Dreamwave create the kind of swirling, garage psych rock which is brimming with melody and guitar fuelled adrenaline blasts in equal measure. With new EP ‘Moon Dogs’ due for release on 25th April 2025, and several sold out shows already under their belts, we caught up with this Bristol bunch to find out more:
Who’s in the band and what do they play?
Ben – guitar/vox
Hester – keys/vox
Cam – bass/vox
Alex – drums
How long have you been doing what you’re doing now?
Dreamwave has been around on and off for years mostly as Ben’s project – but we finalised the line up and started releasing music and gigging from 2021.
Tell us about the writing and recording of your new EP ‘Moon Dogs’
We always record with Dom at Nine Volt Leap in Melksham. We had most of the songs ready to go having tweaked them over the past year, playing them live and seeing what worked and what didn’t. ‘Wide Shooter’ was a very late addition, it was a new demo Ben had been working on and I think it was finished the night before the session, lyrics were still being written the morning of recording. We definitely go in with a plan of what to do but it pretty quickly unravels, working with Dom is 60% work 40% play, somehow it always gets finished on time though
How do you go about putting together your songs?
Ben has been doing most of the song writing for ‘Moon Dogs’ and our previous releases, when we started the band Ben had a pretty long catalogue of songs that we’ve been working through together on recording and releasing. He’ll make a demo of a song in his room and share it with us then we’ll get together and all add our own parts. Sometimes we’ll change sections of a song together but ultimately it comes from Ben – we’ve been writing our debut album from scratch all together though
What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your musical career so far?
Invest in a good keyboard, it’s not all rock n roll – we spend about 90% of our time on emails.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a musician?
It takes a long time to get anywhere if you haven’t got a wad of cash to chuck at it. You’ve gotta have a lot of patience and really trust the process, it can be hard to not let the doubts creep in sometimes but usually when that happens we’ll get a bit of positive news or something and that spurs us on again, the cycle continues
Is being a musician your full-time job, if not, how easy/tricky is it to juggle work and band life?
We all still work alongside the band, we’ve managed to delegate pretty equally and through trial and error we’ve got everything running pretty smoothly now but it’s still really hard work, especially working full time around it all. Doing gigs most weekends and being back in work Monday-Friday can be tiring, juggling work and all the admin/recording/artwork/
Do you think there are any obvious influences in your music?
We all listen to a large variety of music, but definitely all agree on Osees, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, King Gizzard… All the good stuff!
Are there any not so obvious influences in your music that might surprise your listeners?
Beach House, Tears for Fears, Radiohead
Apart from yourself of course, which other band/artist would you recommend our readers check out?
Bee Bee Sea, The Howling Fiends, Longheads, Dactyl Terra, Frank & Beans, The Grave Danger, El Knight
Tell us about the defining moment where you thought ‘Yes, I want to be a musician’.
I think for all of us it was pretty soon after we started learning our instruments and going to gigs
What’s your favourite gig venue as a gig goer?
There’s so many, especially in Bristol! To name a few; Strange Brew, Crofters Rights (RIP), Louisiana, Bristol Beacon, St George’s, The Old E, The Chelsea, also gotta shout out The Old Blue Last and The Shacklewell Arms in London
Who, in your wildest dreams would you like to collaborate with/be produced by and why?
Amy Taylor from Amyl And The Sniffers – I reckon we’d have a great time at the pub
You’re touring soon, any plans to play Manchester, and how have rehearsals been going?
Rehearsals have been going well, we’ve been feeding the Moon Dogs songs into our sets over the past 6 months so we’re pretty familiar with playing them live already, there’s still a couple to learn but we’ve got time! Yes absolutely plans to come back to one of our fave cities – we’ll keep you posted
Best place for people to find out what you are up to
Instagram which is @dreamwaveband_official and
Dreamwave photo by Tommy Tetly
Dreamwave: Moon Dogs EP – Out 25th April 2025 (Velvet Echoes Records)
From the early days of creating handmade zines, in a DIY paper and glue style, interviewing bands around town, then pestering Piccadilly Records to sell them, to writing for various independent mags such as Chimp and Ablaze, writing about the music I love is still a great passion. After testing the music industry waters in London with stints at various labels, being back in my hometown again, writing about this city’s vibrant music scene is as exciting as ever. All time favourite bands include Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Patti Smith although anything from electro to folk via blues and pysch rock will also do nicely too. A great album, is simply a great album, regardless of whatever musical cage you put it in.
