Steve Wynn

Steve Wynn started out as a garage-rock-loving singer/guitarist among such likeminded souls as True West, The Rain Parade, Game Theory, et al, on the early-‘80s Davis, California, scene that came to be dubbed the Paisley Underground for its ‘60s-psych influences. Wynn started The Dream Syndicate in 1981, mixing psychedelic flavors with an urgent, post-punk sensibility. The band spent the rest of the decade at the vanguard of the American college rock scene before disbanding after four albums. Wynn, who had already engaged in extracurricular activities like the Danny and Dusty album with Green On Red singer Dan Stuart, wasted no time in getting his solo career started, kicking off strongly with his 1990 solo debut Kerosene Man. Though the restless, mercurial Wynn worked on a number of other side projects over the years, including self-described “stupergroup” Gutterball (featuring members of House of Freaks, The Long Ryders, and The Silos) and The Baseball Project (with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and The Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey), he has maintained an impressively prolific solo output all along.

Critical Questions for Steve Wynn (from our 10/2010 Newsletter)

CM: Why do you make music?
 
SW: The inexplicable need to make sure that the sounds inside my head can be heard from outside of my ears.
 
If you weren’t making music, what would your dream job be?
 
Major league baseball pitcher, creative advertising director, character actor, head chef.
 
What’s the last thing you remember hearing that really impressed you?
 
Mexican Institute of Sound and also Endless Boogie.
 
What’s the one thing in your career that you regard with the most pride?
 
That 30 years after my first record I'm still making music, still enjoying it and still getting better.
 
What’s your least favorite part of the music business, and why?
 
I'm not in the music business. I make music.
 
Do you feel like the same person when you’re making music as you do the rest of the time?
 
Yes.  But I'm not the same person the rest of the time that I am when I'm making music.
 
Name one thing you would never do in your music.
 
Quote Bob Seger.
 
Name one thing you haven’t done yet musically that you’d like to do.
 
Score an entire movie.
 
If your music were a movie, which movie would it be?
 
Something by John Cassavetes. 
 
Who do you think you are?
 
A superstar? Well, right you are.