On Acting As A Shaman In A Movie With Naomi Watts

"Last time [I toured] Australia it rained for two days and there was no gas in one of the cities," Dean Wareham recalls, laughing down the phone line. "There had been an explosion and there was no hot water in a few places, and certain restaurants couldn't cook. It wasn't exactly ideal."

Wareham's upcoming stopover is with soft rockers Luna, who quietly re-formed late last year for a world tour. Founding the group after his 1991 departure from minimalist dream poppers Galaxie 500, singer-guitarist Wareham led Luna through a decade and a half of favourable releases before their mid-noughties breakup. Beginning with Lunapark in 1992, evolving with Penthouse in 1995 and cresting with 2004's Rendezvous, the group's delicate, understated sound provided an auxiliary to his narratives of the late night. 

"I got to do a scene with Naomi Watts, which was fun. I play a shaman in an Ayahuasca ceremony."

Though reunited and recharged, Wareham and Luna have stressed that, for now, they're focusing on touring and enjoying themselves once again. A new album is unlikely, though they've confirmed there are other projects in the works that will appease fans. Work on a documentary, Tell Me Do You Miss Me, for instance, has been completed.

"I don't think we're gonna do any new material. My feeling is that there is enough Luna albums in the world," Wareham jokes. "But there is going to be a vinyl reissue project. The first five albums are going to be released in a box set and individually by [US record label] Captured Tracks. The documentary's [first screening] just happened too. It's in that period where the band is breaking up and kind of bitching about each other — obviously there's a better mood in the van now. It was a bit uncomfortable to watch looking back at my younger self, [but] it's a beautiful film."

After Luna first disbanded, Wareham and bassist Britta Phillips, who he married in 2007, continued to tour and record as Dean & Britta. Wareham also began work in the film industry with indie director and good friend Noah Baumbach, something he continues today. Wareham has scored a number of Baumbach's titles and appeared in this year's While We're Young as an actor.

"I got to do a scene with Naomi Watts, which was fun. I play a shaman in an Ayahuasca ceremony. I give the main characters drugs and then leave on a Vespa with a girl I picked up," he laughs. "[Baumbach]'s got another film coming out called Mistress America in which I play a paediatrician, [for which] Britta and I also did the score. Ten years ago we [scored] The Squid And The Whale, and before that Luna worked on for Mr Jealousy. I've just stayed in touch with him. He's one of my best friends."

With Luna's exact future unclear beyond the current world tour, Wareham says film projects will likely continue to fill the breaks in whatever musical adventure comes next. "I'm available for work I always tell people," he chuckles. "But pursuing acting work… It's worse than the music business, I think. I really enjoy it, but it just seems like people are just so desperate to make it. So for me it's just something I do on the side."