Fantastic American singer/songwriter STEVE WYNN first came to our notice with a series of superb psych/pop albums with his LA based quartet THE DREAM SYNDICATE during the 1980s. He very kindly spent some time talking to TIM PEACOCK about firstly THE DREAM SYNDICATE’S legendary “Days Of Wine & Roses” album (re-issued by Rhino during 2001) and then about his scintillating solo work, not least about his classic 2001 album, “Here Come The Miracles.”
1. Steve, your introductory sleevenotes with the Rhino edition really set the scene...what was the mood in the band at the time of recording “Wine and Roses”? Excitement?
STEVE: "We were very excited but we also knew that we had only one six-hour session to capture all of our songs and deliver the music we had been making in the clubs over the previous eight months. We were pretty cocky and fearless, two essential qualities for good music, and never worried about the limited time or any kind of pressure. Instead, we got some fried chicken, whiskey and just let it fly."
2. Like many of my fave albums, ( other e.gs. “Unknown Pleasures”, “Are You Experienced?”, Zen Arcade”), “Wine And Roses” was recorded very quickly. Obviously I realise this is often because of financial constraints, but I think you get a great rawness to a band’s sound as a result that’s difficult to recapture
with too much “production” Would you agree?
STEVE; "Yes, I’ve always said that Chris D was the perfect producer for us (as he was for Green on Red and the Gun Club) because he provided a buffer from the label and then just stayed out of our way. He just encouraged us to do what we did—and why DON’T more producers do exactly that?--and kept things moving. I feel that any band worthy of recording a ‘first record’ should be making a document of what they are doing at the time and save elaboration for later releases. Oh, and by the way, Joy Division was a HUGE influence (not that you can hear it in the Syndicate’s music) at the time."
3. “Tell Me When It’s Over” was the first song of yours I ever heard and it still has a special place in my heart. I love the twin guitar thing you and Karl have there. How did it come about?
STEVE:"We just had a very natural kinship and connection when we were playing. His noise and dissonance was a good match for my jangly and jagged slashing. We didn’t really think too much about it but I do think it was a perfect balance. And we loved jamming, often to the annoyance of various audiences so we gave ourselves plenty of time to develop the chemistry."
4. I thought you might do “That’s What You Always Say” in Cork recently...I know it’s an enduring favourite. Why do think this is...is it the nagging chords? There’s something about that song...
STEVE:"Well, I’ve often found that the songs of mine that people have loved most over the years were the songs in E-minor. I guess it is an appealing and foreboding key and also a key that works well for my songs and voice. I wrote that song on the bass and that garage/RnB groove was a good foundation for whatever came next. I actually thought the lyrics were pretty weak at the time but there is a simplicity that holds up well."
5. “When You Smile” controversially quotes from the Velvets’ “Heroin” Do you think the whole Velvets influence thing with the DREAM SYNDICATE has been overstated by the critics? Mind you, you’ve often attracted Crazy Horse comparisons too... Were the Velvets particularly important to you when you started out?
STEVE: "Well, we got compared to the Velvets SO much back then and I think I was most annoyed NOT for the comparisons but because we were ripping off so MANY different artists and I was frustrated that the critics would so rarely mention, for example, The Fall or Quicksilver Messenger Service or even Orange Juice or the Feelies. It was all in there. But, then again, the Velvets were a large influence early on just because we were mixing folk/pop chord progressions with lots and lots of noise. Oh, and my voice. there was no getting around my Lou-isms back then as I was just learning to sing. Now, I look back and am not all that annoyed with the comparisons because I can see that they were made as flattery (everyone loved/loves the Velvets) and not as anything mocking."
6. “Until Lately” has that great narrative/storytelling quality you do so well (like your LA contemporary Stan Ridgway - I love his stuff too)...has the great American novel influenced your songwriting, Steve?
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STEVE: "Oh, absolutely. Both Stan and myself are very influenced by the hard-boiled crime fiction writers like Raymond Chandler and Ross McDonald and that is certainly a very American art form. It’s that “just-the-facts-ma’am’ kind of narration that works so well for rock music. and ‘Until Lately’ was also quite influenced by all of the lone-nut wackos that we breed so effectively over here. Oh, and I certainly took a few things from Mark E Smith as well on this one."
7. According to the sleevenotes you played the infamous Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas during the ensuing tour. Do you have any abiding memories of that show? Shades of Johnny Cash....was it difficult for Kendra being a woman up there in front of serious criminals?
STEVE: "Pretty funny show. One of the contributors for ‘Flipside’ (famous LA punk magazine) was incarcerated for armed robbery and continued to write for the mag AND book shows while he was in jail. So he was hip to what we were doing and actually brought us to play for the inmates. Impressions? well, I was amazed at how low the security seemed to be—we just strolled down a narrow hallway amidst some pretty hardcore criminals (Leavenworth is hardly minimum security, after all). And we used their ‘house’ backline which was pretty awful (lots of Peavey stuff). We figured that the best plan would be to play all of our ‘classic rock’ covers—they would HAVE to love that so we laid out some Hendrix, Clapton, Neil—stuff like that. but that didn’t go over—the main request was ‘LET THE GIRL SING.’ Of course. I actually have a tape of the show (bootleggers in prison!) and will probably put out some of it someday."
8. Did you ever feel part of that whole Paisley Underground thing with THE DREAM SYNDICATE? Maybe that was more a UK journalists tag....that whole LA scene from the early 1980s produced loads of my favourite records...”Wine And Roses,” “Fire Of Love” by THE GUN CLUB, X etc...but the bands were very disparate, weren’t they?
STEVE; "Actually the tag came from within as it was coined by the Salvation Army’s Michael Quercio during an interview. The bands were certainly different but we had much more in common with each other than with anything else that was happening in music at the time (though other similar scenes were cropping up in Minneapolis, Athens and a few other cities at the same time). And we were all playing a guitar-based garage rock kind of thing though we were much freakier than the others. And in the coming years each band followed their own particular thing and shifted away from all things paisley."
9. Do you keep in touch with the other DREAM SYNDICATE people these days? You’ve worked with Dennis since, haven’t you? I haven’t heard Mark Walton’s band THE CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS yet, but Blue Rose have some of their stuff...I must check them out...
STEVE:"The Continental Drifters are indeed a great band. I recommend ‘Vermillion’ but all of their stuff is good. I’ve toured with them and that always allows for me to play with Mark. And Dennis and I toured together in 1991 (the US ‘Dazzling Display’ tour) and again in 1996 (the European ‘Melting In the Dark’ tour) and I’m still friends with Paul and Kendra though I have much less contact with them. Haven’t spoken to Karl in about 15 years which is kinda sad but such is the reality of a partnership that crashes and burns as ours did after ‘Medicine Show.’"
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