On his official web-site journal, former Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando recently transcribed "Fern Hill," Dylan Thomas' beautiful, despairing account of youthful pleasures. Heavy stuff coming through Dando, a man who once made his living, in part, by performing a straight-faced cover of New Kids On The Block's "Step By Step." But Dando's life has entertained similar extremes: He's had widely reported drug freak-outs, cleaned up and fallen off the wagon in public several times over, and achieved enough of a teen-girl following to require the coining of the word "alterna-hunk," all without quite finding lasting mainstream success. So who is Evan Dando, really? Baby I'm Bored, a solo album that ended his seven-year recording hiatus following The Lemonheads' Car Button Cloth, probably comes closest to answering that question: It alternates quiet confessional material (sometimes written for Dando by others) with the pop instincts that made Lemonheads albums so frequently delightful. The group broke into the '80s Boston punk scene, attracted notoriety by covering Suzanne Vega's "Luka," found unexpected inspiration in the music of Gram Parsons, and then, in 1992, released a perfect pop album called It's A Shame About Ray. The cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" that was included on Ray's later pressings attracted widespread attention, and in the years that followed, Dando became famous for all the wrong reasons, including his looks, his copious drug consumption, an are-they-or-aren't-they relationship with Juliana Hatfield, and, later, hazy scene-making appearances with Oasis and Courtney Love, among others. Two half-brilliant, half-puzzling albums followed–Come On Feel The Lemonheads in 1993, and Car Button Cloth in 1996–and in the ensuing years, Dando surfaced only for the occasional tribute album, solo tour, import-only live disc, or gossip-page item. Now married and touring behind Baby I'm Bored, Dando has sought to return the focus to his career. But that didn't stop him from talking to The Onion A.V. Club about the fan he took to the prom.
The Onion: Were you concerned that the longer you waited to put this album out, the more pressure there would be for it to be a knockout?
Evan Dando: Yeah, yeah, I guess it did. I mean, no. It was reverse in a reverse kind of way. I just waited until I had enough really good songs. I didn't want to put anything else out in my whole life unless it was what I considered really, really good. I waited until I had the songs. So it wasn't like a lot of pressure. I put no pressure on myself. I was going to put nothing out if I didn't come up with anything I thought was worthy, that was sort of like a step beyond. I think it's a step beyond anything I've ever done. I just kept recording and recording, from '99 on, finally throwing out a bunch of tracks. I ended up with 12 tracks that are cohesive and make a whole. I'm very proud of it. I worked very hard on it.
O: Do you think you would have been just as happy if you hadn't put anything out?
ED: Yeah, it would have been all right. But it's better the way it worked out, because I wanted to put a record out. I did have the desire to put something out, so it would have been a disappointment if I hadn't come up with the goods. But I did.
O: Are you a prolific songwriter?
ED: No, I'm not at all. It takes me a while, and it's in bursts. I'll write a couple of songs really quickly, and then I'll go for a long time without writing. A lot of the stuff on the last records were 50/50 co-writes between myself and this L.A. cat, Jon Brion. We just get in a room together, and we can write a song really quickly. It's good fun. He's a great inspiration, and it's fun to watch him work. For example, whenever we get together, I make him play, like [Queen guitarist] Brian May licks for 20 minutes. He's fun to be around because he can do anything.
O: The last three Lemonheads albums were essentially solo albums. Did you find that releasing something under your own name changed your approach at all?
ED: I think it's a bit like… It's just a daring thing to do. I just had to come to grips with it being under my own name. It's a heavy thing to do, and it's sort of a lame thing to do to. [Adopts mocking voice.] "Oh, a solo album." I've never wanted to do one. But now here we are. I didn't want to cop out and make up a really stupid band name, although I made up a bunch of them.