The Dream Syndicate is back and kicking off a national with a show at ONCE on Friday, December 1. — Photo by Chris Sikich

By Blake Maddux

In a 1982 interview, Michael Quercio of the band The Three O’Clock stated that his and several like-minded Los Angeles groups comprised what he called “the Paisley Underground.”

Among the other bands that Quercio was describing were Green on Red, The Long Ryders, Rain Parade, The Bangles, and The Dream Syndicate.

Together, this musical collective bought the influence of 1960s psychedelia, folk, and pop to bear on the nascent alternative rock genre.

The Bangles would achieve the greatest commercial success, but the most influential Paisley Underground recording was arguably The Days of Wine and Roses, the 1982 debut by The Dream Syndicate.

“I like that there was a time when I was part of a movement,” Dream Syndicate lead singer Steve Wynn recently told The Somerville Times.

The band recorded three more albums, the last of which was 1988’s Ghost Stories, before breaking up. Wynn went on to record a slew of albums under his own name and as the leader of The Miracle 3.

Almost 30 years later, Wynn is unbothered by the fact that The Dream Syndicate was never popular in terms of hit singles and album sales.

In fact, he downright proud of it.

“We were designed to be a cult band, an underground band,” Wynn explained. “And we ended up being exactly the band we intended to be.”

In September, The Dream Syndicate released How Did I Find Myself Here?, their first new studio recording in nearly three decades.

Wynn, fellow Dream Syndicate veterans Mark Walton (bass) and Dennis Duck (drums), and Miracle 3 guitarist Jason Victor have been playing live together for five years. This, Wynn pointed out, makes it “the longest-running line-up of The Dream Syndicate ever.” (The new album’s last track, Kendra’s Dream, features vocals by The Dream Syndicate’s original bassist, Kendra Smith.)

Wynn and his bandmates are set to kick off the US leg of their reunion tour at ONCE Ballroom on Friday.

The following is an excerpted version of Wynn’s phone interview with The Somerville Times.

The Somerville Times: Did you ever think that The Dream Syndicate would reunite after it broke up in 1988?

Steve Wynn: I didn’t really think we’d reunite. To be honest, I didn’t really think about it that much at all because I stayed busy right away. My early solo records did really well, so I was kind of off and running and didn’t look back. I think had I put out a solo record and it had done terribly and nobody came to my shows, I might have been thinking, “Oh my god, what am I going to do now?” But that wasn’t a problem.

TST:  How certain were you that the band would record a new album after it reformed to play live?

SW: From the time we got back together again in 2012, we didn’t make any long-term plans. We just took things one step at a time. We got together almost impulsively for a festival in Spain. At the time it came up, it was easier to say yes than to say no. It was just a festival and a couple shows around it, and the idea was, “Well, let’s go do this. If it’s terrible, or doesn’t connect with the fans, or we don’t have a good time, or if it doesn’t work, then that’ll be that. But if it’s fun, then we’ll try something else.”

That was the mentality for two years. Each time something was good, we thought, “Let’s do one more thing. Let’s do one more small tour of Europe. Let’s come back and do one show in New York. Let’s do one in LA.” We kept doing one thing at a time, and after about two years of that, the next logical thing was, “Let’s make a new record and see if that works.”

TST:  Was there any concern that the new Dream Syndicate album might sound too much like another one by The Miracle 3?

SW: Yeah, that was a thought. The solo records I make aren’t that dissimilar from what I do with The Dream Syndicate. They’re my songs and my voice. And also on top of that, most of my recent solo records were with Jason Victor, who is in Dream Syndicate. So there was a thought that, you know, “Gee, I hope this isn’t just Miracle 3 with a different rhythm section.”

The thing is, the way that Dennis and Mark play together on bass and drums is the sound of The Dream Syndicate. That makes all the difference in the world. From the very first rehearsal that we did for that festival back in Spain to the first hour in the studio, when the four of us play together, it sounds like we just got back on the path laid in the 80s.

TST: Do you remember when you first heard The Velvet Underground, a band that was clearly an important influence on The Dream Syndicate?

SW: I do. I was in a garage with a new wave band that I played with in Davis, CA, where I went to school, a band that I played in with Kendra Smith back then. The bass player in the band was older than us – we were all about 18-19 years old and he was in his mid-20s – and he said, “I think you should hear this” and he pulled out the banana record [1967’s The Velvet Underground & Nico] and put it on for me on the turntable.

I can still remember the sight of him putting the needle on the record and hearing the first notes of Sunday Morning and thinking, “everything just changed. Everything just got turned upside-down.” It really had a profound effect on me. I’d never heard anything like that, and it just spoke to me so strongly at that point in my life.

TST: How would you explain the Paisley Underground to someone who has never heard of it?

SW: We were all people around the same age who were inspired by punk rock but at the same time loved our 60s garage records and our guitars. And I think we were people who wanted to find a way to reconcile this distant music that we didn’t grow up with with the punk energy that we did grow up with. That was the unifying thing.

TST: Was “paisley” meant to evoke psychedelic imagery?

SW: I guess, yeah. Funny thing is I actually have a paisley Telecaster and a lot paisley shirts. So I guess I guess I’m still flying the flag!

TST: Which surprised you more: the lavish praise bestowed upon The Days of Wine and Roses or the less enthusiastic response its 1984 follow-up, Medicine Show?

SW: The praise didn’t surprise me at all, because when we finished making Days of Wine and Roses, we knew how good it was. Anybody who makes records or movies or writes articles or anything creative, you know those days when you’re on. So it wasn’t that surprising how much people loved it.

In the States, there was some backlash, definitely. A lot of people loved [Medicine Show], but a lot people were just mystified by it. Then we went to Europe for the first time in ’84, and in Europe there were people who had not really heard Days of Wine and Roses or had only heard about it. They were drawn to Medicine Show like nobody’s business. The reviews for that record were as over the top in Europe as Days of Wine and Roses was over here.

TST:  Can you say with confidence that there will be a follow-up to How Did I Find Myself Here? at some point within the next three decades?

SW: Yeah, there will be. And it’ll be good, too. We’re going to make a new record next summer and we’re excited about it.

The Dream Syndicate with The Richard Lloyd Group and DJ Carbo. Friday, December 1. Doors at 8, show at 8:30. ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave.