Dear Dear Performs Live (Get Lit)

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It with Alison Stewart

Episode: Dear Dear Performs Live (Get Lit)
Date: December 4, 2023

---

Overview

This episode of WNYC’s All Of It features a live musical performance and in-depth conversation with singer-songwriter Chase Cole, performing as the project Dear Dear. Spotlighting Dear Dear’s debut album, Death of a Fairy Tale, and coinciding with the Get Lit event for Mona Awad's novel Rouge, the episode explores nostalgia, modern femininity, societal beauty standards, and the interplay of poetry and music. Listeners are treated to live renditions of songs from the new album and an intimate dialogue about artistic process and personal growth.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction and Performance: “Happy Birthday, Baby”

[02:14-05:53]

• Alison Stewart invites Dear Dear to the stage, introducing the synergy between Awad’s Rouge and the album Death of a Fairy Tale.
• Dear Dear opens with a performance of “Happy Birthday, Baby,” a song reflecting on lost love, nostalgia, and the ache of moving on.

“Happy birthday, baby. I’ll have the worst day, baby, dreaming on the love we had before. ’Cause I don’t call you baby anymore.”
— Dear Dear, [02:56]

2. Introducing the Band

[05:56-06:09]

• Members: Ricardo (drums), Sid (backing vocals), Andrea (guitar), FEMA (keys), with Chase Cole as Dear Dear.

---

3. Songwriting Process & Collaboration

[06:10-07:37]

• Chase describes this project as distinct from previous solo work, focusing intentionally on co-writing with the legendary Barry Goldberg.

“We wanted to make something that sounded familiar and nostalgic but tackled a newer subject matter... We really set out to make something that sounded familiar and welcoming but had a very female-empowered standpoint.”
— Chase Cole, [06:28]

• Highlights the tension between the “universally nostalgic” 60s girl-group sound and its often “dated subject matter”:

“There’s a Crystal song called ‘He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss.’... So we really set out to make something... welcoming but had a very female-empowered standpoint.”
— Chase Cole, [07:00]

---

4. The Influence and Story of Barry Goldberg

[07:37-08:08]

• Barry Goldberg’s impressive pedigree (Bob Dylan’s pianist, collaborations with Phil Spector, Ray Charles, and the Ramones).
• The collaboration originated serendipitously after continually running into one another.

“We ran into each other at the supermarket one day and this is how that album became. The best story ever.”
— Chase Cole, [07:52]

---

5. Poetry and Songwriting Intersect

[08:08-09:13]

• Chase’s roots in poetry: studied at Eugene Lang (The New School), influenced by folk music and its storytelling qualities.
• Reflects on interplay between poetry and songwriting:

“You can’t separate them, really... I find songwriting has slightly more limitation, whereas poetry is slightly more freeform for me.”
— Chase Cole, [08:49]

---

6. The Name & Identity of Dear Dear

[09:13-10:36]

• The project title “Dear Dear” symbolizes a “musical Trojan Horse”—sweet-sounding, but tackling unexpected, substantive issues from a female-empowered perspective.
• Desire to give this music its own identity, distinct from prior solo work.

“Dear Dear... was this sort of perfect little bow that we put on it. It felt really sweet, but it wasn't that at all.”
— Chase Cole, [10:25]

---

7. “Natural”: Song Origin and Message

[10:36-12:21]

• Song “Natural” originated as a poem; inspired by Chase’s experiences with beauty standards in Los Angeles and the pressure to conform.
• Written as “something I needed to hear” and a message about self-acceptance, especially during the isolating period of COVID and social media immersion.

“It is not going to cure you, and it's not going to make you love yourself more... There are moments when we need to hear that, and I know I do.”
— Chase Cole, [11:30]

---

8. Performance: “Natural”

[12:22-15:54]

• The lyrics stress loving oneself despite societal beauty pressures, offering a supportive, non-judgmental stance:

“Just know a filler cannot fill the void of no self-love... a mountain top of compliments will never beat the confidence that lives within yourself.”
— Dear Dear, [13:18, performed]

---

9. Performance: “I Can’t Live Without You (To New York)”

[15:54-18:32]

• Final song is a love letter to New York City, written during time away in California—reflecting yearning and bittersweet attachment.

“Central Park was made for you and I... If everything should disappear, there’d be nothing for me to fear. All I need is just to have you near. ’Cause I can’t live without you.”
— Dear Dear, [16:37, performed]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On updating nostalgic sounds for new messages:
  “We wanted to make something that sounded familiar and nostalgic but tackled newer subject matter.”
  — Chase Cole, [06:28]

• On friendship and collaboration sparking creativity:
  “Barry came in on a session on my first record many years ago and just kept reaching out to me and liked my writing.”
  — Chase Cole, [07:43]

• On pressure to conform to beauty standards:
  “It is not going to cure you, and it's not going to make you love yourself more.”
  — Chase Cole, [11:30]

• On female empowerment and expectations:
  "I picture... this sort of pretty girl with the bow in her hair, but she's really just got a lot to say ..."
  — Chase Cole, [09:52]

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:14]: Show introduction; setting the context between Dear Dear and Rouge
• [02:56]: Performance – “Happy Birthday, Baby”
• [05:56]: Band introductions
• [06:10]: Songwriting process and working with Barry Goldberg
• [08:17]: Chase’s poetry background and its relationship to songwriting
• [09:26]: Story behind the project name “Dear Dear”
• [10:40]: Discussion and performance setup for “Natural”
• [12:22]: Live performance – “Natural”
• [15:54]: Performance and dedication – “I Can’t Live Without You (To New York)”
• [18:32]: Closing remarks

---

Tone and Language

The conversation and performances were intimate, sincere, and candid, marked by Chase Cole’s honest exploration of personal and societal themes. The dialogue is reflective and empowering, seamlessly blending nostalgia with fresh perspective.

---

Summary

This episode stands out for its heartfelt live music and authentic discussion on the evolution of identity, creativity, and empowerment—both personal and collective. Listeners are left with resonant performances and the lasting message: self-expression, truth, and self-love, all wrapped in the lush, nostalgic sounds of Dear Dear.

Transcript

[Dr. Horton Announcer]

Your new beginning starts now. Dr. Horton has new construction homes available in Ellensburg and throughout the greater Seattle area. With spacious floor plans, flexible living spaces and home technology packages, you can enjoy more cozy moments and sweet memories in your beautiful new home. With new home communities opening in Ellensburg and throughout the Seattle area, Dr. Horton has the ideal home for you. Learn [e-mail] Dr. Horton, America's builder and equal housing opportunity Builder.

[Michaels Store Announcer]

Attention party people. You're officially invited to the party shop at Michaels where you'll find hundreds of new Items starting at 99 cents with an expanded selection of party wear balloons with helium included on select styles, decorations and more. Michaels is your one stop shop for celebrating everything from birthdays to bachelorette parties and baby showers to golden anniversaries. Visit Michaels store or michaels.com today to supply your next party.

[Casual Speaker / Nephew]

I'mma put you on nephew.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

All right unc.

[Singer / Performer]

Welcome to McDonald's.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Can I take your order miss?

[Casual Speaker / Nephew]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.

[Old Navy Announcer]

Some days call for sleek and straight, others for slouchy and relaxed. Whatever your vibe, Old Navy has the denim fits to match. From extra high rise to barrel. It's not just a mood, it's a whole style range. And with jeans Starting at just 22 doll you can collect them all snatched waist go extra high rise straight lived in staple vintage slim, low slung and laid back slouchy wide. You've got range. Your denim drawer should too. Premium fabric deluxe details your perfect pair or weights. Shop in store or [e-mail].

[Casual Speaker / Nephew]

Listener supported WNYC studios.

[Alison Stewart]

You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Let's end the show today with some music perfectly suited to our get lit event with Mona Awad. The novel Rouge is based on Snow White, so it's fitting that the title of our musical guest new album is Death of a Fairy Tale. Singer songwriter Chase Cole helms this new project called Dear Dear using a lush throwback sound to explore themes like unrealistic beauty standards, texting your ex on their birthday, and the unfair pressure women still face to get married. You will hear my conversation with Chase Cole in just a minute, but first here is Dear Dear with a special performance of the new song Happy Birthday baby.

[Singer / Performer]

As you blow out your candle I wonder what you wish. Do you still miss our long lost love? Are you dreaming of my Kiss. Happy birthday, baby. I'll have the worst day, baby. Dreaming on the love we had before. Cause I don't call you baby anymore. Strange to watch you grow in knowing we're apart. Well, which word cannot express what I feel in my heart? Oh, happy birthday, baby. I have the words say baby. Dreaming on the love we had before. Cause I don't call you baby anymore.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Will you dance with all the girls? Spin them laughing and cheers to the fun. While I sit alone in my missing you world.

[Singer / Performer]

Wishing that you can. Happy birthday, baby. I'll have the worst day, baby. Dreaming on the love we had before. Cause I don't call you baby anymore. More. No, I don't call you baby anymore. No, I don't call you baby anymore.

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you so much for being here tonight.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's introduce everybody on stage before we have a little conversation.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Yes. This is Ricardo on the drums. This is Sid on backing vocals. Andrea on guitar, FEMA on keys. I'm Chase.

[Alison Stewart]

We turn a little bit about Mona's writing process. What's your writing process?

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Well, this is a different project. You know, Dear. Dear's something new. So this was a co write, this album I co wrote with an 86 year old man named Barry Goldberg who's very special. And we really were very intentional about the writing process on this in a way that I probably wouldn't have been on a solo project, you know, kind of by myself. I would sit and noodle and wait until something comes where we were very specific and driven with this. We wanted to make something that sounded familiar and nostalgic but tackled a newer subject matter. When I think about all of the music that I think of as nostalgic, this sort of 60s girl group style, it's a sort of universally nostalgic style of music, regardless of what era you're from, whether you heard the Ronettes and Dirty Dancing or whether you grew up in the 60s or, you know, no matter where you heard it. And if you really dive into those songs and this is not a dig, obviously, you know, it was appropriate for the time, but they're very dated subject matter. There's a. There's a Crystal song called He Hit Me and it felt like a kiss. That's always the first one that comes to mind. So we really set out to make something that sounded familiar and welcoming but had a very female empowered standpoint.

[Alison Stewart]

Can I ask a little bit about Barry Goldberg?

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Yes, Barry Goldberg. Barry Goldberg was Bob Dylan's piano player for 40 years. Barry Goldberg played With Phil Spector himself. He played with Ray Charles and the Ramones and you name him. Barry came in on a session on my first record many years ago and just kept reaching out to me and liked my writing. And we ran into each other at the supermarket one day and this is how that album became the best story ever. Yeah, he's great.

[Alison Stewart]

I know you're also a poet.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

You had a book of poetry published earlier this year.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

It's titled Donation Plate. By the way, when did you start writing poetry?

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

I was a poetry major in college. I went to Eugene Lang at the New School not far, just down the road. And I mean, I was raised listening to folk music. That's sort of my first love as singer songwriter. It's what my parents played in the car when I was on my way to school. And folk music is. Is just all about the storytelling. So that's really where poetry came in. I think they're just. They're. You can't separate them, really.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah. So is poetry its own thing in your songwriting its own thing, or do they intersect?

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

They do intersect. I find that because I tend toward a more classical style of songwriting, I find songwriting has slightly more limitation, whereas poetry is slightly more freeform for me, which other musicians might not feel that way. But, yeah, poetry usually starts a stream of consciousness for me where songwriting is slightly more intentional.

[Alison Stewart]

And just so people are clear, I've been saying calling you Chase and Dear Dear, it's okay. No, this is your first project as Dear Dear. So where did the name Dear Dear come from? And where does it fit in your career?

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

So Barry and I actually put an EP out in 2021 entitled Dear Dear Volume One, which was the first introduction to this style of music from a sort of more solo based singer songwriter style that I had been working on for many years. And he was very encouraging about me putting it out under my name. And from the day it came out, it just didn't sit right with me to not have it be its own entity. And Dear Dear in this style of music really felt like it. It deserved its own home. It was just a title that I had been sitting on for a long time. There's this. We keep calling this project a musical musical, Trojan Horse, where it's like. I picture the image of this sort of pretty girl with the bow in her hair, but she's really just got a lot to say and it's less expected. And she's singing about politics and she's singing about women's issues and she's Talking about men in her in a really honest way, and gender issues and all sorts of different things. So. Yeah. Dear Dear was this sort of perfect little bow that we put on it. Yeah, it felt really sweet, but it wasn't that at all.

[Alison Stewart]

You're gonna play a couple more songs for us, and one of them is Natural.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Which fits into our theme for the evening. Tell us a little bit about the song Natural, the. The origin of the song, what you were hoping people.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Yeah, it just came with this hook. And then. And I actually started Natural as a poem, which rarely happens, but I. You know, in my car one day, driving, and it just came to me. And I think I was frustrated. I'd been living in Los Angeles and thinking about the pressure on not just women, but all sorts of people to look a certain way and the amount of value placed on the way we look. And I think for me, songwriting and telling the story through whatever medium is always about saying the thing I wish someone would say to me. And Natural is just simply a song that I felt needed a little bit of a push, reminder that I wasn't hearing that. You know, you can mess with your body or your face and change whatever you want, and there's no judgment whatsoever, but it is not going to cure you, and it's not going to make you love yourself more. And I think there are all moments when we need to hear that, and I know I do. And at moments, and I mean, speaking of the skincare industry, speaking of facials and this desire to constantly better the way we look and constantly be reminded that we're not enough, especially living in the modern society of social media, which I. I wrote this record during COVID and we were just living through our phones. It was the only way we're socializing. So, yeah, that. It just. It just was something I needed to hear. I was hoping other people to do. Great.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, let's hear.

[Singer / Performer]

Yeah. In this crazy time to love yourself is to rebel A click, a fix, a swipe of light it's all outside ourselves Mama, sister, friend and boss, you have the same damn face Keep it young and fresh and tight how dare you if you age? Keep it natural, baby, natural I'm natural, yeah. Cause I'm natural, I'm natural. Touch up what you like I'm not going to judge Just know a filler cannot fill the void of no self love Turn that dial down Forget the lies that it will tell don't have to be a certain sauce Just keep that body held Keep it natural, baby, natural. I'm natural yeah. Cause I'm natural, I'm natural. Our bodies they are competent. A mountain top of compliments will never beat the confidence that lives within yourself. Baby natural, Baby natural. Sam Work that body well. Loving it to hell. People need some more appreciation for themselves. Work that body well. Loving it to heaven. People need some more appreciation for themselves. Work that body well. People need some more appreciation for themselves. Work that body well. Moving into hell, Appreciation for themselves. Work that by your will. Loving into hell, Appreciation for himself.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Thank you. This is our last song. This is a love song that I wrote to New York City when I was living in California. Very sad about it. Thank you guys so much for your time. I'm Dear dear I can't tell you how much it means to me.

[Singer / Performer]

Oh, the magic of things. Summer nights strolling hand in hand by the moonlight. Central park was made for you and I and I can live without you. Cherry blossoms whisper as we pass streets of stone they melt right into glass. Oh sweet day, my love these here at last And I can't live without you. Village life sad or the city's crazy. But nothing shines as bright as you do, Baby be. And if everything should disappear There be nothing for me to fear. All I need is just to have you near. Cause I can live without you. No, I can't live without you.

[Alison Stewart]

That was Dear Dear with a special live performance from our November get lit with all of it book club event with author Mona Awad. Dear Dear's new album, Death of a Fairy Tale is out now. And that is all of it for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.

[Old Navy Announcer]

Support for WNYC comes from Bergen Performing Arts center presenting Holiday Wonderland, a new musical performance with acrobats, aerialists and comedy featuring the cast of Cirque Musica on December 13th in Inglewood, New Jersey. [e-mail] on the next Brian Lehrer Show.

[Jeffrey Goldberg]

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, on their new special issue in which 24 writers imagine what a second Donald Trump, President Sea would look like in 24 different areas, from abortion rights to foreign policy. Also, our climate story of the week, why an oil executive with plans to increase production is being allowed to lead the COP28 climate summit, the Brian Lehrer show, weekdays at 10am on WNYC.

[Alison Stewart]

Fresh air is coming up with a conversation between Terry Gross and Dave Davies about his career. That's next on 93.9 FM and AM820 or live stream [e-mail].

[Michaels Store Announcer]

Attention, party people. You're officially invited to the party. Shop at Michaels, where you'll find hundreds of new Items starting at 99 cents with an expanded selection of party wear, balloons with helium included on select styles, decorations, and more. Michaels is your one stop shop for celebrating everything from birthdays to bachelorette parties and baby showers to golden anniversaries. Visit Michaels in Store or michaels. Com today to supply your next party.

[Casual Speaker / Nephew]

I'm gonna put you on, nephew.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

All right, unc.

[Singer / Performer]

Welcome to McDonald's.

[Chase Cole (Dear Dear)]

Can I take your order, miss?

[Casual Speaker / Nephew]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.