Semisonic

MR: Can you tell us the Dan Wilson story, including Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic?

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic: Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

So, John Munson from Trip Shakespeare, our friend Jacob Slichter, and I started the band Semisonic, and that was pretty much actively touring for the next ten years.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic: Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

MR: Can you tell us the Dan Wilson story, including Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic?

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

Then, in about '02, I started working on what I thought was going to be a kind of quick solo album -- kind of a break from Semisonic -- and somehow, that project turned into my solo album Free Life, which attracted the attention of Rick Rubin.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic: Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

Then, in about '02, I started working on what I thought was going to be a kind of quick solo album -- kind of a break from Semisonic -- and somehow, that project turned into my solo album Free Life, which attracted the attention of Rick Rubin.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

DW: We do a couple of shows every year, and I definitely have a dream to make another Semisonic album.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

So, John Munson from Trip Shakespeare, our friend Jacob Slichter, and I started the band Semisonic, and that was pretty much actively touring for the next ten years.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

MR: Yeah, and there was obviously much thought involving your sequence, with "Across The Great Divide" going into the Semisonic song "California" which has the line "Across the great divide" right there in the lyric.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

We put out a lot of albums, EPs, and got a chance to basically travel the world several times, partly because our second Semisonic album, Feeling Strangely Fine, had several hits on it, and that really paved the way for a lot of interesting things to happen.

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010

MR: So, Dan Wilson, formerly of Semisonic, what's on the reunion front?

Mike Ragogna: Beyond Dirty Dancing & Semisonic : Conversations with Dan Wilson and Franke Previte Mike Ragogna 2010