{"id":10628,"date":"2018-03-01T10:45:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/takenote\/?p=10628"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:44:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:44:34","slug":"dean-ween-aka-mickey-melchiondo-on-guitar-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/dean-ween-aka-mickey-melchiondo-on-guitar-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo) on the Guitarists That Shaped Him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-dean-ween-built-a-jam-legacy-from-godweensatan-to-chocolate-and-cheese-and-beyond\" style=\"text-transform: none;\">\n  How Dean Ween Built a Jam Legacy from <em>GodWeenSatan<\/em> to <em>Chocolate and Cheese<\/em> and Beyond\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Libsyn Player\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/6303323\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/87A93A\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"90\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the name Michael Melchiondo does not ring a bell, it\u2019s because he is known professionally by his stage name of Dean Ween, one half of the band Ween, who for nearly 30 years\u2014along with Gene Ween (whose real name is Aaron Freeman)\u2014have been releasing into the world a very unique style of music. Deaner (as he is also known) is currently touring with the Dean Ween Group\u2014which features all of the touring members of Ween, minus Gener\u2014and the Dean Ween Group have an album called <em>Rock2<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full lineup of Ween has also recently announced several live shows for the summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melchiondo and Freeman met in 1984, adopting the Ween surname in their early teenage years, but for Melchiondo, his love for music began with his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> The first things I really remember were my dad\u2019s records. My dad didn\u2019t have a big record collection but the records that he had are so cool, looking back. He went into the navy in like 1960, and then when he came out, I guess after whatever it was . . . 2 years, or 4 years, or . . . he met my mom, got married, all that, but he just totally ignored the British movement of music, like, he was so into soul music and doo-wop and then old country and then funk. So, his record collection was very tasty, actually. But there was no Zep or The Kinks or The Beatles. He did have <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em>, that was a big one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So anyway, that\u2019s like kind of my first taste of . . . first things I remember, he would sing a lot of, like, old Hank Williams, the real Hank Williams, to us and Bob Wills and Texas Playboys and George Jones and Merle Haggard, and Willie and you know, that kind of thing. And then he had records by Parliament . . . but he just had this really diverse record collection. It was kind of like . . . he grew up a Philly, Jersey doowop nut and then by the time he was raising kids, he resumed with Cool and the Gang and Parliament and stuff like that, so . . . really weird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that\u2019s my first memory, and then rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, there was a family down the street that had like five kids, the Cyrus family, and they all took turns babysitting me and they had record collections, they were teenagers, and they turned me on to . . . I remember hearing <em>Ziggy Stardust<\/em>, I remember hearing Lynyrd Skynyrd, <em>One More From the Road<\/em>, the live record . . . I remember hearing Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and The Beatles. The Beatles was the first thing that really turned me out, like The Beatles always has been my favorite band, always will be my favorite band, but that shit just like turned me out. I got the . . . I had a wiped out copy of <em>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s<\/em> and then I got those two Greatest Hits records, the double record, the red one . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yeah, the red and the blue.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, the red one, \u201862 to \u201866, and then the \u201867 to \u201872 or \u201870 . . . and it had the lyrics, if you remember, on the original sleeves, and that stuff, man, that was just like an endless . . . I think when you\u2019re a kid, like, mystery is like a really big thing in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. It should be mysterious and dangerous and The Beatles, man, those lyrics to like \u201cI Am the Walrus\u201d and of course their voices on the older stuff and just . . . that was really what kind of, like, turned me out. And then, I\u2019m just going to keep rambling, if you don\u2019t mind.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yeah, go for it!<br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> To answer this question properly, I have to. And then, it\u2019s a shame it doesn\u2019t really happen anymore, as far as I can tell, but the radio was huge. I mean, growing up in the \u201870s and \u201880s, the radio was everything. That\u2019s where I\u2019d listen to <em>The Dr. Demento Show<\/em> religiously, so did Aaron when he was a kid. That was a big part of the weird things and later on, and the <em>King Biscuit Flower Hour<\/em>, doing the whole concerts . . . I guess those are my roots. I mean, and later on, I went on to find my real influences after that, but that\u2019s the original stuff. After that, I just became all about the funk and all about the guitar for a long time . . . Bob Dylan, very classic, standard, normal taste . . . Zeppelin, Hendrix, Carlos, P. Funk, The Beatles, The Stones, and I don\u2019t think your influences ever change, really. I think that shit is over when you\u2019re like 16 and 17. You\u2019re always going to go back to those records, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yeah, and was it a bonding thing with you and your dad? Or was it just kind of you raiding his collection?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> It was a bonding thing, but not nearly compared to what it is now, you know? \u2018Cause I know what he\u2019s going to like and he knows what I\u2019m going to like and surprisingly enough, my mid-seventies father could send me a YouTube video of something that I\u2019ve never heard that\u2019s so funky. It\u2019s pretty amazing, actually, because he\u2019s not a musicologist by any means, he\u2019s not . . . I doubt he has an iTunes account, you know what I mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. Did anybody else in your family play?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> No, that\u2019s the other really strange thing, is I have two halves in my family. My mother\u2019s Canadian, so I really didn\u2019t grow up . . . obviously, I never lived in Canada and I never really was nearly as close with that half of my life as I was with my Trenton Italian family. And everybody named Melchiondo has great taste in music and has incredible sense of rhythm and appreciates and buys and goes to see live music but no, I\u2019m the only player, as far as I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And when did that start?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> That started in around \u201884, when I met Aaron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Oh, so you hadn\u2019t been playing on your own at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> I had. The way that started was, my father\u2019s a used car dealer, he\u2019s retired now, but he had a car lot down in Trenton and there was a music store across the street and I was really flipping out on everything at once. I was just taking it in, everything. So, I got him to buy me like a crappy pawn shop, twenty-five dollar guitar, and I just tuned the strings so they would make a chord. I didn\u2019t know how to actually play it. I got a drum set first and then I got the guitar. So I was making these, like . . . I\u2019d take a tape recorder down the basement, play a drumbeat, and then take it upstairs and while I was overdubbing it to another cassette, I\u2019d play guitar over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So just like boombox to boombox?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, pretty much. No, no, no the four-track didn\u2019t come into play until, surprisingly, like five years later, even though they were available then. I just didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. So how old were you at this point?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> I was 14. Maybe 13, but I met Aaron when I was 14 and it turns out, he was doing exactly the same thing with more, like, cassios and the built-in beats from cassios and it was like a little weirder . . . I hate to just make Ween sound so simple, but I mean, at first, I was like the punk rock, not . . . I was just getting into the . . . I was looking for the most abrasive, hardest music that was out there, no matter what it was. And he was into the weirdest stuff out there, no matter what it was. And then there was stuff where we met on common ground; we both love Devo very much. We both loved Laurie Anderson\u2019s \u201cSuperman,\u201d we both loved <em>The Dr. Demento Show<\/em>. His father was a hippie. His father was at Woodstock, okay? My father was probably the guy that would fucking throw rocks at hippies. So, there was . . . Aaron had . . . Aaron\u2019s dad didn\u2019t have a lot of records either, but between the cool ones that I had and the cool ones he had, that\u2019s kind of what Ween is. He had everything from Nina Simone to the first two Velvet Underground records, to Richie Havens\u2019 <em>Alarm Clock<\/em>, to . . . I mean, everything, Beefheart . . . and so, those influences together, that\u2019s kind of . . . and then we turned each other onto music, as it was coming out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And were you guys teaching yourselves, like going straight up punk rock ethics, or were you taking lessons as well?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> No, no, no, it was totally, totally taught ourselves everything. That didn\u2019t come until a little bit later, or a way bit later, actually. For a while, it was just drums and guitar tuned to an open chord and it didn\u2019t matter how many strings were even on it, I just tuned it to whatever chord, and that was the chord I would play with my thumb, across all the frets, so it\u2019d move around. And then, I think it took us a year or more to get a bass . . . pawn shop kind of bass . . . and then, like one day, we wrote that song \u201cYou Fucked Up,\u201d it\u2019s the first song on our first record, and it actually had a verse and a chorus. I think that\u2019s one of our first, if not our first \u201csong\u201d song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, by that time, I thought I was the only one in the world of course, like only a teenager would, to know about Jimi Hendrix. Like, \u201cOh, this is a secret only I know about.\u201d And then from there, Zep, and then I wanted to play guitar, like really, really bad. And I had a friend that was willing to teach me. So, I learned a little bit and then I showed Aaron what I was learning and we were figuring it out on our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Well, it\u2019s so interesting too because that first album, it feels like your sound is like already developed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, that stuff . . . it\u2019s really, really strange \u2018cause that . . . I mean, talking about this sounds really pretentious, but that record . . . our first few records are really kind of . . . no one has ever really gotten it right. The first record was a studio record and there\u2019s a huge, huge thing that happened that no one . . . I don\u2019t know why no one has ever mentioned it, but everything that we did was with real drums. Everything from \u201884 to \u201890 had real drums on it because we were living at my parents\u2019 house and we were in high school. We graduated in \u201888 but they sold the house in like \u201889, \u201890 and we got our own place. So, we did that first record to 16-track tape in Andrew Weiss\u2019 living room, and we got to re-do, like, all of . . . the first record was kind of like the greatest hits from the first six years of Ween, and it\u2019s a rock and roll record. It sounds like a band, it\u2019s really distorted and it\u2019s full on drum kit on almost every single song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then we moved, and then the next two records is when we got the four-track and we were living in this tiny apartment and we had to get a drum machine because we couldn\u2019t even fit a kit in there and the neighbors would have gone insane. So our sound just completely changed from the second and third record . . . we went from being a four-track, people started calling us lo-fi and . . . experimental and all that, but it was just out of necessity but it never comes up. People think . . . I don\u2019t know if they\u2019ve ever heard the first record, but they just think it was done on a four-track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. Well I was actually particularly talking about, like, your guitar sound. It feels like that was developed by the debut. That lead on \u201cLM . . .\u201d or however, you know what song I\u2019m talking about.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, yeah, \u201cLMLYP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Like, that lead is <em>the Dean Ween sound<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Thank you, I mean, I\u2019m assuming this is for Berklee, right? School of music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Well, I mean, I don\u2019t know . . . so, I\u2019m assuming you\u2019re a musician?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yes!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Are you a guitarist?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I play guitar, yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> I mean, have you ever wondered if you\u2019re getting worse? Like, I\u2019m serious, and I don\u2019t mean that in a way . . . \u2018cause I know I\u2019m getting better, I\u2019m positive of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I\u2019ve only wondered when I stagnate, you know?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Well yeah, yeah. I hear some of that stuff. I really go back and . . . I\u2019m not very reflective. I still want to make new music but I go back and I listen to some of the stuff that we did, like, if it\u2019s a live thing from \u201889, \u201888, \u201887, \u201890, you know, and it\u2019s really fucking rad, the guitar playing is really rad, it was almost like . . I almost have to dumb my thing down to get back to that spot. But you know, I mean, then you listen to Neil [Young], you know, Neil has never played better guitar than he has in the third chapter of his life, you know what I mean? Or whatever chapter he\u2019s in, he\u2019s playing the best guitar of his life. Prince was easily playing the best guitar of his life, year after year, you know what I mean? It only got better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I\u2019m not really a fan, but I\u2019ll say it, Clapton\u2019s playing . . . I\u2019m not a Clapton fan, I never really was, but . . . and Carlos, even though he\u2019s making these pop singles and all, Carlos rules! Carlos is shredding, you know? I know I\u2019ve got more skill and more knowledge and more gain now, but . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But it was like at that point, you had already figured out like, \u201cOkay, I like a phaser, I like distortion, I like . . .\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Phaser, a Wah-Wah, and Echo, that\u2019s still what I use. That\u2019s pretty much it . . . but then there\u2019s other people, like you listen to, like, Ritchie Blackmore. I see him . . . even from like the mid to late \u201870\u2019s, and he can\u2019t play the solo from \u201cHighway Star.\u201d Like, he just can\u2019t play that fast or that whatever, it\u2019s like . . . but you\u2019ve got to keep yourself scared, you\u2019ve got to keep challenging yourself. But I\u2019ll deconstruct if I need to, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And was it always the Strat for you? From the very get-go, after that pawn shop guitar?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, yes, absolutely was and is. I have like 40 or 50 guitars, but I mean, my thing is so simple, it\u2019s really funny like, I wanted to play like Jimi Hendrix. That was, to me, to this day, from the first day and to this day, that\u2019s the greatest guitar player in the world. There\u2019s no argument that can be made for anybody else in a close second, you know what I mean? And so, I wanted to know what he had, so it was like, okay, a Strat, a Wah-Wah, and a loud amp. That\u2019s all I needed to know and as it turns out, my friend Billy Tucker taught me to play guitar, played exactly that. So, you know, I never changed. I just like started there and Tucker played it, too and these were the gauge strings he bought and this was the gauge picks he used and this was the kind of guitar and I just have never really . . . I\u2019ve tried other stuff, but that\u2019s my thing now, at this point, you know. There\u2019s no backing away from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. It would almost be weird if you switched now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> I mean, I do . . . I\u2019ve got a really nice Alembic guitar now, like a really beautiful one they made for me. It\u2019s probably the nicest guitar I\u2019ve ever played in the whole world but I can borrow anybody\u2019s Strat from any year, in any condition, made in any country, could be Japanese, Mexican, vintage, custom shop, and I can go to an amp and turn . . . without even it being on, turn the dials, kick that thing on and know exactly what\u2019s going to come out of it, you know what I mean? That\u2019s my shit, the Strat, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So, let\u2019s back up a tiny bit . . . with those first three albums, at what point did you know it was a career? You knew that this was . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Never.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Never?!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> I\u2019m still waiting for people to figure out that we don\u2019t know what the hell we\u2019re doing at all, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Well I remember, I first saw you guys on the . . . I think it was the <em>Chocolate and Cheese<\/em> tour, it was in Providence, it was a small room and I think that was your first tour with the band, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, that was the second . . . that might have been the second show. We played Maxwell\u2019s the night before, it was the very first, and then that was the second one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It was great, but it was just interesting because . . . there were some songs that the band would sit out \u2018cause they had . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> Yeah, that was the last time we did that, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Really?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:<\/strong> So, when we went through this thing where Ween was so closely identified as the two of us and the tape deck, you know what I mean? Going to see us live was not going to see, like, a rock concert like in any other . . . I don\u2019t think you could compare us to anything \u2018cause it was just the two of us and a cassette deck of me playing the real drums on it in the back. So, when we went and made that record, it was very slick sounding for us, first of all, and we were very insecure about it. It was like, not in a sell-out way, but just sort of like a change, a dramatic change from the sort of vibe that we\u2019d established with the second and third one. So, to go out with a live band, it was like . . . I mean, I think I still have close friends that believe that, like, that was it for Ween, when we went to the real band. It was like 30 years ago now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That\u2019s funny. I remember from that show, it was interesting, there was this guy there who was just yelling like, \u201c<em>Chocolate and Cheese<\/em> is a great fucking album!\u201d and that was what he yelled between songs and it was not that well attended, which is surprising. It was interesting because it felt like that was almost the affirmation, like, he almost perceived the insecurities of the band or something, and he was just yelling that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Yeah. Now, that was . . . that\u2019s a really funny . . . I\u2019m positive I\u2019ve never met anybody that was there. I remember that I wanted to kill myself after that show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Really? I loved it!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>It was so, I thought it sucked so bad, but we were going through an identity crisis, and like I said, I have an elephant\u2019s memory, but I remember playing \u201cVoodoo Lady\u201d that night with the backing tracks behind us and like, something else, played a couple songs like that, and it was just totally, like, a sign of weakness. It was like we weren\u2019t committed completely and within like two or three weeks of that, we were playing three-hour concerts, like the Ween of today, you know what I mean? We just totally ditched it, abandoned it, never had that insecurity again. It was just those first few shows and it was like, \u201cScrew that!\u201d All these songs that had always been exactly a minute and 30 seconds, like played \u2018I Gots a Weasel\u2019 the same way for like seven years up to that point, could now become 30-minute songs, you know? And we were having such a ball figuring out how to do it. And then it just got like . . . from there . . . it just got like way, way, way over the top, like I said, three-, four-hour concerts. So, you saw something that was, like, a three-hour transition phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. Right, and it\u2019s interesting too, like coming from such a punk rock background, and I had a punk rock background as well, and watching that show . . . it was really exciting to see the possibilities of what two people can do and what a band can do, and then, it was interesting to . . . I think it was <em>The Mollusk<\/em> tour, it was after that, or maybe later on . . . <em>Chocolate and Cheese<\/em>, seeing you guys, watching when jam kids were coming out.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>I kind of forget that it was something so weird at first, for us when that happened, \u2018cause now it\u2019s so ordinary. But, you know, it\u2019s like the last thing in the world you would expect would be for Ween to play on a bill with Moe. and Phish and, you know, shit like that. But we had the stuff in common . . . we actually jam and . . . I\u2019m not going to name names, I\u2019m just going to diss every single band on that scene at once. I mean, jamming is Deep Purple <em>Made in Japan<\/em>, you know? I mean, that\u2019s jamming, the rocking out. Yes [and their live album, <em>Yessongs<\/em>] they\u2019re jamming . . . [King] Crimson, you know? It rocks, but it jams, but it\u2019s in the context of the song, it\u2019s not just all the jam. Plus, it has no teeth, a lot of that stuff doesn\u2019t rock, at all. I haven\u2019t found anything that really rocks, you know? I mean, The Allman Brothers are a jam band. The Grateful Dead jammed . . . Deep Purple jammed . . . Carlos jammed. James Brown jammed, you know? Shit . . . but you can\u2019t just start off with a jam, you know? If you\u2019re going to do a 20-minute song, and it\u2019s pre-planned, well that\u2019s bullshit right there. Like, I\u2019m always waiting for that moment where the distortion kicks in, you know, like ten minutes into the solo, all of a sudden, the flanger and the distortion and then you get the Echoplex, and you\u2019re freaking out on acid, and like fists are in the air, you know? It just doesn\u2019t happen, like it doesn\u2019t happen. I think that\u2019s where we come in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right, right. So, throughout that period when you\u2019re going in <em>Chocolate and Cheese<\/em> and you\u2019re on Elektra, you know, the previous album was on Elektra, and that\u2019s big at the time, and are you, at that point, realizing this is a career or are you still just . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>[Unwrapping a pack of cigarettes] The only time that I ever realized that I had a career honestly was, and this is totally true, I pumped gas six days a week and Aaron worked at the taco place and we never got paid for anything and then we were expected to . . . I don\u2019t like when bands play my local bar and then expect to get a couple \u201chundo\u201d or something, you know? It\u2019s like, \u201cMan, you ain\u2019t getting it. Forget it.\u201d Like, don\u2019t assume . . . if you get a couple bucks, that\u2019s great, at that point in your life, but we\u2019d made <em>God Ween Satan<\/em> and we made <em>The Pod<\/em> and we got a publishing deal with Warner Chappell for a whopping $3,000 advance, which we had to split and pay the IRS, which of course, we didn\u2019t set any money aside for them. So I had $1,500 and I was like, \u201cMan, I\u2019m a working musician!\u201d I mean, I was like, that\u2019s the best check I ever got in my life, was that first check, that publishing check. And we had just signed away like 150 songs for like 20 years, you know? For three grand. But we got it all back eventually, all that shit expired, but I mean, that\u2019s . . . I think that\u2019s the first time I quit the job at the mobile station, \u2018cause we had obligations on the road and my boss was so happy for me and . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>He was \u201cthe man\u201d in \u201cPumpin\u2019 for the Man,\u201d right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;<\/strong>Yeah, but I mean, I think that was when I felt like I was like really, like, working . . . I don\u2019t know. I mean, I say things in interviews, Aaron does it too, and maybe you lie to yourself or you hear about it from other people, then you start to remember it that way, [different from] how it really was. I mean, how it really was was like no thought went into anything. It was just go, go, go, go, go! But, you know, when we were 18, what does any 18-year-old at a high school want to do? We wanted to record and we wanted to tour. We wanted to travel. And our first tour, right when we got out of high school, with <em>God Ween Satan<\/em>, was Europe. I mean, what the fuck? That was . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I guess, when did you guys realize that, \u201cHey, oh my God, we really do have a unique offering,\u201d you know, \u201cin our combination of songs that are really good, songs that are serious, songs that are silly, songs that are making fun of other bands . . .\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;<\/strong>Well, honest to God, I mean, and I wish I had more of it in me now, and I know that every band has it at that age of your life . . . I was so positive that I was in the greatest band of all time, in the history of all recorded music, better than Bach and The Beatles . . . and we <em>sucked<\/em> at that point. I felt that way for a really, really long time and . . . it was just righteousness, young righteousness, you know? I thought we were punker than anybody . . . but that&#8217;s a great thing, you know? And then, later on, when your grow up or whatever the expression is, you find out . . . or, you realize that you\u2019re just, like, part of the eternal song that\u2019s been going on forever, you know what I mean? . . . We\u2019re all contributing to it. It\u2019s not right to . . . if you don\u2019t like some other band\u2019s music, I\u2019m really guilty of it, you shouldn\u2019t diss on them, you know what I mean? \u2018Cause if it gets somebody off out there, if they have fans and it gets them off, who am I to spoil it for them and say, \u201cNo, that blows,\u201d you know? But don\u2019t mistake what I\u2019m saying for . . . we don\u2019t have that righteousness. We\u2019re just not as fucking obnoxious about it now.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Well, you know, with the way you guys have made fun of bands in song . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;<\/strong>Oh no, no, no, that\u2019s not what I mean. That\u2019s not what I mean, I\u2019m talking about in the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I was pivoting!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>I\u2019m talking about in the press. I don\u2019t think Ween has ever been guilty of making fun of a band on a song, and if we are, it\u2019s so obscure, that nobody . . . it would go over so many people\u2019s heads . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right, well I guess the tributes, the humorous tributes, like \u201cGabrielle\u201d sounds like Thin Lizzy . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>But it\u2019s not though, it\u2019s, I mean, the way that song went down, if I remember it correctly, I wrote that song, I had just discovered Thin Lizzy probably that week. And so, I fucking listened to nothing but that, and I wrote that song. That\u2019s about as much thought that went into that. . . . There was no whatever about it, there was no . . . I don\u2019t even . . . we had to answer that kind of question for so many years, and we don\u2019t anymore, which is great, it\u2019s like, you know, what . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sorry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>No, it\u2019s okay! But, you know, \u201cwhat are these guys\u2019 intentions,\u201d you know? \u201cThey\u2019re trying to . . . They\u2019re trying to do everything,\u201d you know what I mean? It\u2019s like, where in the rule book\u2014if there is a rule book\u2014says that you <em>can\u2019t<\/em> do everything? You know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. I mean, I always took it to be a tribute, you know, like \u201cOld Man Thunder\u201d being kind of a Bob Seger tribute.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Yeah, there\u2019s a . . . it\u2019s like a little thing, you know? It\u2019s just a little . . . put it on there, you know? I\u2019m glad it\u2019s on there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Well, with the Dean Ween Group project, I guess, what\u2019s different aside from the obvious and Aaron being absent?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Well, it\u2019s not a project, it\u2019s very much its own thing. I fully intend on making records if that\u2019s how making them forever, \u2018till I can\u2019t anymore. I mean just, you know, the obvious thing is that I have to do everything myself, which I hate. I\u2019m starting to really get old. I\u2019m actually recording with Kurt Vile, he\u2019s going to walk in any minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Oh, cool!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Yeah, yeah, we just started recording together recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That\u2019s so funny, the last episode was Charlie Hall from War on Drugs, so Kurt Vile\u2019s been such a weird character in our podcasts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>There\u2019s a lot of synergy there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yeah, we interviewed Jen Cloher, who\u2019s Courtney Barnett\u2019s partner, and they were on tour together, Kurt Vile walks in in the middle of that podcast to take a shower.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Right, yeah. I\u2019m just learning about all this. I just met Kurt when we did Bonaroo last year. We both live right in the same area and he\u2019s a really nice dude and a cool vibe and we love the same records and I knew immediately we\u2019d be able to play together and write together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That\u2019s great.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>So, we have been and it went way better than either of us could have expected, so now we\u2019re all over it. But Ween is . . . I hate the expression . . . Ween and Dean Ween and Moist Boyz, everything I\u2019ve ever done is totally DIY. I mean, I have engineered, produced, recorded, played, written, sang, mixed, mastered every single note and it\u2019s so much work. Then you have a business side of music that no one needs to know about if you\u2019re a music fan, you know what I mean? But that takes up 90 percent of what I . . . if it\u2019s 100 percent of Ween, 10 percent of it is me making music. 90 percent is me on the phone, making sure shit is right . . . and so, when it comes to the music thing, I have to motivate myself to go to the studio alone and . . . sit there alone all night . . . and see a song through . . . I can do it, I mean I\u2019ve been doing it my whole life, but I really love bouncing ideas and collaborating and I guess that\u2019s the biggest difference, you know? . . . And also, with Ween . . . we never thought of things as a band when we were recording it. The adaptation for the stage was a whole different animal. And I think I\u2019m working so much with a band now that I really like it, you know, maybe subconsciously think of things . . . I\u2019m starting to think more in terms of the stage. I love it. \u2018Cause right now, that\u2019s the only way to make a living as a musician, is touring. . . . You never got record royalties even 30 years ago, so now, you\u2019ve . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Well, I guess the \u201cOcean Man\u201d commercial, whenever that was, must have helped out, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Oh, yeah. I mean, that made us a whopping $6,200 I think, before commissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Oh, that\u2019s it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Oh man, I thought that was everywhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>No, \u201cLike a Rock\u201d by Bob Seger made a lot of money. \u201cOcean Man\u201d for the one week it was on for Honda . . . no, I don\u2019t even . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right. How is the dynamic of the Dean Ween Group and then when Aaron comes back into the fold, is it just seamless?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>Well, I don\u2019t really want to go into that very much. It\u2019s not any different, really, I mean we learned to play together, you know? We learned everything, you know what I mean? We were on exactly the same page when we stepped on the stage. Especially the Dean Ween Group is . . . most of the guys, or all of the guys are from Ween!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right, right.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>So, if anything, I like to kick back and not have to sing as much. . . . I love both. I\u2019m getting the best of everything right now, in my mind. . . . I love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you make of all this? You know, you\u2019ve been doing this for 30, 40 years . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;\ufeff<\/strong>34 years. . . . You\u2019re not going to believe me, no one believes me, so I don\u2019t even know if I should say it but, I don\u2019t do anything any differently, honestly. I mean, we\u2019ve got nicer gear, I\u2019m better at writing and better at playing, better at performing, but I approach it the same exact way. I don\u2019t take away any sense of pride or, a better way to say it is I don\u2019t reflect at all. I feel like, I know I can speak for Claude and most of my friends that play. You know, I\u2019m only as good as the last song I wrote, or the last gig I did, you know, that\u2019s how I feel about it. Hold on a sec . . . I think Kurt\u2019s here, can we wrap it up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yeah, we\u2019ll wrap it up. So the last thing is just what\u2019s the song you enjoy playing the most, after all these years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dean Ween:&nbsp;<\/strong>The song I enjoy playing the most is \u201cRoses Are Free,\u201d the one that Phish covers, and the one that, like, people that have no idea what the hell they\u2019re talking about on the Internet assume is, like, something . . . if we play it on a jam festival, they think that it\u2019s some calculated thing. I love the song, first of all, but I love it because every single guy in the band is doing something different and is playing full tilt the whole song. It\u2019s like the ultimate sound check song, you know? It\u2019s like everybody\u2019s doing something tasty at the same time, as hard as they can and it makes this one big, beautiful sound. So that\u2019s actually my favorite song to play live is \u201cRoses are Free.\u201d The one that started the whole Phish jam band thing, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"STUDY GUITAR WITH BERKLEE ONLINE (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/guitar?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;tum_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-article-link\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>STUDY GUITAR WITH BERKLEE ONLINE<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the name Michael Melchiondo does not ring a bell, it\u2019s because he is known professionally by his stage name of Dean Ween. Click to check out what Deaner was talking about. (That&#8217;s a Ween reference!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9590,5],"tags":[215,220,266,274,294,360,405,406,410,504,555,578,579,605,630,708,723,732,784,796,804,811,904,946,949,1019,1037,1075,1085,1116,1144,1220,1225,1324,1418,1421,1424,1444,1457,1471,1549,1588,1594],"class_list":["post-10628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-articles","category-podcast","tag-bob-seger","tag-boognish","tag-captain-beefheart","tag-carlos-santana","tag-charlie-hall","tag-courtney-barnett","tag-dean-ween","tag-dean-ween-group","tag-deep-purple","tag-eric-clapton","tag-funkadelic","tag-george-clinton","tag-george-jones","tag-grateful-dead","tag-hank-williams","tag-james-brown","tag-jen-cloher","tag-jimi-hendrix","tag-king-crimson","tag-kurt-vile","tag-laurie-anderson","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-merle-haggard","tag-moe","tag-moist-boyz","tag-neil-young","tag-nina-simone","tag-p-funk","tag-parliament","tag-phish","tag-prince","tag-richie-havens","tag-ritchie-blackmore","tag-southside-johnny-and-the-asbury-jukes","tag-texas-playboys","tag-the-allman-brothers","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-kinks","tag-the-rolling-stones","tag-thin-lizzy","tag-velvet-underground","tag-war-on-drugs","tag-ween"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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