Nonstop Diatribe #1 : An Interview with Dean Wareham and Justin Harwood

Jen (NSD):: Let's start with you, Dean...
Dean:: Do you want to know the name of the band?
Jen (NSD):: Is it still Hydroplane?
Dean:: No, we changed it. We change it every week. We're being really flaky about it. So the latest name is Luna, L-U-N-A. I was going to put out the single under that name several months ago but was talked out of it.
Justin:: ...By very high-powered people.
Jon (NSD):: What prompted you to pick "Luna"?
Dean:: I preferred it to the other options.
Jon (NSD):: What were some of the other options?
Dean:: Ah... recently, "Goebbels Gerbils" — that was the other one we were thinking of.
Justin:: We're still playing with that idea.
Dean:: But anyway...
Jen (NSD):: So the single is coming out under the name "Luna"?
Dean:: No, the single is coming out under my name.
Jen (NSD):: Oh, your name.
Dean:: Yeah, because we were being so indecisive about names we thought we'd better put it out under my name than put it out under a name that we were going to wind up not using. That would just confuse people.
Justin:: We've already confused people.
Jen (NSD):: I have this single with a song of yours on it, "Indian Summer"...
Dean:: Right. That's a Beat Happening song. That single came with Chemical Imbalance. Somebody's doing a Beat Happening tribute album, I think. Tribute albums are getting out of control...
Jen (NSD):: So, for a bit of background: when did you start doing music... are you from New Zealand?
Dean:: Originally.
Justin:: We don't acknowledge it, though, do we, Dean?
Dean:: He (gesturing to Justin) is very much from New Zealand. I left when I was seven and moved to Australia, and then moved to New York when I was fourteen. I was a stowaway... yeah that's right. I split my time between New York and Boston.
Jen (NSD):: Did you go to school in Boston?
Dean:: I went to high school here and college in Boston for four years. And I then went away and then came back to New York, and then went back to Boston and started Galaxie 500. Then... I guess I was always commuting between here and Boston. And then I got sick of it.
Jen (NSD):: About Galaxie 500... I have an idea of when that started because I was living in Boston at the time...
Dean:: Eighty-seven.
Jen (NSD):: I remember a show you did in the loading dock of the Harvard Coop...
Dean:: Oh, that's right. I remember that.
Jen (NSD):: ...in September of '88.
Dean:: Wow, that was right before our first album came out.
Justin:: I saw you at CBGB's Canteen, and that was really fun. I'd never seen anything like it.
Dean:: Was that in '87? Eighty-eight. That would have been '88.
Jen (NSD):: I remember at the Coop show Naomi was throwing M&M's into the crowd.
Dean:: Wow, wow...
Jon (NSD):: When did you start writing songs?
Dean:: I started in college with Damon, and Galaxie 500... the two of us and someone else started playing together. We didn't know how to play; we were really, really horrible. We would play covers.
Jon (NSD):: What kind of covers did you do?
Dean:: The Cramps, Clash, Sex Pistols — that kind of stuff. I didn't even have an electronic tuner. It was a real bummer. If the guitar went out of tune on stage, I was screwed.
Jon (NSD):: Do you find that the lack of being able to play well led you in the direction you ended up in?
Dean:: Yeah, I think that's true. Your technical limits can help you in a way. It took years. I was in a band with Damon and we played together for years, and it took a long time to come up with a sound. It's not something that you do consciously. I guess with a guitar sound... I think that one of the most important things about playing guitar is learning how to play with your amplifier.
Jon (NSD):: Your music is very sound-oriented. It seems you try to create an atmosphere with your recordings.
Dean:: It's not quite "trying to create an atmosphere." I just like layering guitars, I guess. I would say that Kramer had a lot to do with creating our sound, as well.
Jen (NSD):: Is the stuff you're doing now moving in a different direction?
Dean:: What do you think, Justin?
Justin:: It's a little less atmospheric in parts. It's more of a combination of things, now.
Dean:: It's faster.
Justin:: It's a little faster, a little stronger.
Dean:: Stronger in the rhythm section, would you say?
Justin:: (laughs) Stronger in the rhythm section, yes. I play all four strings. It's sort of a progression.
Dean:: If you see us live, there's going to be an immediate difference. Justin plays lead bass.
Justin:: It's just a little more straightforward, I think.
Jon (NSD):: Do you write together at this point?
Dean:: Well, basically I wrote most of these songs since Justin only arrived a couple of months ago. We've been working on some new stuff since he got here.
Justin:: At this stage I'm more of an arranger...
Dean:: ...Being mean to the drummer.
Justin:: Yeah, being mean to the drummer.
Jen (NSD):: So, Justin, how did you get here to New York?
Justin:: I was home in New Zealand, sitting in the house, and Dean rang me up — just out of the blue, really. I left the Chills in November of last year. I wasn't really doing much, just sort of playing in New Zealand... I was being a bit of a "band slag." I was playing with anyone, doing one-off shows with friends and stuff. But I wasn't really doing anything. It's really hard, in New Zealand, to actually commit yourself to doing something that will take years. Because New Zealand is so far away it takes twice the amount of time to get things done, because you really have to come on over to New York or LA and meet people and organize shows. The bands in New Zealand, when they play there, they sell-out town halls and stuff, and that's all they do. So that prospect was a bit daunting for me. And then Dean rang me up to see if I wanted to start a band. I was the only bass player he knew. So he invited me over. So I said, "Okay."
Jon (NSD):: Did you find that your styles meshed well together?
Justin:: We didn't know, did we?
Dean:: We didn't know.
Justin:: We had played once together, jammed together once. I was playing guitar at the time, and a bit of bass... But I had always really loved... Galaxie was one of my favorite bands.
Dean:: And I like the Chills. Still, there is a danger, I think, if you're going about setting up a band... people who quit bands and start new ones like Bob Mould, say, who put together a supergroup of amazing musicians... it doesn't necessarily mean that just because each of those musicians is great and has been in great bands that together they'll make a good band.
Justin:: I think we always got on quite well. I used to hassle Dean constantly about...
Dean:: My lyrics.
Justin:: ...How he used to sing. And Dean used to take it. And I thought, "Oh that's a nice guy." So...
Dean:: (mimics Led Zeppelin CD-set commercial) "...What were we going to do with him? It was like... magic! I could feel it in the air..."
Justin:: No, it wasn't like that at all.
Dean:: It was just like the beginning of Led Zeppelin...
Justin:: It was.
Dean:: That's the way they described it.
Justin:: Yeah.
Dean:: "We were all there and you could just feel it... "
Justin:: Yeah, stuck in a room on Avenue B. Dean actually came over to New Zealand for Christmas to see his grandparents. We had five days together, didn't we?
Dean:: Yup.
Justin:: Three or four days together.
Dean:: Not playing music.
Justin:: No, just being tourists. I just think it stemmed from that. Now that we've started playing together, we realize we do work well together. Dean plays really basic sort of stuff, and I sort of play basic stuff. The difference between this band and the Chills is the fact that every bar of the Chills' music had some sort of progression that you had to follow. And every bass line I would write would have to fit every bar rather than just have an overall feel. Whereas...
Dean:: ...I know nothing about music...
Justin:: ...With this music, I can do what I like and he doesn't know it. When he asks, "Is that right?" I say, "Yeah." I can set a pulse, and it also means that if the drummer drums differently the next time, then I can play something differently to that. Structure-wise, the Chills were very ordered, and we used to play the same things every night.
Dean:: There were no guitar solos.
Justin:: No guitar solos, no jamming. Playing with Dean, there's lead breaks every now and then, very much like Galaxie. And, of course, if the moment calls for it, you could go on for fifteen minutes. Like in a blues club in Berlin or somewhere...
Jon (NSD):: You do your Jack Bruce imitation then, right?
Justin:: (laughs) Yeah, I sit there and everything goes quiet except for me. Nah, it's just a lot more fun for me to play. So that's quite good for me.
Jen (NSD):: I was wondering what led you to break up Galaxie 500, which you did do, right?
Justin:: Ooooooooh... the first time he's been asked that question. (excitedly) What's he gonna say...? We're all very interested...
Dean:: (gives Justin a look) I can't remember.
Justin:: (laughs) He's erased that part.
Jen (NSD):: I've only heard... things, you know, floating around...
Dean:: There's no real story to tell about that, nothing dramatic that happened, or...
Jen (NSD):: Oh, really? I heard this story...
Justin:: Tell us the story!
Jen (NSD):: No, really, I heard that you were playing some show, when onstage you said, "That's the end... "
Justin:: Naaaahhhh... did you do that?
Dean:: No, I don't believe so.
Justin:: r love stories like that. That's great...
Jen (NSD):: And I guess the other two members didn't know...
Justin:: (supplies fictitious onstage dialogue) "And he turned around to me and he said, 'You're a fuckin' bitch and I never want to play with you fucking again!'" Don't quote me on that.
Dean:: I might have said... the closest I might have to come to that was at the final New York show. I might have said "Goodbye" instead of "Goodnight." I didn't know then, but...
Jon (NSD):: Galaxie 500 received a lot of attention and adulation from the music press both here and overseas. How did you react to that?
Dean:: It was very much a surprise. Our first record came out on Aurora, and you don't think... I never used to read the English press, and all of a sudden the record comes out and you're going over there and getting all this ridiculous press in the papers that come out every week.
Justin:: England is just ridiculous.
Dean:: It's flattering, I guess, but it's also pretty ridiculous. It's hard to pick up those magazines without laughing.
Jen (NSD):: I saw the first single being sold for $90 in an issue of Record Collector magazine.
Jon (NSD):: Yeah, I've seen "Tugboat" going for as high as $100.
Dean:: Really?
Jon (NSD):: Now that you're on your own, do you feel pressured to attain the level of success that Galaxie 500 did?
Justin:: It's natural.
Dean:: Yeah, I don't know. I'm not too worried about it. I don't have enough respect for...
Justin:: Yourself.
Dean:: No. You take all the press with a grain of salt. If I read a review by, say, David Cavanaugh in Sounds that says I'm an amazing guitar player, and I know that's bullshit, then...
Justin:: It's such a subjective thing.
Dean:: These people who aren't musicians at all write about music... Obviously, it's always a nice feeling to get a good review. But I guess you tend to believe the bad reviews more than the good ones. You take things to heart more, like, "Am I really like that? Oh shit... "
Justin:: I mean, I used to read them and go, "But that's WRONG!" or "Oh, wow..."
Dean:: See, one of these years you're gonna think, "But that's RIGHT! Oh my god!"
Justin:: Yeah, but I just got in the habit of not believing anything in an interview unless it was a fact. I hate reading interviews where... like in Happy Mondays interviews where they just talk crap and the press print it. And you see that, oh great, he'd like to sleep with Margaret Thatcher. It's not relevant.
Dean:: The only interviews where I think you get a true sense of the personality of the people being interviewed are ones that are verbatim. I'm not suggesting you do this, because it's too much to transcribe. But when you do see a long, six-page account of every little thing that went on, then you see what was humor and what wasn't. Because so many times you read a interview and think, "What a fucking idiot that guy must be." And I don't think that's necessarily true...
Justin:: It's not...
Dean:: ...but that can easily come across.
Justin:: It's so easy, I mean...
Dean:: Especially for someone like Justin.
Justin:: Yeah, exactly. I always speak really badly in the press because I say flippant things, and of course I get quoted. It's quite funny because... Manin [Phillips, of the Chills] is the worst person to interview because after years of doing press he...
Dean:: (referring to this fanzine) That's going in there.
Justin:: Yeah, it can go in there. He's got these standard answers, and interviewers, especially big interviewers, come out really angry because he sort of reacts like (mimics Martin in auto-interview mode): "Yes - I - have - been - a - musician... " He has these set answers, which is good for him because he can't get misquoted that easily. I like when these magazines like Spin or Q — these big glossies interview someone you're actually interested in, because they'll give it six pages. And you can get an idea of what they're thinking. I used to probably get upset, in the early days, about irresponsible press when they used to say things that weren't right. But I think as you get older, and the more press you read, you realize that it's nothing anyway...
Dean:: It's all advertising, anyway.
Justin:: It's all advertising.
Dean:: Not fanzines, of course, but...
Jon (NSD):: It's scary in some respects how reviewers, especially in the bigger magazines, can wreck someone's career.
Justin:: I've got a good friend in London who's been a writer for years, written for all the papers and big magazines...
Dean:: What's his name?
Justin:: Martin Aston. I Jived in his house for three months while I was living...
Dean:: Is he the one who was arrested for importuning?
Justin:: Importuning?
Jon (NSD):: Just what does that mean...?
Justin:: (turns to Dean) What does that mean?
Dean:: When you go to the men's urinals, and you stand there and solicit sex.
Jon (NSD):: UmmmMmmm...
Dean:: That's importuning.
Justin:: Oh, I never knew that. That's good.
Dean:: Like when you see graffiti on the bathroom wall that says...
Justin:: Good name for the act. Good name for the album. Well anyway, Martin used to get twenty records a week in the mail that had to be reviewed by the end of that week. I mean, he's a really nice guy, and he loves music, and he loves to give a good review... But it basically comes down to him playing the first five songs on a record while he's writing someone else's review. He's actually a good writer because he spends a lot of time writing because he feels he needs to. But a lot of writers, they put a record on and if they're in a bad mood or didn't take the right drug, they write a bad review. Or the worst reviews are ones that don't tell you anything. They try to avoid making comment on the band until they see if it's going to be big or not. Like the initial Pixies reviews — they're very obscure until, suddenly, the band is on the cover of NME and then everyone's saying, "Ah, they're the greatest band."
Jon (NSD):: How did you come up with the lyrics for "Tugboat"? Did it take long to write them?
Dean:: Nah, that was, like, the last set of lyrics written in the studio right before having to record it. That was done under pressure.
Justin:: That's not want he wanted to hear. (questioning Dean) Was it a bad thing? Are you going to tell us? You don't really want to, just in case people say things...
Dean:: No, I was just thinking. It's not really about anything. There's a vague reference to Sterling Morrison who worked as a tugboat captain. That's about it. That's about all I can think of. I can't vote, anyway, because I'm not a citizen. But I wouldn't anyway.
Justin:: Wouldn't you?
Dean:: No.
Justin:: But it's your right to vote. It's your responsibility to vote.
Dean:: To vote for whom?
Justin:: That's true. Dan Quayle... President Dan Quayle. (sucks in breath and makes a face) He's for American labor and American work.
Jon (NSD):: On "Tugboat," did you intentionally use a raspy vocal delivery to contrast with the dreamy melody and atmosphere of the music?
Dean:: No.
Justin:: Were you pissed off at the time? Tired?
Dean:: I honestly can't remember. I do like that song. It's one of my favorite Galaxie 500 songs. Yeah, I like that album. It's probably my favorite Galaxie 500 record.
Justin:: Mine's On Fire.
Dean:: It's got a nice, really muddy sound to it.
Justin:: Yeah, great sound.
Dean:: But anyway...
Jon (NSD):: Anyway...
Dean:: You asked me why I left. Just because it wasn't fun anymore, basically. You always say when you start out, "Yeah, we're gonna do this because we like it and we're having fun. We're not looking to get rich or anything."
Justin:: And then you find out that they actually hate each other, but they end up doing it because they don't have anything else to do.
Dean:: You find yourself touring around, getting all these good reviews and going to all these great places. But if it's not fun — which by that point, it really wasn't — then what's the point?
Jen (NSD):: What did the other members of the band think? Were they still enjoying it?
Dean:: I don't know if they were enjoying it... I mean, they wanted to continue; they were extremely angry at me.
Jen (NSD):: Really?
Dean:: Yeah.
Justin:: Yeah.
Dean:: It's a shame.
Jen (NSD):: Although now they've started their own band, I hear.
Dean:: I've heard that a couple of people have quit already. We're not on speaking terms, so...
Jon (NSD):: Had they had any success on their own before Galaxie 500?
Dean:: Naomi didn't know how to play. Damon and I were thinking of starting a band and needed a bass player. So she learned in about... she had probably been playing a year by the time our first record came out.
Justin:: She's good, though.
Dean:: Good sound.
Justin:: Christ, yeah! Sound-wise.
Dean:: They also did an EP in England: Pierre Etoile, which I have not seen yet. It came out on Rough Trade. That was before Galaxie 500 split up. They did it while the band was in the process of splitting up. They probably knew the band was on the way out.
Jen (NSD):: With your new band, what would you do if the same type of situation were to occur?
Dean:: I think that was an extreme situation. I don't expect people to be able to get along perfectly all of the time. But bands are hard to be in. This was a trio; trios are hard to be in. Naomi and Damon were a couple...
Justin:: You were out-voted.
Dean:: Yeah, I was always out-voted. I mean, bands are not democracies — I don't care what people say. There's usually somebody calling the shots. Not always — there's give and take. And in that situation, whenever there was a disagreement... When I look back at all the major disagreements we had — and all bands obviously have fights about this or that — I was always out-voted. So that was a source of constant tension. Hopefully that won't happen again.
Jon (NSD):: In Luna, do you find that you're directing the drummer to play a certain part, or do you let each band member...
Dean:: In this situation, I'm not doing that. Justin does that, because I wouldn't really know what to tell the drummer to do. Justin has a much better sense of rhythmic stuff than I do. And even in Galaxie 500, I didn't have that much to do with the rhythm section.
Justin:: From what I can gather, people in bands fall into roles. And unless it's definitely a position where... like, if Dean took a position where he was effectively hiring me and Byron, and he was paying us to play. Basically, we would just sit there and say, "What do you want us to play?" We're in a situation at the moment where, musically, it's a democracy. And I fall into the role of working with the drummer. The worst situation to be in is when people say, "I don't like that," but they don't offer any solutions. (to Dean) We haven't done that yet, have we?
Dean:: Do you mean in the studio?
Justin:: Yeah, you can get a producer who does that. Then you pay a producer a fortune to tell you why he doesn't like it.
Jon (NSD):: What do you think about producers, in general?
Dean:: They make a lot of money.
Justin:: They make a lot of money for doing nothing. But I think they're very necessary because in any situation, even if a band doesn't use a producer, you find that someone will assume that role.
Dean:: But there are all different kinds of producers. I feel there are very few producers to whom I would want to hand over musical control. I generally wouldn't let a producer have a huge amount of input or decide what tracks are going to be put down. But I felt comfortable doing that with Kramer — most of the time.
Justin:: There are producers who write songs for people and make records for companies using a nice voice of some sort. Then there are producers who take an average band and give them a sound. Steve Lillywhite used to do that. And then there are producers who make sure the band produces the best music they can. Those producers are the best ones. Hard to find, though.
Dean:: We're looking to work with Fred Maher.
Justin:: I really like Flood, actually. He's an engineer who engineered...
Dean:: Eno.
Jen (NSD):: He did the Erasure albums.
Justin:: Yeah, and all that sort of stuff.
Dean:: I like Jimmy Miller-era Stones stuff.
Justin:: I really liked, uh...
Dean:: George Martin. Martin Hannett.
Justin:: Martin Hannett? Yeah, we were trying to get Martin Hannett but...
Justin and Dean:: (in unison)...then we found out he was dead!
Justin:: That was very embarrassing. We're in a situation where we're looking at producers and everyone is saying, "Oh, I bet he's a great producer," and you say, "Yeah, but he was working with this band who we know are very strong-minded." I think it's a combination. You need a band and a producer who will fit together. It works out fine with REM and Scott Litt, obviously.
Jon (NSD):: Is there a particular way you like to record?
Dean:: Well, all I know how to do is record the way I have in the past: every album is done in one or two weeks. This, obviously, is going to be on a major label, so it's going to be very different.
Jen (NSD):: An album?
Dean:: The Luna album is going to be on Elektra. I signed a deal with Elektra before Justin joined the band.
Jon (NSD):: How do you feel about going with a major?
Dean:: It'll be good! The last company I was on is now bankrupt. Although Rough Trade was a great company.
Jen (NSD):: I remember hearing, though, that Galaxie 500 almost signed with Slash/Warner Bros.
Dean:: Yeah, we almost signed to Slash. But we were not ready to take all that shit, especially not for $30,000. Bob Biggs at Slash was angry at us for not signing with them, but what he was offering us was... Rough Trade matched what he offered us and gave us complete freedom. We were pretty happy with that. I'm still glad Galaxie 500 went with Rough Trade, even though our records are out of print.
Justin:: They'll be worth a fortune one day.
Dean:: We signed a seven-record deal with Elektra, but, in reality, you have one or two records...
Justin:: To prove that you're gonna...
Dean:: I mean, I think that if this first record of ours did terribly, they'd give us the benefit of the doubt to do another one. If that didn't do well, they'd drop us. That's because they're not in the business to sell 50,000 records; they want to sell 500,000. The point is, very few bands make it to their third album on a major label. You have to be realistic about that. The nice thing about Elektra is that they don't have an "alternative" department. They release records by artists like the Sugarcubes or Billy Bragg, and they say, "Well, there's no reason why this can't sell." But now, where's the indie that... With Rough Trade gone, there's a huge gap. Maybe Caroline — that's like the only...
Justin:: What about Virgin?
Jon (NSD):: Then there's Homestead.
Dean:: Yeah, but Homestead's a disaster. We're talking about no royalties and stuff like that. There's this feeling in the independent scene that if you're on a major, you're no good, or that the only "truthful" music is being made on indie labels. I think we have a right to be on a major for the distribution and all that stuff.
Jon (NSD):: I'd like to get your opinions about having to do a video.
Justin:: Lip-synching, Dean. How do you feel about lip-synching? You and Michael Jackson. We can talk about that later.
Dean:: MTV is horrible. Ninety-eight percent of the videos are horrible. But I love the Galaxie 500 videos. I love the guy who did them. I think they're great. We gave him free reign. It's going to be a different situation, maybe, on Elektra. I still want to use him.
Justin:: I think that handing over artistic control to a video director is the same as handing over artistic control to a record producer.
Dean:: I don't think so.
Justin:: I'm terrified of it.
Dean:: I don't think so. Video-making is not our art form, so...
Justin:: No, no, no. What I'm saying is...
Dean:: You have to find someone you trust.
Justin:: Yeah.
Dean:: There are very few people I'd trust to make a video. And in that situation I would not say, "You do whatever you want." But if it's someone like Sergio, who made the Galaxie 500 videos... just as l wouldn't want the label telling me how to make a record, I'm not going to tell him how to make a video. Because I trust his instincts.
Justin:: The funny thing is that occasionally you'll see a major-label video that's absolutely brilliant, one that's really well made.
Jon (NSD):: Any particular ones?
Justin:: I'm trying to think of one that I've seen that's really good.
Dean:: Not "Losing My Religion" — that's the most pretentious video I've ever seen in my life.
Justin:: I don't like that one.
Dean:: It's unbelievable. Prince makes good videos.
Justin:: Sometimes. l didn't like his last one.
Dean:: Come on, it's great. How can you not like it?
Justin:: I think those women are so talented.
Jon (NSD):: Do your surroundings affect the way you write?
Dean:: Sometimes. Lyrics, not anything else.
Jon (NSD):: When we were talking with Hamish, he said that when he listens to the Velvet Underground, it sounds like New York City.
Dean:: That's a very Hamish comment. It really is, though.
Justin:: It's true. I mean, everyone said that in the press for years.
Dean:: The most obvious thing is when you walk outside — what kind of day it is hits you, and that finds its way into your music.
Jon (NSD):: Do you like sunny days, grey days...?
Justin:: Dean is obsessed with the weather. He watches the Weather Channel every morning.
Dean:: It's just lazy songwriting. I don't watch the Weather Channel every morning.
Justin:: You do so.
Dean:: I listen to it on the radio.
Justin:: We used to ring him up and ask, "What sort of day is it going to be tomorrow?" "Well, it's going to be overcast with a... "It's really bizarre. And he'd be right. Every time. "It's going to get cold in the afternoon, but then in the evening it's going to warm up..."
Dean:: WINS, 1010.
Justin:: See, I told you so.
Jon (NSD):: Weather and traffic every ten minutes.
Justin:: But everyone said that about the Velvets and Lou Reed.
Dean:: It sounds like... well, it doesn't sound like California.
Justin:: Transformer is a celebration of New York City.
Dean:: There was an article in the Village Voice last week about Seattle, the sound of that city — I think that's a pile of shit, frankly. It's not that the city made all these bands play grungy rock, it's that maybe you had a pioneering band like Green River that went somewhere. And then you have a label. But then you have a whole lot of other people saying, "Wow, look at that band, we like that, we're going to play like that." It's like Sweden developing tennis players.
Justin:: It's exactly the same with Dunedin and Flying Nun music. There's one band, the Clean — well, Toy Love started playing like that, and then the Clean did, and then everyone said, "Hey, I can do that!" Because they knew that David [Kilgour] could only play three chords. Martin [Phillips] bought a guitar, and then Shayne [Carter] bought a guitar, and they all started playing and writing music. It was just there. It's got more to do with a moment in time and a collection of people and a collection of bands. And in Seattle, Sub Pop is there. They like that type of music and only put that type of music out.
Dean:: There's generally not a lot of originality in bands, in terms of their sound.
Justin:: I think too much emphasis is put on that.
Dean:: You've got Mudhoney... and then all of the rest of them. But that's what's great about rock and roll...
Justin:: It's a sort of bogus point that's brought up a lot about, "Oh, well, there's nothing new." I mean, but Jesus...
Dean:: It doesn't have to be new, but...
Justin:: What is new? There's no such thing.
Dean:: No, nothing's new. Everything's a rehash. Not everything, but, at the same time, who needs the Soup Dragons playing the same music as the Charlatans, and all that. Everybody copied from the Stone Roses or whatever, and now everyone's doing it so much that now the Stone Roses are screwed. Their sound has been stolen.
Jen (NSD):: What sort of expectations do you have for the band and the album?
Justin:: "Saturday Night Live" in eight months.
Jen (NSD):: Or do you think other people might have expectations?
Justin:: I don't think they do.
Dean:: Other people probably don't think about it that much. I think it's going to be a good record. I feel it's a better bunch of songs than any of the Galaxie 500 records. I didn't feel that way about the last Galaxie 500 record. I thought that was our weakest album.
Justin:: I don't feel any great expectations except for the fact that I want to work with a major label. My only expectation is controlling the business side.
Dean:: We're signed to a good label, as far as majors go. It's probably the best. Although it remains to be seen what kind of job they're going to do.
Justin:: But it's really up to us to take control of our situation. And if we end up making good music, and still like each other...