Video: Dean Wareham Shares 'You Were The Ones I Had To Betray' Single

Dean Wareham has announced the March 28 release of a new solo album, That’s The Price Of Loving Me via Carpark. The LP reunites Wareham with Kramer (Galaxie 500, Will Oldham, Low) as producer, marking their first collaboration in 34 years. The pair last worked together on Galaxie 500’s swan song This Is Our Music in 1990. 

Across the LP’s 10 tracks, you can hear traces of their earlier work together, but today the chord progressions are more complex – drawing influence from Bacharach, Gainsbourg, Norma Tanega – and the arrangements are too. Yet Wareham’s signature electric guitar stylings still anchor the songs - before he opens his mouth to sing, you can recognize his voice in the guitar lines. “Kramer insisted that I play all the guitars on this record,” says Dean. “And we worked quickly. Kramer believes that two takes yield more treasure than twenty, and he always seems to have the song mapped out in his head right away.”

Now, Dean shares the first taste of That’s The Price Of Loving Me with lead-single “You Were The Ones I Had To Betray.” He says, “I wrote this at the last minute, thinking about how love and friendship seem to actually invite betrayal. I didn’t really anticipate where the song would end up musically; it was transformed when Gabe Noel added the cello arrangement in the studio.” 

The Mary Poppins-inspired video for the track was directed by Sylvie Lake who notes, “There’s a gorgeous mural of the downtown L.A. freeway interchange with a long cartoon car painted on the side of Belmont High School. I dream of jumping into that mural myself, like that moment in Mary Poppins where Dick Van Dyke jumps into the magical land of chalk.”

Dean also announces a West Coast tour that kicks off May 10 at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, CA.  Leading to that he will head to the UK and Europe starting April 1. All dates are listed below and tickets are on-sale tomorrow, January 10,  at 10am PT here.

With a career spanning decades, beginning with his seminal band Galaxie 500 and continuing with Luna and Dean & Britta (his wife Britta Phillips is in both bands), That’s The Price of Loving Me marks Wareham's fourth solo album. Most recently, he released a holiday album, A Peace of Us, last year alongside Phillips and Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) earning accolades from The New York Times, Vogue, Flood Magazine, Under the Radar, and more. Additionally 2024 saw the release of Uncollected Noise New York, 88-90, a compilation of unreleased Galaxie 500 tracks (The New York Times interview with Wareham is available here).  

That’s the Price of Loving Me, was recorded in just six days in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles and the album’s sonic palette occasionally hints at Galaxie 500, but the passage of time is front and center. “Imagination is memory,” says Dean. “Working over and expanding of anything and everything we can remember.”

Kramer leaves his musical fingerprint throughout; playing acoustic and electric piano, pump organ, celeste and various synthesizers. Britta plays bass and adds backing vocals, while drums were played by longtime collaborators Roger Brogan (Spectrum, Alison’s Halo) and Anthony LaMarca (the War on Drugs). Gabe Noel, the extraordinary L.A. session cellist, joined on four tracks he arranged on the spot without hearing a single note beforehand. Vocally, Dean’s range is lower, closer and more intimate than it was in 1990 and the album’s lyrics are melancholic and witty in equal measure.

Speaking of the collaboration Kramer says “34 years is a long time. But I love Dean, so it was worth the wait. Going back into the studio with him again felt like we’d never been apart. And when the work was done, I felt like it couldn’t have been better. There was a ‘full circle’ air around us that still lingers. I’m grateful for having been invited inside again, and for the emotional opportunities that a truly deep and personal collaboration can offer. It’s incredibly rare, and I’d be surprised if I feel anything even remotely like this again.”

Tour Dates

April 1 - Glasgow, UK @ The Garage

April 2 - Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall

April 3 - Liverpool, UK @ Hangar 34

April 4 - Leamington, UK @ The Assembly

April 5 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club

April 6 - Bristol, UK @ The Fleece

April 7 - London, UK @ 229

April 8 - Paris, FR @ Le Petit Bain

April 10 - Utrecht, NL @ DB’s

April 12 - Groningen, NL @ Aa Theater

April 13 - Hamburg, DE @ Nachtasyl Theater

April 15 - Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club

April 18 - San Sebastian, Spain @ Dabadaba

April 20 - Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Upload

April 21 - Valencia, Spain @ 16 Toneladas Rock Club

April 22 - Zaragoza, Spain @ La Lata De Bombillas

April 24 - Granada, Spain @ Caja Granada Cultural Center

April 25 - Madrid, Spain @ Sala Villanos

May 10 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s

May 11 - Ojai, CA @ Deer Lodge

May 14 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

May 17 - San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel

May 20 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios

May 21 - Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern

Photo credit: Laura Moreau

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