VIA PRESS RELEASE | Steve Wynn, leader of the band The Dream Syndicate, founding member of The Baseball Project, and solo artist, announces that he will release both his autobiography I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (Jawbone Press) and his first solo album in 12 years, Make It Right (Fire Records) on August 30.
I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True is the vivid and revealing memoir from leader and founder of one of the most revered indie-rock bands of the 1980s, The Dream Syndicate. It’s 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 indie and major labels, luxury tour buses, and sold-out theatres, but also one of alcohol, drugs, and a low-level rock ’n’ roll Babylon. Ultimately, it’s a tale of redemption, with music as a vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence.
Make It Right 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. The songs aren’t directly autobiographical although the album does start with “Santa Monica,” the city and boulevard where Wynn was born and concludes with “Roosevelt Avenue,” the main thoroughfare of the Queens neighborhood in New York City that he calls home today.
“I wrote and recorded the songs on Make It Right in tandem with working on I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, my memoir, which are being released the same week as Make It Right, my first solo album since 2010,” said Steve Wynn. “With each chapter, I would get ideas for songs inspired by the deep dive into my past and vice versa. The reflections became intertwined after a while, a mutual commentary between literal and metaphorical ruminating.”
Wynn will also be touring solo across the UK, Europe North America this Autumn as 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 as well, all adding up to an evening of a past revisited.
