Lullabies and Love Songs

Dean Wareham of Dean & Britta recently toured the US with a well-received new album, Back Numbers. Born in Wellington, Wareham first emerged on the New York indie scene in 1991 with the influential dream-pop band Luna (which also featured Justin Harwood of NZ band The Chills). At the height of Luna’s fame, the band was seen as a successor to the Velvet Underground and Wareham was hailed as the next Lou Reed or Tom Verlaine. In 2003, Wareham formed the duo Dean & Britta with Luna bassist (and wife) Britta Phillips. A Washington Post review described them as a modern-day Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra or Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, while Nashville Scene praises Back Numbers as “dreamy, darkly melancholic pop.” Wareham and Phillips also provided the score for the acclaimed 2005 independent film, The Squid and the Whale.