“One of rock’s true heroes of the underground.” - Philadelphia Weekly “…he’s long been considered one of America’s great indie icons.” – American Songwriter “The ex-Dream Syndicate frontman’s a veritable Ph.D. of timeless rock songcraft” - Chicago Tribune “A force to be reckoned with and cherished.” - London Sunday Times “No contemporaries make classic rock records like Wynn.” - AllMusic.com “A first-class songwriter in the simple-yet-profound tradition of Lou Reed, Neil Young and post-Beatles John Lennon, [with] an ear for balancing his pop sensibility with artful dissonance.” - PopMatters.com His email address and his Instagram handle are both “cultartist.” He’s never had a top 40 record or won a Grammy award. And yet, Steve Wynn has forged a four-decade career in which he’s recorded over 400 songs and played well over 3000 shows to fans around the world who can name and debate every song across the dozens of records he’s made in his various musical guises. A cult artist, indeed. However, to talk to Wynn, it’s almost as though it was the design from the start. “Sure, I was a fan of The Beatles and the Stones, but my passion always leaned toward the ones who lived below the radar,” he says. “Most of my musical obsessions were bands like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Modern Lovers, Gun Club – bands like that who never sold records in their time but who also made great music that grew in stature over time.” The first band that comes to mind for most people aware of Wynn’s music is The Dream Syndicate. Wynn founded the band in L.A. in early 1982 with Karl Precoda, Kendra Smith, and Dennis Duck. Their debut album, The Days of Wine and Roses, was a cornerstone of the indie rock scene that would blossom in the band’s wake. “I’ve made a lot of albums and they’ve been mostly well-received by the world at large, but that one is the one that will always come up first with anyone who talks about my music,” says Wynn. “And I’m fine with that. It’s good.” The Dream Syndicate released three more records exploring wildly different territories before disbanding in 1988. In a startling comeback, 29 years later the band reformed to record How Did I Find Myself Here, the start of a trilogy of records made in Richmond, Virginia that put the band back in the spotlight as they took their ethos of hypnosis to brand new places. In between those two eras of The Dream Syndicate, Steve made 11 solo albums and toured incessantly with his various solo bands including the much-loved Miracle 3, with his wife, Linda Pitmon, on drums, Dave Decastro on bass, and Jason Victor, who would end up as the guitarist of The Dream Syndicate “Mach II.” Wynn took a break from the Miracle 3 in 2008 and traveled to Slovenia to make Crossing Dragon Bridge, which AllMusic has called his “masterpiece.” The bulk of Wynn’s other solo material was reissued in 2020 in the 11-CD box set, Decade, which compiled every track he recorded between 1995 and 2005, along with 67 previously unreleased tracks. He has been prominently featured in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Uncut, Entertainment Weekly, People, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and countless other publications all over the world. Wynn has always thrived on collaborating with other musicians, preferably in far-flung cities and with their scenery for inspiration. These musical detours and side projects all have their own followers, successes, and touring lives. Most currently, he is a member of The Baseball Project, a band that has made four albums entirely about – you guessed it – baseball. His bandmates in this very specialized project are R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills, along with Scott McCaughey of the Minus 5 and Young Fresh Fellows, and, once again, his wife, Linda Pitmon. The band’s first two shows were in 2008 at Steve and Linda’s wedding, and then, a month later, on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” The band plays frequently, often at major league games, becoming what Wynn jokingly calls “my only band that plays stadiums.” Wynn made a pair of records each with Gutterball and Danny & Dusty. The former was an ’80s supergroup of sorts with Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott of House of Freaks, along with Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders, Bob Rupe of the Silos, and Armistead Wellford of Love Tractor. And the latter was his “weekend bender” project with Green on Red’s Dan Stuart. “Every project I’ve ever done is still active,” says Wynn. “Some are just busier than others.” He’s a bandleader, guitarist, and singer, but Steve considers himself first and foremost a songwriter. “I wouldn’t have had any kind of a career unless I had been able to write songs,” he says. His songs have been covered at various times live and on record by R.E.M., Yo La Tengo, Concrete Blonde, Luna, and even teen pop idol Allyssa Machalka, who sang his epic show-closer “Amphetamine” in the movie “Bandslam.” In the midst of such a prolific recording career, Wynn has still found time to average over 100 shows a year all over the world. He has found himself as welcome in Rome, Oslo, Athens, Brussels, London, and Madrid, as he has in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. And for the devoted fans he has made in these and many other cities, his extensive discography of music reflects the consensus among fans: that Steve Wynn is one of the most adventurous, accomplished, and exciting songwriters of the last few decades.