DREAM pop musical experimenter and production pioneer, Dean Wareham’s natural habitat is among the banks of wires and electronics in his dark Brooklyn studio.

So he is uncharacteristically excited to be leaving the Big Apple behind to surround himself with the bucolic charms of a south Oxfordshire farm.

The man behind cult slow-core band Galaxie 500, the rare appearance by Wareham is among the highlights of what promises to be an eclectic and engaging Truck Festival, which takes place in Steventon, from July 22-24.

A softly spoken man who uses words economically and is certainly not given to excitability, the prospect of Dean’s sojourn down on the land, among the livestock and barley of Hill Farm, is clearly a cause for relish – or at least curiosity.

“It’s going to be like a little holiday,” he says, speaking from his New York home/studio.

“I’m really looking forward to just driving around the English countryside.”

A hugely influential artist, New Zealand-born Dean scored critical success with lo-fi late 80s band Galaxie 500. Named after an old Ford car, the moody trio of guitarist Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang went on to influence everyone from the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Sonic Youth to British Sea Power.

After the band acrimoniously split in 1991, Dean formed Luna before going on to record with bandmate and now wife Britta Phillips. That was followed by even more experimental stuff – including a musical interpretation of Andy Warhol film shorts.

His Truck date will see the Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste star going back to his roots with a set of Galaxie 500 songs.

“I’ve been playing these Galaxie 500 shows over the past couple of years and they’ve gone down well,” he says. “But when I’m not writing, or in the studio, fear creeps in that I won’t have anything else to say.

“However, if you work with different people, something good will come out of it.”

He has indeed worked with some incredible people – recording with members of Mercury Rev, Television, Stereolab and Velvet Underground. He even supported Lou Reed.

So how did he get on with the genius-like, but famously moody artist?

“I’ve seen him be prickly with other people, but you have to judge people on how they treat you. Some people seem really rude, but sometimes I can be that way too if people are drunk or annoying.”

He goes on: “Lou came to see the Warhol project – because one of the films was about him – and he loved it.”

His decision to play shows of Galaxie 500 songs suggests he has reconciled himself to the band he left at the height of its success.

“We didn’t realise it then but they were among the best records at the time,” he says proudly.”

So has he considered asking his former bandmates to join him for a reunion?

“That would be impossible,” he says dismissively. “We were fighting all the time. There were three of us in the band – which is an unstable number – and the other two were in a relationship, which made things worse.

“We saw much more of each other than we really should have done. If we hadn’t been in a band we’d still be friends.”

Having been forced out of his own band by a couple, I suggest it was curious that he then went on to marry his next bandmate – with whom he still performs as Dean and Britta.

“I don’t pretend this is a band though,” he says. “And it’s certainly not a democracy!”

So does this New Yorker, who admits to being most at home in the big city, have any festival survival tips for the crowds heading to Hill Farm?

“Take along lots of sunscreen and LSD,” he jokes. “It’s the only way to get through three days in the country!”

* Truck Festival runs from July 22-24. Other artists include Gruff Rhys, Bellowhead (see opposite), Graham Coxon, Saint Etienne, John Grant, Truck All-Stars, Philip Selway, Edwyn Collins, The Go! Team and Johnny Flyn. For tickets go to thisistruck.com call 0844 854 1350, or call in to the Truck Store, at 101 Cowley Road, Oxford.