Fresh off a select set of special East Coast tour dates with Mott The Hoople ’74, Paisley underground influencers The Dream Syndicate have shared the new song “The Way In” today; fall down the rabbit hole and watch the track’s new lyric video, filmed on the vibrant streets of Madeira, Portugal, HERE.
“It’s the leadoff track, kind of a Rosetta Stone, decoder ring, instruction manual to light the way,” Lead singer and songwriter Steve Wynn said of “The Way In”. “It’s all about clearing the decks, dusting off, fastening the spacesuit and bracing yourself for what might come next. It sounds like something we might have heard on the radio in 1981 when we were forming the band thinking, ‘Maybe we ought to sound like that.’”
There are two phases of The Dream Syndicate. There was the band with revolving lineups that existed from 1982 to 1988 and made four albums including The Days of Wine and Roses and Medicine Show, both of which have influenced bands and delighted fans in the years since. Then there is the band that reunited in 2012 and is closing in on its seventh year, longer than the run of Phase One, with nary a lineup change. This 21st Century version of the Dream Syndicate released How Did I Find Myself Here in 2017 to universal acclaim, no small feat for a band reuniting after almost three decades.
“Referencing who we were and what we had done the first time around but also taking it all someplace new and fresh: It’s a tough balance,” Wynn explained. “Ignore your past and you’re just using the band’s name for convenience, mire yourself too much in the past and you’re a parody— we did neither.”
Therefore, with that reintroduction and a full year of touring behind them, the Dream Syndicate had the freedom to take it all somewhere new, to dig a little deeper and to get outside of themselves a little bit on the next record coming out on May 3, These Times.
The band recorded once again at Montrose Studios in Richmond, Virginia. Co-produced by John Agnello (Phosphorescent, Waxahatchee, Hold Steady, Dinosaur Jr.). “Almost all of the songs were written in the last year so it all feels really new to all of us which is pretty exciting,” Wynn explained. “Just like the last time, I wrote the lyrics after we finished tracking so that the words would be dictated by the sound rather than the other way around.”
The Dream Syndicate has a long and storied history. But where are they right now? They’re here. Right here. In These Times.
TOUR DATES
5/7 – Los Angeles, CA – Amoeba Records In-Store
5/10 – Washington DC – U Street Music Hall
5/11 – Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theater
5/16 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
5/17 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
5/18 – Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom
5/30 – Milwaukee, WI – Collectivo
5/31 – Chicago, IL – The Hide Out SOLD OUT
6/1 – Chicago, IL – The Hide Out SOLD OUT
6/18 – Ancona, Italy – Corte Mole Vanvitelliana
6/19 – Milano, Italy – Circolo Magnolia
6/20 – Cesenatico (FC) – Arena Cappuccini
6/21 – Fiorano Modenese (MO) – Teatro Astoria
6/22 – Rome, Italy – Monk Club