Dean Ween

Dean Ween performing with Ween in 2009

Dean Ween (real name: Michael "Mickey" Melchiondo, Jr.) is one of the two main members of Ween.

Although Dean is primarily the band's lead guitarist and secondary lead singer, he also played drums for their early releases up to and including GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, and would return to drums for some songs and demos during the Chocolate and Cheese and Quebec eras. Additionally, he has been credited with bass, keyboards, and electric sitar.

Early Life

Mickey Melchiondo's family was Canadian-American on his mother's side, and Italian-American on his father's side. His father was a used-car dealer in Trenton, New Jersey. Nobody else in his family played a musical instrument. When he was 14 years old, he started making homemade recordings with a drum kit and a cheap used guitar his father had bought for him from a pawn shop.

Career

Melchiondo met Aaron Freeman in their high school typing class, where they found out they both shared a love of music (Deaner being more into punk and hard rock, while Gener was more into new wave and experimental music). From there, they started recording together under the name Ween, with both of them adopting stage names (Melchiondo became Dean Ween, Freeman became Gene Ween). For Ween's earliest cassette releases, Deaner founded and distributed their cassettes through Yucassettes, where he would release cassettes by Ween, close friends, and other local acts, including Joe Jack Talcum of the Pennsylvania punk band Dead Milkmen. Yucassettes quietly ceased operations after Ween were signed to Bird o' Pray Records in 1986.

Moistboyz and other projects

In 1992, Deaner started writing and recording material with False Front frontman Guy Heller, a childhood acquaintance of his, in a farmhouse the two bands were living in. When they discovered they had enough material to make an album, they decided to name the project Moistboyz, and Deaner took up a second stage name, Mickey Moist (Heller used the alias Dickie Moist). Moistboyz have produced four albums and an EP, alongside one live album.

In addition to Ween and Moistboyz, Deaner has also been featured on Songs for the Deaf by stoner rock band Queens of the Stone Age, playing guitar on "Six Shooter", "Gonna Leave You", and "Mosquito Song".

After Ween's initial breakup in 2012, Deaner formed the Dean Ween Group with Ween members Dave Dreiwitz on bass, Glenn McClelland on keyboards, and Claude Coleman, Jr. on drums. The Dean Ween Group has released two albums, The Deaner Album in 2016 and rock2 in 2018.

Musical Influences

Deaner was influenced as a child by his father's record collection, which included soul, doo-wop, "old country", and funk. Some of the artists his father would play for him included Hank Williams Sr., Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Parliament, and Kool & The Gang.

Dean was turned on to rock music as a child by a family down the street, an "Irish family" with "like five kids" that "took turns babysitting" him. They played him records including David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Lynyrd Skynyrd's One More From the Road, as well as records by Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes and The Beatles. Dean has said that the Beatles "always has been my favorite band, always will be my favorite band," and that they were the first band that "really turned me out." As a kid, he had records of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1962–1966 ["The Red Album"], and 1967–1970 ["The Blue Album"]. Additionally, as a child, Dean was a fan of the radio shows The Dr. Demento Show and The King Biscuit Flower Hour.

Deaner once stated that his favorite album was There's a Riot Goin' On by Sly and the Family Stone.

Other artists Dean has named as influences include Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, and The Rolling Stones.

Guitar Playing and Equipment

Deaner is well-known for playing various Fender Stratocasters, with him commenting that he was specifically fond of a modified 1961 model used on Tina Turner's "Private Dancer". The most common live guitar he has been documented using is a Dakota red Stratocaster, though he has also been seen playing a George Harrison replica Stratocaster live. For the recording of GodWeenSatan, Deaner used a 1958 Fender Musicmaster, later using it for a live show to promote the 2001 reissue of the album.

When elaborating on his pedal board setup in 2018, he stated he used "a phaser, a wah-wah, and an echo", further commenting that when he started playing guitar, he seeked to emulate Jimi Hendrix's tone and had a friend who taught Deaner to play guitar and had the same setup.

Full List of Instrumental Credits

• Lead and rhythm guitar
• Drums (all releases up to GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, "Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?", "What Deaner Was Talkin' About", "The Shot Heard 'Round the World", "So Many People in the Neighborhood", "I Don't Want It")
• Bass (all releases between The Crucial Squeegie Lip and GodWeenSatan, "Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)", "It's Gonna Be a Long Night", "Transdermal Celebration", "Among His Tribe", "So Many People in the Neighborhood", "Tried and True", "Happy Colored Marbles", "Hey There Fancypants", "Alcan Road", "The Argus", "If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)", early live performances of "Push th' Little Daisies", live performances of "Don't Laugh (I Love You)")
• Keyboards ("Zoloft")
• Electric sitar ("Transdermal Celebration", "Tried and True")
• Ukulele (used to write "Ice Castles")

Notable Quotes

On "jam bands"

I'm not gonna name names, but I'm just going to diss every single band on that scene at once. I mean, jamming is Deep Purple['s] Made in Japan. That's jamming, they're rocking out. You know, Yes live, they're jamming. [King] Crimson, you know — it rocks, but it jams, but it's in the context of a song, it's not just allthe jam. And plus, it has no teeth. A lot of that stuff doesn't rock at all, well, I haven't found anything that really rocks. You know, the Allman Brothers are a jam band. The Grateful Dead jammed. Deep Purple jammed. Carlos [Santana] jammed. James Brown jammed, you know, shit. But you can't just start off with a jam. I mean if you're going to do a 20-minute song and it's pre-planned, well that's bullshit right there. I'm always waiting for that moment where the distortion kicks in, you know? Like, ten minutes into the solo, all of a sudden — the flanger, and the distortion, and then you get the Echoplex, and you're freaking out on acid and like, fists are in the air. It just doesn't happen. I think that's where we come in.