D:Ream hope things can only get better

eFestivals catches up with reformed 90s band D:Ream ahead of their performance at this weekend's EH1 festival to see how things in the studio have been going, and what their plans are from here.

How long have you guys been in the studio for?
Pete: You mean since we've bumped into each other again? About 2 years, since February?
Al: It's been a year and a half.

What is it that you're working on at the moment?
Pete: We've just finished working on a song called 'We Are Fans' which is an idea I had long before Kings of Leon stole it from me! (laughs). It's going to be our first Open Source song. We've invited a thousand voices to come and be the audience and sing in the track. It's quite a pop-y anthem I suppose, it's a way of getting a choir on the cheap and we just took it from there (laughs) Al: The songs for the album we're working on though, obviously.

Do you have a name for the album just yet?
Pete: Yes, it's called 'In Memory Of...'. When it comes to album titles; the day that we met in the park and I went over to Alan to say hello, about a month later I was in the park again and I was with my kids again – Alan wasn't there that time – and I went over to the park bench, and on the bench it had a plaque which said 'In Memory Of Albert Fraser'. He was the person who the park bench was dedicated to. And we thought, 'album title, schmeitel'. What's in an album title? At least this one means something to us and 'In Memory Of' became the working title of the album. We thought it sort of encompasses everything we're trying to do.

Are there and bands or artists of the moment that you'd really like to work with?
Both: Everyone!
Al: We're quite happy to work with ourselves I think, I love music and I respect loads of people but I think we've got enough on our plate at the moment with doing the album, remixing for other people and stuff, I mean there are so many bands...
Pete: I know I really like Hot Chip and CSS I like the indie stuff, and we're sort of stealing stuff from that.

Will you get the chance to see anyone while you're at EH1?
Pete: No, we're literally in Truro and... we're down at Cornwall doing two gigs the day before and we're flying up the next morning so we're flying in and out, because the next day we're flying to Ibiza so it's a bit crazy. It's good crazy but we’re very very busy so we're in and out the same night. We're probably going to bump into M People and make some new mates maybe when we're there.

Are you keen festival goers when you're not playing them?
Pete: Alan is, I'm very much a stay at home boy.
Al: Yeah, I do tend to get myself out there – that's probably because I'm more single than Peter [laughs]

What festivals do you like going to – what are your favourites?
Al: Well I'll go to Bestival, that's the next one and I've done my Glastonbury unless we're playing there – which will hopefully be next year! – Bestival definitely and I think Big Chill as well.

What should we expect from your set since your reformation last year?
Pete: Well unfortunately for us it's not a full live line-up so we've had to compact it down to four songs. We will be playing the big songs we're known for with a couple of new ones in there that people haven't heard before, including the new single. So it's a bit of a mix-up, a bit of old and a bit of new.

So coming into 2009/2010 what's next and coming up for you both?
Pete: We'll have the album ready for January – it's a proper labour of love – because having had a 15 year break as it were we've had a lot of songs to go through and we've had to work out what direction we're heading in. We're taking care of the band side of things, we're not purely just electronica, there are a lot of musicians and players involved. We're gonnna try out our new dance/rock 80s hybrid. We're doing a lot of PA's at the minute, to earn enough money to fund our label which is officially ours. Having experienced what we experienced in the past with labels is that while they're good at mass marketing and distribution, they're awfully bad at taking care of their people.
Al: And taking care of the money.
Pete: Well, they take care of their money. It's not just that but they're corporations and corporations can't really take care of individuals. Those kinds of corporations are run for profit, and the artist is the last one in the chain. And it's very hard – you spend all your life making this stuff, hand it to them, and they can walk about gloriously messing it up; that's from what I've seen in the past. So, people now are going it alone – Trent Reznor is, Moby is – veteran brands. Why give away all your rights and you don't know what they're doing with half of it.
Al: This year, also coming up, September 7th is our single: 'All Things To All Men'

Latest Updates