Dean Wareham Shares "You Were The Ones I Had To Betray," Announces New Album

Dean Wareham announces the March 28 release of a new solo album, That’s The Price Of Loving Me (Carpark). The LP reunites Wareham with Kramer (Galaxie 500, Will Oldham, Low) as producer, marking their first collaboration in 34 years. The pair last worked together on Galaxie 500’s swan song This Is Our Music in 1990. Across the LP’s 10 tracks, you can hear traces of their earlier work together, but today the chord progressions are more complex – drawing influence from Bacharach, Gainsbourg, Norma Tanega – and the arrangements are too. Yet Wareham’s signature electric guitar stylings still anchor the songs – before he opens his mouth to sing, you can recognize his voice in the guitar lines. “Kramer insisted that I play all the guitars on this record,” says Dean. “And we worked quickly. Kramer believes that two takes yield more treasure than twenty, and he always seems to have the song mapped out in his head right away.”

Today Dean shares the first taste of That’s The Price Of Loving Me with lead single “You Were The Ones I Had To Betray.” He says, “I wrote this at the last minute, thinking about how love and friendship seem to actually invite betrayal. I didn’t really anticipate where the song would end up musically; it was transformed when Gabe Noel added the cello arrangement in the studio.”

The Mary Poppins-inspired video for the track was directed by Sylvie Lake who notes, “There’s a gorgeous mural of the downtown L.A. freeway interchange with a long cartoon car painted on the side of Belmont High School. I dream of jumping into that mural myself, like that moment in Mary Poppins where Dick Van Dyke jumps into the magical land of chalk.”

Dean also announces a West Coast tour that kicks off May 10 at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, CA. Leading to that he will head to the UK and Europe starting April 1. All dates are listed below and tickets are on-sale tomorrow, January 10, at 10am PT here.