It’s 2017, and Dean Wareham is laughing at the idea that maybe every band should just go away for a decade. “That’s probably true,” he deadpans, considering the curious rebirth of Luna—back with the slyly titled A Sentimental Education, a covers album and instrumental EP that dodges both nostalgia and expectation.
Wareham knows the drill. A band forms, earns early praise, slowly fades into the ether, and then—poof—disappears. Only to return ten years later, somehow cooler. “We got an email from a Spanish promoter,” he recalls. “He said, ‘I hear there’s a rumor Luna’s getting back together. Is that true?’ I said, ‘No, but it could be.’” A modest offer followed. “It wasn’t going to change our lives,” Wareham admits, “but it looked like fun.”
Unlike those legacy acts who grit their teeth for a fat reunion paycheck, Wareham says, “It’s not like that with us.” They actually like each other. Imagine that.
A Sentimental Education is no victory lap. Instead of cranking out a new set of originals just to say they did, Luna zagged: a collection of deep-cut covers and ambient instrumentals that no label exec in their right mind would have greenlit. “I thought this would be easier,” Wareham shrugs. “It’s both lazy and money-grubbing—but in a fun way.”
Still, lazy is relative. The band worked on the album in bits over a year. And the instrumentals, those were partly born out of logic, partly mischief. “Writing lyrics is the hard part,” Wareham says. “And I thought an album of covers and an EP of instrumentals—those are two things we’ve never done before. Maybe that’s more interesting than, ‘Hey, the band’s back and here’s some new songs.’”
It also dodged the reunion-album curse. “I’m always resistant to buying new albums from reformed bands,” Wareham admits. “I love the Buzzcocks, love Mission of Burma—but I didn’t check out their new stuff. Although Slowdive… Slowdive made an excellent record.”
So did Luna, for that matter, even if it’s less a comeback statement than a crate-digger’s dream. These aren’t just cover songs—they’re the most obscure choices from name-brand artists. “You noticed that!” Wareham laughs. “We picked the least popular tracks from each one.” There’s a Cure cut from Three Imaginary Boys, an 80s Dylan deep-dive, and even a Velvet Underground tune from Squeeze—the album where Lou Reed was long gone and only Doug Yule remained. “People don’t give him enough credit,” Wareham says. “There’s vocal harmonies and more complex chords—it’s obviously him.”
Even when they play it straight, Luna’s version of “Most of the Time” is a stealthy gut punch. “Each verse ends with ‘most of the time,’” Wareham says. “You realize, oh wait, he’s not over her.”
Meanwhile, on the instrumental side, the song titles became their own inside joke. “March of the Trolls,” for example, began as a reference to Grieg, but, well, welcome to the internet. “It kind of has a new meaning today,” Wareham says dryly. Another track, “GTX3,” is named after a guitar pedal. And “Place of Greater Safety” is straight from a book on the French Revolution. (“It means the grave,” Wareham explains.)
Some pieces were pulled from the documentary Tell Me Do You Miss Me, like “Spanish Odyssey,” which scores Sean Eden stumbling around a Spanish village, wine glass in hand. “We worked on ‘Amethyst’ for a while,” Wareham says. “It’s a weird challenge—writing a four-minute song with no words. Sometimes adding vocals just ruins it.”
There’s no grand plan for Luna’s future, and that’s kind of the point. “We had a rehearsal yesterday,” Wareham says, sounding almost surprised. “It was actually fun. We told stories, rehearsed a little. It wasn’t tense like 2004.”
As for what’s next, Wareham casually drops that he’s got another covers project in the can—this time with his friend who records as Cheval Sombre. “It’s all old cowboy songs from Hollywood Westerns,” he says. “That’ll come out sometime next year.”
Until then, Luna exists in the best way possible: making music when they want to, not when a contract says they have to. “It’s easier that way,” Wareham smirks. “And more fun.”
And here are earlier conversations with Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips:
