Dreamers

Words by Delaney Deangelis and Photos by Gina Scarpino

Rock trio Dreamers got their start nearly four years ago, and have since signed a record deal, put out their first album and extensively toured. The group formed in New York City, when singer Nick Wold worked one day a week as a bartender and lived out of a small reversal space in Brooklyn.

“I realized if I didn’t have an apartment, I could work only one day a week at this bar, so I lived in my practice space for a couple years,” said Wold. “I had no windows, no shower.” While living in the practice space, Wold said he learned how to write songs better.

After Wold had parted ways with his previous band, he met bassist and keyboardist Marc Nelson and started Dreamers. Eventually, they signed a record deal in Los Angeles, where they met dummer Jacob Lee Wick, who Wold describes as “the final part of the puzzle.”

Now a fully formed band, the group describes themselves an alternative rock cosmic band, with inspirations from a wide range of rock music, from the 60s all the way to 90s grunge. The influence is clear in their music. Their debut album, This Album Does Not Exist, came out in 2016, and there is something so nostalgic about the music they make, as if it really did come straight from a different decade. But in reality, the music comes from a band formed around three years ago.

“We just kinda wanted to carry that torch on to the future and see if we could make something that sounds new that comes from it,” said Wold.

The group recently released a studio cover of the song “Zombies” by The Cranberries, a 90s band from Ireland. The song, first covered live last fall, began as a song that the group loved as kids, and has become a tribute after The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan passed away this year.

“We’re still playing it, and we think it’s really politically relevant now, with all the talk of guns and violence, and violence causes silence,” said Wold. “It’s amazingly exactly relevant today as well, so it’s awesome, and it’s our shout out to her, one of our favorites.

The group is clearly composed of similar people, all bonded by a love of rock music throughout the decades.

“There’s this whole sense of New York, that sort of the late 70s punk rock scene, kind of embodies Lou Reed and all this stuff that we all kind of relate to, so that drew me here,” explained Nelson. “Found Nick, he loved the same stuff, he was writing amazing songs.”

The band started its roots in New York, but found a home in Los Angeles after signing to Fairfax Recordings. Both cities influence the group in different ways.

“I grew up in Seattle and I was obsessed with 90s grunge and Nirvana and stuff. I moved to New York when I was 18, I got obsessed with punk and CBGBs [country bluegrass blues] and the revival of that, The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and all that stuff,” explained Wold. “That was kinda the New York sound to me, and all of us, we all relate.”

Another New York influence is the hustle that the city requires. Wick explained the importance of working hard in the city, or else you won’t make it.

“Being surrounded by all the artists and weirdos that decide to move to New York from whatever town they came from, it’s a certain type of mind I think that does it, and that was great for me to be around,” added Wold.

The influence of both New York and Los Angeles allows a duality of influences. New York allows that influence of creativity and hustle. On the other hand, Los Angeles is much more focused on business and a more laid back feel, where you can mess up a few times or be 15 minutes late.

“There’s two prongs to this, there’s the artistic side and there is business side and I feel like New York has a wealth of the artistic side and LA has this sort of pragmatism about the business side.”

Dreamers has no shortage of creativity. It extends beyond their actual music and shows up in their visuals. Whether it’s their website, music video or photos, the band incorporates creativity into their whole image.

“We like the double meaning of dreams, which is dreams are like goals and aspirations, but they’re also just a psychedelic trip you have every night when you sleep,” explained Wold. “So we do a lot of dreamy things, a lot of dream sequences and we also just like to have fun with it.”

And they take that psychedelic trip meaning seriously, from the crystal ball in their Twitter name to the bright flashing colors on their website. In addition, their website has serious 90s vibes, inspired by the Space Jam and other old 90s websites.

“It’s actually what I thought when I saw the Dreamers website, it’s like, ‘oh my god, this reminds me of Space Jam,’ and I knew the site was still up cause that’s like the one of the only 90s websites that is still running and exactly the same, no one touched it,” said Wick.

The psychedelic, 90s theme simply fits the band inspired by their influences, while also doing what they could, before they had a label and budget.

On their website is the Dreamers manifesto. Overlayed on a triangle, surrounded by flashing neon GIFs, it states:

“We are impractical. We do not listen to those that doubt us. We push boundaries. We believe that nothing is impossible. We rewrite the rules. We create. We are boundless. We are enchanted.We are asleep to the waking world. We are DREAMERS.”

“We felt with a name like Dreamers, we had to say what we meant, and with that we mean we love to talk philosophy for fun and everything,” explained Wold. “Rock and roll is part of entertainment but also part of like philosophy of life and how to live and how to be and we wrote that manifesto to just kinda throw that out there and a statement.”