Craig Wedren recently announced details for his new album The Dream Dreaming, due January 26th via his own Tough Lover Records, along with the album’s lead single “Fingers On My Face.” Today, the Shudder to Think frontman and prolific film & television composer – with credits ranging from School of Rock, Wet Hot American Summer and Laurel Canyon to Showtime’s recent hit YELLOWJACKETS – shares the album’s the latest track, “Play Innocent,” along with the roller skating-filled video.
Of the Play Innocent track and video, Wedren notes:
“Play Innocent” was originally written for the ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ TV series, albeit in a rough-n-rudimentary form. It was one of about 30 original songs we created for the show, each an homage to a different artist, song or genre that we loved from the era, circa 1981, when the show takes place.
“Play Innocent” was inspired by early Dire Straits, thus the relatively low vocal register (for me, anyway) and ‘Skateaway’ inspired beat. It must’ve seeped into the video concept, too, although so much time had passed between the ‘Wet Hot’ and ‘The Dream Dreaming’ that it never consciously occurred to me.
By the time I got into ‘The Dream Dreaming,’ the song had evolved into a whole new gleaming thing, with contributions from Mike Farrell and Jherek Bischoff – who had worked on the original. Add Paul Cartwright’s ever-elegant, swooping strings to the mix and Billy Bush’s magnificent mix, and voila!
Roll bounce. Play Innocent.
Whimsy with an endearing dollop of weird: this has been Wedren’s raison d’etre since his days as the frontman for Shudder To Think. The Dream Dreaming is the next step of his sonic evolution, while still maintaining the Whimsy and weird that makes Craig such a vital and unique voice. The Dream Dreaming began life as what the operatic-voiced musician envisioned as a series of COVID-era singles but eventually grew into a full-length project, created without borders. “These songs didn’t have to sound like a four-piece rock band or be strictly electronic,” he adds. “As the bigger picture started making itself clear, I realized, it’s eclectic and sonically whimsical, and that’s a great thing.”
The Dream Dreaming can be enjoyed as both the perfect musical uncoupling and reconciliation of Wedren’s many muses: from D.C. punk, heavy alternative, ‘80s and ‘90s pop, dance music, and soundtracks. These disparate versions of Wedren equally inform The Dream Dreaming, which is further elevated by the presence of two new collaborators: strings player Paul Cartwright (Lana Del Rey/Olivia Rodrigo), whose stunning arrangements can be heard on nearly all of the album’s 11 songs, and drummer Isaac Carpenter (Awolnation). Wedren’s longtime scoring partner Anna Waronker (that dog.) also lends her vocals to the bittersweet duet “All Made Up,” which he started writing while visiting his ailing father in Miami shortly before his early 2020 passing.
“There’s something very psychedelic about this record,” Wedren observes. “It breathes, billows, ebbs, and flows without guardrails. That’s something I really wanted, especially coming from the scoring world, where things need to be pretty sonically fixed once you figure out the palette or the tone.” The Dream Dreaming is also Wedren’s first album since he had a major, out-of-the-blue heart attack in 2018 (“I needed to have some fun after having five stents jammed into my chest,” he says).
Look for The Dream Dreaming next January and enjoy the latest track, “Play Innocent” now.
