An Interview with Cosmic Indie Band DREAMERS

Los Angeles trio DREAMERS recently hit the road with 311 and Dirty Heads, and they made a stop at our own Austin360 Amphitheater on Wednesday, August 7 (stay tuned for our full photo gallery!). A cosmic indie band that embodies psychedelia, rock and pop, DREAMERS features Nick Wold (vocals/guitar), Marc Nelson (bass/vocals) and Jacob Wick (drums).

We had the opportunity to speak with lead singer Nick Wold while the band was en route to their next stop on tour, and we had a blast chatting about his history with music and hopes for the band.

To begin, what drew you into the music industry?

Wold: My mom tells me that I wanted to play music since was two years old. I started playing saxophone when I was a kid, at school, and started learning jazz. I was always really into it, but I didn’t think it would be a career or anything. I just thought it was like learning tricks, like learning how to juggle. I got more serious about it, more into jazz, and fell in love with rock and roll. I was totally inspired by it, on spiritual levels. I soon realized I could go for it, and I’d regret if I didn’t try.

And how did that eventually progress into you forming the band DREAMERS?

Wold: I grew up in Seattle and moved to New York to go to NYU and study jazz when I was 18. It was sort of a hardcore musical boot camp, and I was getting more and more sure that I didn’t want to be a jazz musician. I realized rock was more of a genre I could communicate with people and express myself with words. So I started a band right after college in New York, and had that for years while bartending and making it work. It kind of just built from there.

Can you tell me about your band name DREAMERS? How did that name come about?

Wold: So after that band broke up, I was living in my practice space in New York. I realized I could work at the bar only one day a week instead of four. I didn’t have an apartment; I was kind of homeless on purpose, running around all the time. My songs started to get decent for the first time, and I formed a new band after the other one had broken up. We wanted to play shows and we realized we needed a band name.

We came up with 10 million and they all sounded terrible. But we thought of DREAMERS, and were like, “Is that really not taken? That’s weird.” And it resonated with us. I have a lot of lyrics about sleep and dreams. I’ve always been interested in dreams, but also, it’s got the double meaning of being a heartfelt person, going through with your goals and following your heart. It’s a beautiful double meaning we love a lot. And not to mention we love John Lennon, so “You may say I’m a dreamer.” We love that whole message; we’re all about that.

That actually leads well into my next question which is: Who or what are you inspired by most?

Wold: A lot of things. There’s been a lot of music that has inspired us, that has saved our lives, got us through hard times or just gave us joy. We all grew up with The Beatles. I grew up with Nirvana, my favorite band. All kinds of other things in life, though. I’m really into science. I thought I was going to be a scientist when I grew up. I’m inspired by thinking about the universe and philosophy of life. I think about rock and roll and philosophy, as in, “How should we live?” We’ve learned from all our favorite artists how to be a better person.

So earlier you mentioned that you’re currently on the road. How’s your tour going?

Wold: It’s been incredible. This whole tour is our first amphitheater tour. It’s a long summer tour and kind of has that summer camp vibe, because all the other bands are really nice. It’s been hot and sweaty, and we’re getting ourselves around to a lot of people who’ve never heard us before, which is really cool.

What would you say has been a highlight of your tour so far?

Wold: One that really jumps out was playing at Red Rocks in Denver. It was amazing. It’s a bucket list place to play. We’ve always wanted to play there and have heard it’s got a really special vibe up in the mountains and crazy canyons stretching out above you. Everybody there, the audience and the bands, really feel the power of nature. To me, it kind of epitomizes what live music is for: people coming together for no other reason than to make a loud noise and feel that vibe. That’s a moment I think we’ll all remember forever.

So your album, “LAUNCH FLY LAND,” was released earlier this year. How has it been since then?

Wold: It’s been amazing. We’ve had it for so long and wrote it over the course of two years while we were on tour. It kind of came out as a trilogy. We had two EPs, “Launch” and “Fly,” and it was originally going to be a third EP, “Land,” but we had enough songs that we wanted to make a whole record. So we did, and it just feels great to have it in the world, and it’s a relief that people are liking it as much as we do.

It’s a really personal record. We’d all been going through various breakups, personal tragedies, as well as great triumphs and crazy journeys. So we came up with the title thinking about what it’s like to go through this journey, to go through life and come out the other side a better person.

That also ties in well nicely with my next question! What do you hope to achieve with your music, or what message do you hope to put into the world?

Wold: Music has certainly changed my life. I’ve learned a lot of really important philosophy from my favorite artists, like Cobain, John Lennon and Bob Marley. We really believe that music can change the world, and whatever we can do to keep spreading those good messages that we learned, to our next generation, is what we’ll do. We will take it as far as we can go.

And what’s next after this tour?

Wold: We’ve got tours and tours, until the end of the year. We’re going to England right after that — our first whole UK tour, which we’re really excited about. We’ve got more planned after that; some shows that are super-secret. But we did announce a show in LA and a show in New York. There’s gonna be a lot more coming, and we’re always writing. Music is always on the way.

Thank you for your time and the good conversation, Nick! We can’t wait to catch another DREAMERS show soon, and if you haven’t already, visit https://www.dreamersuniverse.com/ to do so!

Featured image credit: Leigh Kettle