Dream System 8 We Sleep Again Songs
When y'all listen to beautiful songs like "Losing All of You" and "It'south All Happening" from new, retro-tinged synth-pop duo Dream System 8, y'all're introduced to an enchanting earth of vintage synthesizers, engaging vocals, and modern sensibilities.
Infused in the compositions are the influences of producers like Vince Clarke and groups like OMD and The Homo League.
It's articulate that David Klotz and Erica Elektra, whose anthology We Slumber Again comes out Feb. 23, have a songwriting bail that's centered in a love for 1980s greats. (Klotz, a music editor for Netflix sci-fi thriller Stranger Things , certainly spends a lot of time in that decade.) What might not be as obvious nigh Dream System eight is that the project likely would never take existed had Klotz and Elektra both non "swiped right" on each other.
"Nosotros met the old-fashioned way, on Tinder," Elektra said in an email interview she and Klotz did with Vehlinggo recently. "… although nosotros didn't make a love connection."
No worries, though, because they both learned that each other were experienced musicians, with a good for you resume of bands and solo projects behind them. They enjoyed each other'southward work and a unlike, but fruitful, kind of partnership formed.
"… We talked nigh how we should assemble and make music sometime, which we did," Elektra says. "Nosotros got together one day to experiment and ended up recording 'Losing All of You' correct and so and there. And the rest is history."
From 'Rio' to 'Elephant Stone'
Earlier he was an Emmy-winning music editor on popular shows similar Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Glee, American Horror Story, Firefly , and on films similar Iron Man and Memento , Klotz was a kid listening to The Human League, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths. The spirit of all of those acts, except for peradventure The Smiths, is omnipresent in the work of Dream System 8.
But information technology was The Stone Roses' influential 1989 masterpiece, their self-titled debut, that sparked something in Klotz. He heard it for the first fourth dimension in the summer of 1990. He was studying film at Emerson College in Boston at the height of the early on 90s shoegaze scene and stumbled upon what is well-nigh certainly ane of the best albums of all fourth dimension.
"That record made me want to buy a guitar and form a band," Klotz says. "I loved how that album sounded then new, nonetheless so rooted 1960s pop. That was very cool at the time."
Other shoegaze outfits would soon come into the life of the collegiate Klotz.
"I saw a lot Great britain bands coming through, like Lush, Ride, Swervedriver, The Darling Buds, Revolver, My Encarmine Valentine, and Ambrosial," Klotz said.
All of that inspired Klotz to start his start band, Fonda, when he moved to Los Angeles.
"Fonda drew on many of those guitar sounds," Klotz said. "It would be years and years over again of clicking away at many reckoner plug-ins before I would circumvolve back effectually to finding the keyboards that were used on the showtime records I purchased in grade school, like [The Human League'south essential] Dare and [Duran Duran's popular album with the Patrick Nagel cover] Rio . I am reliving my childhood now!"
"It would be years and years… earlier I would circle back effectuallyto finding the keyboards that were used on the commencement records I purchased in course schoolhouse."
For Elektra, music came early on and with aplomb. She's been playing piano since she was three, growing up with a Russian mother who was and still is a piano teacher.
"I grew upward with the sounds of classical music being played throughout the house at all times," Elektra says. "I was constantly competing, playing in recitals, etc…"
Augmenting her classical exposure, Elektra'southward mother gave a 16-twelvemonth-old Elektra an sometime audio-visual guitar that her begetter had given to her mother every bit a teenager. Her mom taught her a few chords, and the whole thing opened upwards a whole new epitome.
"I began writing songs immediately," Elektra says. "They simply seemed to pour out of me."
Then came an introduction to a Akai'southward storied sampling gear.
"In my twenties, I lived with a hip-hop producer, and he taught me how to sequence on an old MPC, and then I began to add to the songs I was writing by making beats/sequences, which created a more electronic sound," Elektra said.
"Songs…just seemed to pour out of me."
Equally she was growing up and getting more than into music, Elektra took in some great shows that proved formative, including Bikini Impale with The Become-Go's at The Warfield in San Francisco. Foundational albums for her included Yazoo's/Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's, Velocity Girl's Copacetic , and the Cocteau Twin's Iv-Calendar Cafe .
Elektra and Klotz were each forging their own, split up paths to musical discovery and self-actualization, setting things in motion to arrive at that signal where they would open up up a dating app and commence on their biggest adventure even so.
'Stranger Things' Happened
Around the fourth dimension Klotz and Elektra swiped left on romance but an enthusiastic right on making electronic music together, Klotz was eyeing a shift from software synths to hardware. His inspiration was Stranger Things score composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, with whom, showtime in 2015, he was spending a off-white corporeality of time.
"I was using a lot of calculator instrument plug-ins that imitation the sounds of vintage synths from the 80s, and I was seemingly fine with that," Klotz said. "But, then I met [Dixon and Stein] and started working with them on Season 1 of Stranger Things ."
"I loved the music they created with their vintage analog keyboards," Klotz continued. "Information technology was like a lightning bolt reminding me that I wasn't a musician anymore by clicking a mouse and dialing in sounds on a computer screen."
That kicked off a catamenia in which Klotz bought his own synthesizers, including a Jupiter 8 from Perfect Circuit Audio in Burbank, California. Afterwards playing and recording with information technology for a few weeks, "I was hooked," he said.
The songs on We Sleep Again are, in general, performed using a diversity of vintage gear, ranging from various Korgs, Rolands, and Yamahas, to equipment like the rare late 70s synth Crumar Performer , the LinnDrum LM-two, and the bizarre simply intriguing Omnichord System 100 .
Starting Dream Organisation 8, the duo didn't have any huge goals for their project. Ane thing was articulate, though: A big guiding principle was "all synths, all the time."
"Nosotros were just getting together to take fun and make music, and savor the experimental process of working with all of those amazing synthesizers," Elektra said. "It wasn't until almost six months into it when we realized that nosotros'd clustered a bunch of songs — good songs — and that we should probably figure out what we were doing with this musical project of ours."
"We realized thatwe should probably figure out what we were doing with this musical project of ours."
They certainly contemplated live drums and guitars equally part of the formula, but in the end restricting themselves to their synths and drum machines made more sense.
"Information technology felt liberating in a way to requite u.s.a. those limitations, because with computers you tin get any sound you want, and in the context of the track many listeners wouldn't know if you were using a real Rhodes piano or a sample," Klotz said.
"And then," he continued, "when we thought of an idea or a part to record, we just jumped over to one of the many synths that was plugged in and started looking for the sound we heard in our heads. And, if nosotros didn't find it, we'd happen upon something else past accident… like the opening arpeggio on 'Smooth a Little Low-cal'."
"Nosotros had to let become of a few things and the songs turned out differently than nosotros had imagined," he continued. "That'south part of the appeal of this project for me: the unknown, [the] adventure. I'm still figuring out how to use half the synths we own."
How to Write a Synth-Popular Song
For Klotz and Elektra, the songwriting procedure often involves working on songs separately and and so reconciling them at simply the right time.
"Often times, nosotros may come to the table with a generally written song, and so i of us might suggest a dissimilar chord progression for the chorus, or whatsoever, so that nosotros alter the original song that was brought to the session," Elektra says.
They have high standards for themselves that they hope will translate to a rewarding connexion for listeners.
"I similar writing pop songs with a verse, chorus, and a bridge," Klotz says. "If I don't take a bridge, I'chiliad difficult on myself and I think I'm being lazy and doing a disservice to the listener."
There are times when they write a song together, though.
"… One of us starts to play something on a synth, and maybe come upwards with a bones chord progression that the other person might offset to hum on and come up with a melody, and then it just sort of builds and builds," Elektra says.
When it comes to lyrics, the two dive pretty deep.
"My life has evidently been overwhelmed by heartbreak."
"Lyrically, information technology'south embarrassing when I expect back at my songwriting over the last 15 years," Klotz says. "My life has apparently been overwhelmed by heartbreak. I chose the right medium to limited that, I guess."
Like Klotz, Elektra digs deep for her words.
"I simply often use my songs like a diary, writing my deepest thoughts, fears, wishes, etc.," she said. "It'south how I communicate on a deeper level."
Nods to the Pioneers
Dream System eight leans into the spirit of synth-music pioneers — the pop of Duran Duran and The Human League, which Klotz mentioned earlier, along with score composer powerhouses Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, and Vangelis — just doesn't attempt to be an exact copy. There's no need for Klotz and Elektra to sacrifice themselves at such an altar.
Instead, Klotz and Elektra deftly blend the elements that made those musicians and bands bang-up with the sum of their ain life experiences, musical skill, and modern songwriting acquired over time.
"How did he get those sounds?"
Along the way, the inspirations have morphed a fleck. For example, consider the creation of the song "Losing All of Y'all." When Klotz was writing its chorus, he thought he was ripping off "Love'due south Theme" from Moroder's soundtrack for Midnight Express .
"Past the time we finished the track, it really sounds nothing like it, but that's what was in my head during the writing process," he said.
"And, I am consciously referencing sounds from my favorite records of that era," he continued. "Nosotros used a Yamaha CS70m to get that Vangelis brass sound from Blade Runner . You can hear information technology on the bridge of "It's All Happening'."
Klotz also tried, merely failed, to recreate the synth pads from The Homo League's "Seconds" for their rail "Color the Stars." Although was using a Jupiter 4 equally the ring had in 1981, it didn't happen, he said.
"The ghost of [late The Human League producer] Martin Rushent haunts me late at dark when I'thou alone trying to record those synths," Klotz says. "How did he get those sounds?"
Equally they plan for the Feb. 23 release of We Sleep Again , Klotz and Elektra are slowly just surely rehearsing their songs for a live show that could come up down the superhighway in the coming months.
In the meantime, listen to and buy their Minty Fresh-released record via all the digital channels on Fri. Overall, I doubtable that we'll be hearing their work a lot this year. We're mighty glad they took a take chances on Tinder.
Feature photograph credit: Polly Antonia Barrowman.
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Source: https://vehlinggo.com/2018/02/20/dream-system-8-stranger-things-interview/
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