beautiful to Wellington's arts festival. It is, for the Wellington-born musician, the first time he will play in New Zealand's capital.

"We meant to get there with Luna, but it never happened," Wareham confirms. He admits to being "a bit more excited than normal" about playing here. And then, "It'll be strange, I guess. A good kind of strange; I haven't avoided Wellington, or New Zealand, it's just a long way away...and now we're getting to play there."

The show, 13 Most Beautiful, is billed as a multimedia event. It is, Wareham says, "just another way to play a concert; something different, a new way to present music".

He goes on to explain how the show came about.

"We were contacted by the Warhol Museum. They commissioned the piece. Basically, Andy Warhol shot around 500 screen portraits in between 1964-1966. His screen tests - where he would film celebrities, musicians, actors, friends that would visit him - followed on from his portrait work; they grew out of his photo books. He went from still photographs of his friends to working with three-minute pieces of film. They're very raw in some cases, very honest. You see people staring dead on at the camera, reacting to the camera, some blissfully unaware, some painfully concerned with the intrusion."

Of the 500 or so in existence, Wareham says they sorted through around 150 to get the 13 for the show.

It was a huge job. "I instantly got involved in all sorts of reading relating to the time, to Warhol, his Silver Factory, the musicians, the history, social history of that time, basically that period of 1964-1966, which I was interested in anyway, but I really went to work on this".

And that research ("very intensive reading") was the basis for Dean and Britta to create a soundtrack to the chosen screen portraits.

"It's a fun show, I think, because the audience has the images to look at, to work with. And there's the music - and the music is us, as musicians, reacting to the images, in some cases. And we tried to create a series of pieces of music that flow - that could exist without the films in some cases but definitely work with the images."

The screen tests are, as far as Wareham is concerned, "pretty much the perfect length to compose for - they're basically song-length, so some of the pieces of music we have made feel like songs. Other times it is more background, meandering, but they're basically like live music videos - in a way or very short films, which is what a music video often is anyway."

The original plan was "six to ten shows", but Wareham says they're "now booked up until 2011" and is happy to be taking the show on the road, around America and around the world.

"It is a refreshing way to tour - we're still performing music live, we're on stage the whole time, with a four-piece band - but it's different. There are these other elements. You've got Warhol screen tests, you've got people looking at shots of Lou Reed and Dennis Hopper and there are some people the audiences recognise straight away and others you can see they are struggling to recognise and we're playing in different venues, away from the pubs and clubs. So it's a new scene - but it's still hitting the road and playing music."

This kind of show appeals and Dean says that he and Britta will most likely look to do something else along these lines. The pair have composed music for Noah Baumbach's films (The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding) and Wareham says it had crossed his mind to put together a show of their soundtrack work. But currently 13 Most Beautiful is "the best of both worlds".

Also on the cards for Wareham is another book - he says the experience of writing Black Postcards was "both rewarding and frustrating" and unlocked a desire to put things on the page.

He won't be in New Zealand for a long time - but says he'll be keeping his eyes and ears out for some new sounds to take back to New York.

13 Most Beautiful is at The Town Hall, Wellington, on Thursday, March 4, at 8pm.

Will you be heading along? Or if you could get to the show would you go? Or have you seen it already? And were you/are you a fan of Luna or Galaxie 500 or the Dean and Britta albums? And did you know that Britta Phillips performed the singing voice for the Jem of Jem and the Holograms? (Click here for the theme - and here for Phillips' interview about that early gig).

Oh, and here's a trailer for the 13 Most Beautiful show.

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