Steve Wynn
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Steve Wynn:
Music for Troubled Souls
By David Chiu
"I wanted to have written
a novel more than I want to write a novel," said veteran
singer/songwriter Steve Wynn. "I think I will someday. It's
a whole different discipline." Given his knack for writing
introspective moody songs in a journalistic fashion, it would
only make sense that he wrote a tome. If he ever decides to do
that, he certainly would have enough material given his 20-plus
years of experiences in music career.
In fact, any survey of alternative
music in the last two decades would be incomplete without mentioning
Steve Wynn. He had established his name in modern rock as the
founder of the Dream Syndicate, the Los Angeles band that was
synonymous with the Paisley Underground movement of the early
'80s. The band that was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground
in time would inspire another generation of garage rockers in
the '90s. While the Dream Syndicate has been somewhat of a distant
memory since its break up in 1990, Wynn continued to plug away,
first with the super group Gutterball, and later as a solo artist.
After several albums, Wynn finally
got the critical and commercial acclaim as a with the 2001 double-album
Here Come the Miracles. The album reflected a music-making
change of direction; rather than recording the album either in
Los Angeles or in his adopted hometown of New York City, Wynn
and his band recorded Here Come the Miracles in sunny
hot Tucson, Arizona. The result was some hard and punchy songs
compounded with some bone crunching guitar and Wynn's jaded vocals
and wordplay. Described as a "party record" by the
artist, the album garnered rave reviews not since the Syndicate's
classic debut The Days of Wine and Roses.
"It wasn't really until
Here Come the Miracles that I made a record that got the
same kind of respect and attention as I had received 20 years
ago," Wynn explained. "It's a great feeling too because
I like the record a lot. I think it's the best record I've ever
made."
So how does Wynn follow-up such
success? By releasing his latest album Static Transmission.
"The mood of the records is very different as well,"
he said of both the new album and Miracles. "I think
[Static Transmission] is a more intimate, contained shorter
record, and melancholy, sweeter, and sinister all at the same
time."
Given the way albums are now marketed, it is somewhat remarkable
that Wynn was able to make another record in a short amount of
time, following a double album. Wynn view it as a natural
part of his consistent work ethic. Combining both his solo and
band output, it totals about 17 albums. "I became a fan
of music at a period of time when people made three records a
year," he said. "People say 'God your prolific.' To
me if I can't get it together to write ten to fifteen songs a
year and to record them, I don't know what I'm doing."
For his fans from his Dream Syndicate
days and of his current solo work, Static Transmission
offers the classic elements of Wynn's sound, particularly the
heavy full-on rock songs like "Candy Machine," "Amphetamine,"
and "Keep It Clean" that conveys an almost sinister
feel. ""Amphetamine" is complete lose control
of yourself-hardcore, speed, frenzy, insanity," described
Wynn. "On this album, I just wanted it to be a moody record.
If I was going to do one more record in my life, it would be
a frenzy rock record."
There are also flirtations with
sunny pop as on "California Style," and r & b on
"The Ambassador of Soul" and the gospel-like "What
Comes After." The latter song shows an intimate side of
the artist. "I think it's the kind of record I would put
on at 3 am in the morning after a couple of drinks," Wynn
mused. "It is a mood record."
The former Los Angeles native
pays homage to his original roots on the song "Hollywood."
"In the last two records, I ended up writing a lot about
California and Los Angeles," Wynn said. "I think I've
been gone there long enough, been ten years now. It's just easier
to write about. It's a place I know better than I'll ever know
any place, including New York. I think that song is a little
bit autobiographical, somebody going back and looking at the
wreck one left a long time ago and trying to figure out if he
can place himself back in that scenario and make some sense of
it."
Probably the most poignant song
that firmly established the feel of Static Transmission
is the meditative and somber "Maybe Tomorrow." Wynn
acknowledged the song was written with September 11, 2001 in
mind, though it wasn't about that day. "It's more like the
mood that I was feeling and people all around the world were
feeling. It permeated what we did in this record. What felt right
in the studio was probably a giant hangover from the event. I
think the fact we got this deep, worried, soulful moodiness had
a lot to do with what was in the air." (Wynn wrote a moving
account of the event that happened not far from his place entitled
"72 Hours in New York City"-it can be found on his
website stevewynn.net).
Obviously he is the star on his
last two albums but Wynn was more than willing to credit the
fine work of his backing band the Miracle 3 (whose name appears
on Static Transmission). The young but hungry-sounding
group consists of guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Dave DeCastro,
drummer Linda Pitmon, and keyboardist Chris Cacavas "I work
best by collaboration," Wynn said. "Even though it's
my name on the record and I'm writing most or all of the songs,
once I'm making the record, I feel like I'm part of the band.
We played a ton of shows in the last two years. We played more
shows together than any line-up that I've ever played with."
If the enthusiasm of his music
comes naturally on his records, it's expanded ten-fold when it
comes to playing live. Wynn has been a globetrotting performer
who maintains a rigorous tour schedule. Having played in more
shows in recent years than when he was in the Dream Syndicate,
Wynn promises that the tour in support of Static Transmission
will be no less different. To him, performing each night is an
adventure no matter where it is. It's gotten to the point, as
he said to himself, 'Where don't you wanna play?'
"I'd play in Baghdad tomorrow,"
he remarked. "Playing new places is great. It's a very cool
thing to be able to do that in my life, going to amazing places
that I would never have been. It blows my mind to be in Oslo
and talking to people in Norway about parts of the country they
haven't seen. There are not many jobs where you can do things
like that. You're either a musician or missionary-which is the
same thing."
So far the highlight of his career as a performer happened recently
when Wynn and the Miracle 3 came down to Austin, Texas and brought
the house down while performing at South by Southwest (SXSW).
Music editor Bob Mehr of the Seattle Weekly witnessed
the band's performance and said it was the "loudest, hardest,
and passionate sets of music in Austin all this week with a power
and volume that threatened to come gleefully unhinged."
Wynn relished that moment. "We
went down there and did five shows with that cockiness, arrogant
chip on our shoulders that worked really well for us. We played
a lot of exciting shows that went over a lot of people. That
was one of my favorite shows in years."
Wynn's sense of pushing those
emotional buttons while simultaneously rocking with reckless
abandon, as he did at SXSW, comes as no surprise given his reputation.
When he first started out with the Dream Syndicate, Wynn was
compared musically to the likes of Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, the Stooges,
and Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
"They were hugely important
because it was a real formative time," he said of those
aforementioned artists as he was making his mark on a professional
level. So it was natural to ask him who in turn influenced him
growing up? "It was definitely Credence, the Who, the Beatles,
and the Stones. I was fortunate to listen to music when there
was great radio in the late '60s and early '70s. It was a pretty
exciting way to learn about music."
The story of the Dream Syndicate-particularly
the original lineup of Wynn, bassist Kendra Smith, guitarist
Karl Precoda, and drummer Dennis Duck--needs no further reiteration
except the fact they as influential on modern rock as R.E.M.
and Nirvana was. Their arrival came at the height of the early
'80s Paisley scene in Los Angeles at its fertile and most exciting.
Although they wore their influences on their sleeve, Wynn knew
that his band was something more than just a copycat group.
"At the time a lot of people
thought the band was doing a tribute to the Velvets, which we
were very influenced by Velvets. But if it were Velvets by the
numbers, it would have been kind of silly. I think it was a lot
more than that. We were very cocky and arrogant, an unpleasant
thing in daily life but a very appealing thing in the music."
Unlike some solo musicians who
seem dismissive of their erstwhile band's past glories, Wynn
was very agreeable about speaking of the Syndicate today, now
over a decade after the band split. When Rhino Records re-released
The Days of Wine of Roses with bonus tracks in 2001(Wynn
also produced the reissue and wrote the introduction to the liner
notes). He explained why after 20 years that remarkable debut
still holds up. "A lot of records that are good and sound
good, five years after they're made, are good because they are
very natural and very believable," he explained. "I
think The Days of Wine and Roses happened in a very believable,
honest, and spontaneous way, and that's why it sounded good.
Still, in the unpredictable world
of rock and roll that even saw the reunion of the Velvet Underground
in 1993, Wynn sort of hinted that the band's name might live
again, although remotely. The dilemma for him would be deciding
on the line-up. There had been various members that have come
and gone from the band since the original configuration of Wynn,
Precoda, Duck, and Smith. "Just the idea of I wouldn't know
which one to reform keeps me from doing it," he explained.
"I wouldn't rule it out completely. It could happen someday
but it would be a long time from now." He joked that perhaps
it might be possible in their early old age when they are senile
enough to forget why they split in the first place.
He closed his past this way:
"On the other hand, I'm very proud and honored that The
Days of Wine and Roses is a record that means a lot to so
many people and it has stood the test of time. But at the same
time, you don't want to be defined by something you did at the
age of 22 for the rest of your life."
In the meanwhile, Wynn is more
than content with his solo career. For this veteran rock and
roller, making music still means something to him-so much so
that he is already thinking about releasing his next album in
about a year. It's just a matter of him deciding what the feel
of the record will be like. "I have a lot of new songs and
there were also 30 songs written for this album [that weren't
used on Static Transmission]. I think the next record
will be one extreme or the other-the loudest, hardest over the
top record or the quietest, stripped down record."
Even after being in music all
this time, a life with its ups and downs, Wynn doesn't seemed
surprised he would be in the position that he is in right now-continuing
to record and tour. "This was something I wanted to do.
When we were making Days of Wine and Roses, I was looking
way ahead because I was happy about it. But I don't know if I
thought it would happen."
When I mentioned to him that
he came a long way from working at the Rhino Records shop in
Los Angeles in the early '80s while making The Days of Wine
and Roses, Wynn, always forward thinking, wryly commented,
"I hope they have a job for me just in case."
http://www.stevewynn.net
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