The Damnwells

“Without a Heart,” the first Damnwells single in nearly a decade, is out and in the world. We sincerely appreciate everyone who’s listened and commented and shared. It means the world to us.

Here’s us circa 2007 (?) backstage at Minneapolis club . We always loved playing there. Great crew, great fans. Can’t wait to come back soon!

📸

I think, more than anything, I’ve been looking for something to obscure me. A way to cloak who I really was with something undeniably big and beautiful and precious, because if people saw who I really was, they would turn away.

When I was a little kid, I lied. I told people I was adopted. That I was dying. I even told my elementary school that my family took a vacation to the USSR, and then gave a presentation about it to a riveted third grade.

As I got older, I started making stories into songs. Almost immediately people liked what I was doing. They said things like “talented” and “natural ability” and “songwriter,” and so I covered myself in songs. I disappeared. I wrote songs every day for years. I started a band. I got a publishing deal, and then a record deal. I wrote more songs. And for the first time in my life, my world was made up exclusively of people who knew only what I presented to them.

Then things started falling apart. The label dropped us. The band broke up. A marriage ended. I maneuvered. I let go. I clung. I reinvented. I tried to dig deeper. I failed. In 2009, Steven Terry called me, and we talked for a few hours. We hadn’t spoken in a couple years. I heard him and he heard me. I wrote David Chernis a letter. I threw it away. I wrote one to Ted and sent it. Maybe it was an email? We made our last record in 2015, and then I walked away for good, disappearing into other things. The band stayed in touch. We have a thread. “Happy New Year, Yins!” “Happy Thanksgiving, Brothers!” “Happy belated, Dave!” We played a few shows. Steve wanted to make a new Damnwells record. I stalled. I disappeared. I said I would. I tried to write songs people would like. I failed. I drove around. I tried to find something to say. I tried to find the version of me that used to cover me in songs. I started over. I started from scratch. It didn’t work the way it used to. I couldn’t make it work without a little heart.

The new Damnwells song, “Without a Heart,” comes out tomorrow. It’s our first on in 8 years. I hope you enjoy it. Click here to pre-save/listen: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

📸 David Chernis

David. Chernis. For someone to be that good—that idiosyncratically nuanced-good—at guitar and lap steel, and have the most singular sense of humor was the highlight for me. Chernis the Furnace. Uncle Dave. The dude used to walk into Guitar Center to buy strings wearing firing-range ear protection and aviators. If it was the rest of us that made us losers, it was certainly Dave that made us lovable. Being in a band with him continues to be the most lasting and meaningfully musical relationship in my life. He’s an elevate-er. He makes everything he richer. And he lifts the experience of making and playing music because he loves it more than anyone I know.

The new Damnwells song, “Without a Heart,” the fist single in 8 years, comes out this Thursday, 6/22. Pre-save the song here: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

At 25-years-old, I learned how to drive on a 15-passenger van with a 6-foot trailer. The interstates were my training course, and Steven Terry () was my instructor. He was patient, only grabbed the wheel from me once or twice, and understood traffic patterns on an almost mystical level. He also had an insanely accurate and uncanny sense of direction. Having no idea where the club was, and in a town we had never been, Steve would declare “It’s just up around the corner here. I know it.” And he would be right 100% of the time. Of course this was before gps, smartphones, etc. All we had was Rand McNally and a West Virginian wizard, and we were always on time. Every band needs a Steven Terry, but you can’t have mine.

Our new song, “Without a Heart,” comes out this Thursday, June 22. First one in 8 years. Pre-save here: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

📸 David Chernis

Not to talk trash, but hauling ass to get to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to play for 3 people at the last Sam Goody on Earth at 11am on a Monday was not exactly how I envisioned my career. There were, of course, a few great “in-stores” we got to play over the years, namely Vintage Vinyl in Fords, NJ (RIP), but for the most part these promotional appearances were brutal. Especially when coupled, as they usually were, with an on-air performance on the local radio station. It was not unusual for us to drive straight through the night to play a local station in the morning, then the local record store in the afternoon, all before pulling up to the venue around 4 or 5 for load-in and sound check. We had no idea back then that almost every record store we played would close, and a good chunk of the radio stations we played would be forced to switch formats. You think the world is what it is when you’re young, not realizing how brutally it will all change.

“Without a Heart,” the first single from The Damnwells in 8 years, comes out 6/22.

Pre-save link: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

Find a friend that will play bass in a band with you and you’re in luck. Then find a friend who will play bass in a band with you and work the merch table and you’ve hit pay dirt. Ted () is a merch WIZARD. That dude was out there after every show slingin t-shirts, CDs, and all other matter of swag until the last person had gone home. And what little profit we made off that merch was often the difference between sharing a bed or getting your own. We used to give Ted a lot of grief, since he was always the last one out of the venue at the end of the night, but thank our stars we have him and his pouch of cash—the spoils of our toils. Thank heavens for The Dutch Master, Ted Hudson.

Our new song, “Without a Heart,” the first Damnwells single in 8 years, comes out 6/22.

Pre-save link: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

We had an unwritten rule: no matter how late we were for load-in, if we saw go carts, we were gonna ride ‘em. “Ride ‘em goes!” Steve would call from the driver’s seat (he was always driving), and off we went. There was maybe one time we couldn’t stop because we were so late, chasing the bus of whatever band we were lucky enough to open for, but beyond that we stayed true. Steve always won. I always ended up in the rails. Ted always kept it cool, sometimes slinking past Steve for a lap. And Dave was all chill, cruising in the back with his sunglasses on.

The new Damnwells single, “Without a Heart,” comes out 6/22.

Pre-save link: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

📸 David Chernis

As an East Coast band, we rarely got to go up to the Pacific Northwest to play shows. I had lived in Seattle for a summer durning college, long before The Damnwells. I worked at a record store—Cellophane Square on the Ave. We were allowed to play albums during our shifts, and I had put on a Tom Petty record. The owner came up to the counter and asked who put that record on. I thought I was in trouble. I told him it was me. He ran to the bank and brought out Being There by . “Check this out,” he said. Next came that chaotic album opener, with all those meandering, atonal guitars and off-beat drums, giving birth, it seemed, to Jeff Tweedy’s timeless lament: “Back in your old neighborhood, ci******es taste so good, you’re so misunderstood.” That was the summer of 1998. I returned to college the next semester with a catalog of new songs, all of which both confused and excited my punk bandmates. Every time I go back to Seattle, I think about that time.

Here’s the Damnwells at Gas Works Park, circa 2003.

Our new song, “Without a Heart,” comes out 6/22.

Pre save link: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart?fbclid=PAAaZKYRt0EMab5e3Y1IwbBjHdPUKpX3rLpwHT71K3Aui9yaKsz9iY_eWfYtk_aem_th_AZQcv20YaGgktECfmmzOzk5s28li3K0EuFDQncDnbLAgQE3xR9179GbrupWmGYVFC2Y

📸 David Chernis

The band that once was, is once again. “Without a Heart,” The Damnwells first single in 8 years, comes out 6/22. PRE-SAVE LINK: https://ffm.to/thedamnwells_withoutaheart

Alex Dezen Solo House Shows Announcement 2023!

West/Southwest: Do you wanna have me come and play at your house? No Stage. No fancy lights or smoke machines. Just a dude with a guitar singing songs in a room. Looking in March/April. Sound off below or DM or email [email protected] and let's figure it out. Got some new songs. Got some old songs. Gonna head to the Midwest and East Coast later this year.

We have a new song.

Thanks to everyone who came out on Friday to our little Damnwells reunion at The Bell House in Brooklyn. It was a blast. I cannot even begin to express how thankful I am to all of you who continue to keep our music in your lives and your hearts. Maybe we’ll make the reunion permanent this time… Cheers! 📸 Deanna Wallach