There have been silences, addiction, and photo portraits where Evan Dando looked very sad and sorry in his eyes. But as last year’s live gigs proved, however hard he’s been through the ringer he’s still able to soar when drawing on such past triumphs as 1992’s It’s A Shame About Ray and 1996’s Car Button Cloth. Imagine MOJO’s surprise, then, to find him in ebullient mood when we call to discuss impending 11 song/ 38-minute new record Love Chant, whose title references a song on Charles Mingus’ 1956 LP Pithecanthropus Erectus.
“I’m really excited about it,” he says, calling from home in the hills north of Sao Paolo in Brazil. “The reason I waited so long was like, I’m not gonna put anything out if it’s not really good, you know? Baby I’m Bored, I always thought that was really good. And this is same deal, ‘cos I waited until I had this shit together. I think we’re getting better somehow.”
There have been two covers sets in the interim, but it’s the first album of original songs since 2006’s The Lemonheads. He began work at the start of 2023, with Dando playing drum patterns and “working from the ground up” thereafter. They recorded at the San Paolo studio set up by renowned producer Roy Cicala (“it was very loose”), who accrued gear including a compressor used on Lennon’s Imagine. Dando’s old spar Bryce Goggin is mixing.
Dando says the album has as “a lot of loud, sort of muscular rock and roll on it with cool riffs. I use my white (Gibson) SG on the record, right? There’s punk songs, psychedelic stuff. The Key Of Victory is trancey in a weird way, just acoustic guitar, sorta Bob Dylan, very Lou Reed… there’s even a song, Pelican Mouse, that’s in seven time, experimental but right in the pocket. J Mascis is on it - he killed it, and it was beautiful. There’s some happy stuff and some really dark stuff, like the best ones I’ve done. It definitely is about having an open heart. It’s just looser and groovier, and it feels really good and powerful.”
Other collaborators include Dave Ashby from south London Clash fans Rum Shebeen, Australian pal Tom Morgan and his ex-girlfriend Angela. Roky was written in Austin, Texas, on the day the Thirteenth Floor Elevators voice Roky Erickson died in January 2019, and includes a co-writing credit for The Bevis Frond’s Nick Salomon.
“Everything fits together,” says Dando. “It’s been so much fun to get back into it and to want to be doing it. You know, just getting off the heroin was really great for me, for my creativity. After a while, you know you’ll be all right, it’s not gonna hurt you - you can stop.”
Still, there is a trace of grim amusement in his recollections of using heroin and how it stilled his voice. “It sucked so hard, and I was in such bad shape,” he says. “I was just touring to, like, get by. Like, oh a new record got reissued? (wearily) Okay, I’ll do that tour… you’re such a wimp when you’re a junkie. ‘I feel little bit uncomfortable, I need my heroin!’ So lame. I’m much happier now. Everything’s happening for me - I love Brazil. America’s really gotten weird, but people here have not lost their sense of joy.”
He adds that his memoir Rumours Of My Demise is completed, another 15-track album will follow “right away” and that he’d love to see his reformed nineties friends Oasis. “I ran into Noel on a plane in Italy,” he says. “We had a good time - he said, No, no, we’re never getting back together!”
The encroachment of the years is also not lost on Dando, who last December married filmmaker Antonia Teixeira at their home (among the attendees was It’s A Shame About Ray cover star Polly Noonan). Remember, he’s been doing this since 1986.
“It’s… ridiculous,” he says. “But I’m not really complaining. It could stop any second, so you got to get in there with it. And I’m ready to go.”
Love Chant is released this autumn on Fire.
This interview - and loads more! - features in the latest issue of MOJO. Also starring: Oasis' 50 greatest songs, the Grateful Dead, Tim Buckley, Rory Gallagher, Stereolab, The Roches, MJ Lenderman, Slade, Pete Shelley, The Stranglers, an exclusive CD featuring the music that inspired The 'Dead and much more! More info and to order a copy HERE!
