The Man in the Moon

Dean: Didn't I meet you guys last week?

Chris: Yeah, this is Chris and Devin's over here too.

Dean: (some sort of primal grunt acknowledging our existence)

Devin: How ya doing?

Dean: Tired.

Devin: Where are you calling from?

Dean: I'm in New York. Playing in New York tonight.

Devin: Oh, that's right. I have some friends who were going to the show, I think.

Chris: What was the reason for the break-up?

Dean: Me quitting. Me leaving. That was the reason.

Chris: Well, what prompted you to leave?

Dean: I was having bad dreams. I don't know. I thought about it for a long time. It was... it was just a misery.

Devin: Let me ask something off of that. How long after the break-up of Galaxie 500 was Luna formed?

Dean: Say about 9 months or a year.

Devin: How did you meet the guys?

Dean: Justin and I met in England. He was with the Chills. We had the same manager for awhile. So, that's how I became friends with him. Stanley, the former drummer, I didn't know him. I've seen him play many times. When the Feelies broke up, I called him up to make the record and just kept twisting his arm. Twisting to tour, he didn't like touring. And Sean, we placed an ad in the Village Voice and Sean responded. He had the best shoes.

Chris: (laugh) There's this stylistic shift from your previous work that's obvious on Pup Tent. You go from this dreamy, realist quality (Was that an oxymoron?) to these fierce, manly-sounding songs. At the same time, I noticed a lyrical shift, especially the subject matter in your lyric.

Dean: Is there?

Chris: Yeah, I think so. You used to talk a lot about girls. Well, at least a feminine presence was dominant. Like "Tiger Lilly" for example. "Tiger Lilly girl/ Standing cross-eyed in the corner" sort of thing. Then in Pup Tent, there's "IHOP," where you go off on this masculine, guitar-driven tangent, "Is there a doctor in the house?/ In the House of Pancakes/ Banana Split...." Banana split? What the hell is that about? Was there a shift in you internally? Was this a conscious decision?

Dean: I think that's a question for my analyst. It is hard for me to pinpoint, to generalize about the lyrics. They usually don't become clear to me until about a year later. I suppose some of the new songs are about paranoia or whatever. It's also just a standard form for a pop song to address it to someone, so no matter what it's about, it comes off as love songs.

Chris: So, are you going to use the journal that I gave you?

Dean: Why not. [It's] Perfect.

Devin: Eh, hem... question about the album. I think there's much difference in the sound, just as much as the lyrics. Particularly, the way your voice is presented. It seems there's a lot of vocal distortion going on. What was the impetus behind that?

Dean: Well, we went shopping the first day of making the record. We went to Toys 'R' Us and bought some toys. We wanted to get a baby intercom, but that was too expensive. So, instead, we got a little toy robot with a little microphone in it and used that on the "Pup Tent" song. We tried to replace it with a straight vocal, but it sort of ruined the mood of the song.

Chris: Um, this may be harsh, but you're not exactly the strongest vocalist...

Dean: Aww-Did you read that in Rolling Stone or something?

Chris: (laugh) No, no, no. You just have this kind of, not necessarily "soul," but a natural knack for lyric delivery. What's your strong point? What do you think distinguishes you from any other "rocker"?

Dean: I guess I have this sort of a dead-pan, almost bored delivery style. People have been trying to get me to sing out, but it's just that I don't sound good when I'm singing out. I'm not good at it, so I'm not going to do it, you know. You just can't do things that are not in your personality. I can't sing like Marvin Gaye. Most people in rock bands can't.

Chris: We were talking about that the other day. Marvin Gaye can make anything cheesy or stupid, like "I want you" or "Banana split," and make it sound so sexy and soulful.

Dean: Sure, he could. Why couldn't he? The man's Marvin Gaye.

Devin: Where are you going with the albums in the future? You've put out four with Luna now. Is there a goal, an ambition or just keep playing?

Chris: Yeah, I don't see any imminent plans for you to sell-out or anything.

Dean: Well, I don't even know what it would mean to sell-out. Hopefully, people will let us continue to make records. It would be nice to sell more records, but I can't make people buy them, can I? I don't think I'll even know quite how to sell-out; how to write stupid songs like Matchbox 20...

Chris: (laughs profusely) Doh! Well, you don't really follow the conventional way of lyric writing, the whole verse-chorus-verse-guitar drive-chorus sequence. So, when do you write? How do you come up with new subjects?

Dean: I steal things from books, movies and TV... and my life and other people's lives. It's just a mish mash. When I come to put the song together, the lyrics will come from all over the place. Like I don't sit down and say, 'I'm going to write a song about a guy sitting in an IHOP.' It just turns out that way.

Chris: What do you read?

Dean: What do I read? My favorites are like Paul Aster, Don DeLillo and Pynchon, I like. Well, I also have a grounding in rock 'n' roll, where you obviously learn different things than say, from going to college.

Devin: What did you listen to?

Dean: So many things. Jonathan Richman, Big Stir, Joy Division and from West Coast, psychedelic bands like Rain Parade.

Devin: Really? I never would have guessed.

Dean: There's so much.

Devin: How long do you plan on playing?

Dean: How long? Well, I don't have any other career plans. I don't know.

Devin: What other skills do you have?

Dean: Well, I could be an A&R man-signing bands, big expense accounts. I could act, but I probably have too much respect for it to do that.

Chris: Devin told me your wife's a filmmaker? Are you going to star in any of her films?

Dean: Maybe.

Chris: Maybe?

Dean: She wants to put me in films. We'll see.

Devin: Does she do short films or feature films? What does she work on?

Dean: Two shorts. Trying to do a feature now, but it's very difficult-much more than making a record. It's a lot more expensive.

Devin: Does she work out of NYC?

Dean: Yep. She actually directed a Luna video.

C & D: For which song?

Dean: For "Bobby Peru." It's for Europe. They're putting it out as a single. I don't even know if we're going to get it on MTV here.

Devin: What did you think of the show last Friday?

Dean: It was good (enthusiastically). Chapel Hill is always quiet though, actually. Let me qualify that: It was quiet that night, I think. It's always like that.

Devin: Was that a respectful silence or disinterested silence?

Dean: I meant that the audience was quiet. I don't know why that is.

Chris: That night, we discovered all these closet Luna fans. I didn't think people at Duke even knew Luna and there they were, all over the damn place.

Dean: Luna, bringing people together. It's beautiful.

All: (Laugh, chuckle, chuckle...)

Devin: The next day, people all over the campus were wearing the bright orange shirts.

Dean: Oh, yeah? That's funny.

Chris: Yeah, I got that orange baby-hoochie shirt and Devin bought the over-sized one.

Dean: Those are big, those over-sized ones. I thought they were skirts when I first saw them.

Chris: Well, I think we're done.

Dean: You're done? Well, then I can go take a bath.