A vivid and revealing memoir from the leader and founder of one of the most revered indie-rock bands of the 1980s. Published to coincide with the release of his first solo album since 2010, MAKE IT RIGHT, and supported by live dates across Europe and North America. On sale August 30th. |
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Summer 1984. I’ve got the back lounge of this tour bus all to myself, partly because I’m the lead singer but more likely because it means the rest of the band won’t have to deal with me for the rest of the day.
Just two years earlier I was flunking out at UCLA, working the day shift in a record store, living out of my father’s basement. Now I’m living the million-to-one reality of touring the country with my band, The Dream Syndicate, opening for up-and-coming rock darlings R.E.M., and making a big-budget sophomore album for A&M Records. I’m also untethered and unbound, drinking a fifth of Jim Beam every day, barely speaking to my best friend and guitarist, and looking for trouble in all the wrong places.
How did I get from there to here? And how do I get out? Stick around and find out. I’ll be here, dreaming my dream . . . |
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I WOULDN’T SAY IT IF IT WASN’T TRUE is a tale of writing songs and playing in bands as a conduit to a world its author could once have barely imagined—a world of major labels, luxury tour buses, and sold-out theaters, but also one of alcohol, drugs, and a low-level rock’n’roll Babylon.
Beginning with Wynn’s childhood in California in the 60s and 70s, the book builds to a crescendo with the formation of the first incarnation of The Dream Syndicate in 1981 as an antidote to the prepackaged pop music of the era. It charts the highs and lows of the band’s early years at the forefront of the Paisley Underground scene alongside Green On Red, Rain Parade, and The Bangles; the seismic impact of their debut album, The Days Of Wine And Roses; the spiraling chaos of the sessions for the follow-up, Medicine Show; the dissolution of the band’s first line-up and the launch of a second phase of The Dream Syndicate with Out Of The Grey and Ghost Stories; and more, culminating with the release of the landmark live album Live At Raji’s.
This is Wynn’s story, but it also features some of the biggest and most colorful characters of the period, offering a detailed field guide to the music business that manages to both glorify and demystify in equal measure. And, ultimately, it’s a tale of redemption, with music as a vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence. |
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STEVE WYNN is a founding member of The Dream Syndicate, whose debut album, The Days Of Wine And Roses, is widely regarded as a cornerstone of the indie/alternative rock scene of the 1980s. He has also enjoyed a prolific solo career, touring the world on a regular basis and performing and recording in groups such as Danny & Dusty, Gutterball, and The Baseball Project (also featuring R.E.M. founders Mike Mills and Peter Buck). He scored two Norwegian hit TV shows, Dag and Exit, and his songs have been covered by Luna, Yo La Tengo, and Concrete Blonde, among others. This is his first book. He lives in New York City. |
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MAKE IT RIGHT is Wynn's first solo album since 2010, released on Fire Records in tandem with the book. It features contributions from Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Vicki Peterson (The Bangles), Chris Schlarb (Psychic Temple), Emil Nikolaisen (Serena Maneesh), Linda Pitmon (The Baseball project), and a cast of dozens. Wynn will be touring Europe and America this autumn, performing a one-man show blending songs from and inspired by the book along with a narrative structure of readings and storytelling. Fans can expect a selection of evergreens and rarities from the Dream Syndicate’s catalogue along with reflective numbers from the new album. |
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Advance praise for I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True
Steve Wynn has been toiling in the rock’n’roll trenches for over forty years. I know. I’ve been working alongside of him for many of those years. Steve’s book really captures the life of a music lifer, the first bands, the good breaks, the bad decisions, the sense that the life you live is music, not your job. The Dream Syndicate is one of the greatest bands of all time, and Steve takes you along for the ride. PETER BUCK
Steve Wynn might say he is an ordinary guy, but his new memoir proves that he is more tenacious, musically erudite, driven, and prolific than any of the rest of us. With his crystalline memory, he recounts scenes from his bell-bottomed youth in 1970s Los Angeles to the whiskey-splashed punk rock dives where he, along with the members of his band The Dream Syndicate, developed an electrifying brand of psychedelic/punk/rock/jazz that continues to thrill fans today. I was there for some of this stuff and can’t remember half of it. VICKI PETERSON
I walked into this tale on February 23, 1983: The Dream Syndicate at New York’s Folk City. I never left. The band’s singer, guitarist, and polestar, Steve Wynn, has been a constant companion in my amplified life, on records and stages raging with riff-army fire and fierce, lyric truths. And like his songs, this account of growing up loud is great rock’n’roll: a passage in frank, vivid detail through electric adolescence and illuminating struggle into a truly revolutionary American underground. Read this with the stereo cranked up to infinity and wish you were there now. DAVID FRICKE
Steve Wynn takes us on a magical pilgrimage into the inspiration and illumination of rock’s roll and role. I have stood beside him onstage many a time as he feedbacks the music’s every emotion, turning it ever up, shattering the sound barrier, the release and emotional reveal that is the beating heart of a life in song. LENNY KAYE |
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I WOULDN’T SAY IT IF IT WASN’T TRUE by STEVE WYNN
Published August 30, 2024, by Jawbone Press (www.jawbonepress.com) |
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