If you listen to the Sirius XM radio station Alt Nation, then I’m sure you’re fairly familiar with the song “Wolves (You Got Me)” by Brooklyn band DREAMERS. Bordering on the thin line between alt-rock and pop, the song shot to the top of the Alt 18 Countdown, provoking a massive spike in talk on Twitter. Lead singer Nick Wold explains, “We just wanted to write cool fun songs, songs that were real rock music that we didn’t think really existed on the radio. So we kind of wanted to see if we could re-light that torch. And Alt Nation agreed. And then people tweeted.” A few of those songs originally were found on the self-titled, self-produced, and independently released Dreamers E.P., but now can be found on their newest release, You Are Here.
The trio explained that the title of You Are Here has a double-sided meaning. On the cosmic level, it means that we’re on this tiny piece of blue dust in this giant universe, and You Are Here is about that- living in the moment and reminding yourself you are here. You Are Here also is a symbol of the progression between their first EP and where they are now. Nick says, “The Dreamers E.P., we put it out totally by ourselves. Our first song was an independent release. Since then we toured the whole US like three times, signed a record deal, went over to LA to work on a whole bunch of new songs and record, and You Are Here is the first release from those sessions.” Their visual aesthetic is strong with bright, vivid colors accompanying their website, album art, and music videos, whereas their sound on You Are Here reflects the transitions they’ve been going through over the past few months. The trio used adjectives to describe their visuals such as dreamy, trippy, and almost psychedelic, but guitarist Nelson clarifies, “We’re not a psychedelic band in that sense, but we’re trying to find our own sort of weird space that’s different from that. Psychedelic is not the right word. That makes you think of paisley and the 60’s.” However non-psychedelic their sound may be, they definitely take inspiration from the activities of the culture, most vibrantly in a story they told me about their night in Kansas City, Missouri.
Nick sets the stage, “It was a Saturday night, and we had just gotten through one of the most insane months of touring ever. SXSW was so insane, two, three shows a day, no sleep, driving long drives, it was intense. So that day was low pressure, the end of a long run, Saturday night, we decided to do something we never do… which is take acid together.” Drummer Jacob adds, “And then play a show together.” Nelson told me he was the sober anchor of the three, and that it was genuinely one of the best shows they’ve ever played. They detailed a night in which a party materialized out of nowhere and completely unexpectedly. Nick also added that the Seattle show was a special one too, because he was born and raised in Seattle until he moved to New York at 18, where he met Nelson and created the band. They picked up Jacob when they moved to LA, citing him as a true California boy, and making the band a stateless, “all American band.”
I then pestered them about their Facebook page claiming that their full-length album would be released in early 2016. Nick laughed and said that that is a “big, horrible lie from our corporate manager… we’re shooting for late summer or early fall.” He also slipped that it will be released on vinyl as well. The conversation progressed to Record Store Day and the following conversation ensued:
Nick: What’s that?
Jacob: It’s a day for the record store.
Nelson: What’s a record? It’s… ancient.
Anna: It’s like, a vintage thing.
Nelson: Ah, I think I’ve seen them, in pictures…
Nick: When is record store day?
All: We love record stores, we’re just teasin’.
Jacob: I hope we do something that day. I’d love to play like Amoeba Records in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Anna: It’s soon, on April 16th. I’m not sure where you’ll be, but just stop by.
Nick: We’ll be in LA.
Anna: So that is possible!
For the rest of 2016 beyond wanting to play Amoeba on Record Store Day, they will be touring heavily and promised to be coming to a town near you over the course of this year. They also added they have a lot of festival dates, but “Not Earth Fest Boston, because they banned us. They believe our song “Drugs” is offensive.”
But speaking of banning things, I asked them to comment on the fact that Seattle University banned Spotify for about a week earlier this quarter. Nelson asked, “Does BitTorrent still work?” I nodded my head and he said, “Well there you go.”
And there you go. All you need to know about DREAMERS. Catch them almost anywhere this summer, and be on the lookout for their first LP coming out later this year.
ANNA KAPLAN | Spotify is No Longer Banned | KXSU Reporter