Dream on Dreamer - Marcel Gadacz
Questions: Stuart Millen
Formed in 2009, Melbourne five-piece Dream on Dreamer have proved that hard work and constant touring can pay off. In four short years, the band have released two full-length albums and a number of EPs and toured the world, playing locations as varied as Russia, the United States, Europe, Japan and New Zealand. They have shared the stage with many of heavy music's greats, from Avenged Sevenfold and The Devil Wears Prada to We Came As Romans and Pierce The Veil.
During a brief period of calm, vocalist Marcel Gadacz spoke to Caught in the Mosh about the ups and downs of 2013, recording new material and catching up with friends and fellow musos at the upcoming Soundwave festival.
You’re on the massive Soundwave lineup next month. Are you looking forward to being part of Australia’s biggest music festival?
Yes, certainly. It’s definitely of one the best experiences you get to do as a band. It’s just amazing to be able to do it again. We did it back in 2012 and we’re all excited to get back out there again and play in front of probably the biggest crowds we ever get to play to. So, yeah, it’s great!
Is there anyone on the lineup you particularly want to see? Perhaps some friends you’ve made through touring that you’re looking forward to seeing again?
Yeah... To answer the first part, I’m really looking forward to being on the same tour as the band ††† (Crosses), who is the new band from Chino, the singer from the Deftones. I’m a massive Deftones fan so I can’t wait to check them out every day. I’m very excited to see that band every day! And Mastodon. I’m really looking forward to seeing them as well. There are lots of bands. I like Letlive, definitely. I’ll check them out for sure. Then there’s Korn. I think everybody likes Korn. As for bands we’ve toured with before, there’s a couple there. A few Australian bands as well. Our friends in Thy Art is Murder, they’re killing it at the moment, so we’ll be hanging out with them. I’m really looking forward to that. There’s In Hearts Wake and Deez Nuts. We’re really good friends with those guys, so that’ll be good. Bands like A Day to Remember, that we recently toured with... so yeah, there are so many good bands. It’s going to be awesome!
You’ve recently completed a European tour with Silverstein. How was that?
Really, really good. It was definitely the best experience in Europe that we’ve had as a band. All the shows were pretty much sold out as Silverstein has got a fan base that are true, to the end. That’s what I noticed. And we’re good mates with them now. So it was just an all round good experience for us. We’re been to Europe three times now and I think it was our favourite trip of all. We were really well received by people. And it felt like home.
During a brief period of calm, vocalist Marcel Gadacz spoke to Caught in the Mosh about the ups and downs of 2013, recording new material and catching up with friends and fellow musos at the upcoming Soundwave festival.
You’re on the massive Soundwave lineup next month. Are you looking forward to being part of Australia’s biggest music festival?
Yes, certainly. It’s definitely of one the best experiences you get to do as a band. It’s just amazing to be able to do it again. We did it back in 2012 and we’re all excited to get back out there again and play in front of probably the biggest crowds we ever get to play to. So, yeah, it’s great!
Is there anyone on the lineup you particularly want to see? Perhaps some friends you’ve made through touring that you’re looking forward to seeing again?
Yeah... To answer the first part, I’m really looking forward to being on the same tour as the band ††† (Crosses), who is the new band from Chino, the singer from the Deftones. I’m a massive Deftones fan so I can’t wait to check them out every day. I’m very excited to see that band every day! And Mastodon. I’m really looking forward to seeing them as well. There are lots of bands. I like Letlive, definitely. I’ll check them out for sure. Then there’s Korn. I think everybody likes Korn. As for bands we’ve toured with before, there’s a couple there. A few Australian bands as well. Our friends in Thy Art is Murder, they’re killing it at the moment, so we’ll be hanging out with them. I’m really looking forward to that. There’s In Hearts Wake and Deez Nuts. We’re really good friends with those guys, so that’ll be good. Bands like A Day to Remember, that we recently toured with... so yeah, there are so many good bands. It’s going to be awesome!
You’ve recently completed a European tour with Silverstein. How was that?
Really, really good. It was definitely the best experience in Europe that we’ve had as a band. All the shows were pretty much sold out as Silverstein has got a fan base that are true, to the end. That’s what I noticed. And we’re good mates with them now. So it was just an all round good experience for us. We’re been to Europe three times now and I think it was our favourite trip of all. We were really well received by people. And it felt like home.
2013 was a particularly big year for Dream on Dreamer; a new album, two European tours, shows with A Day to Remember and incredibly, Aaron’s win over cancer. That’s pretty full-on!
Yeah, it was. A lot of really exciting things happened. And a bit of a rough time as well, with Aaron and all of the things he was going through. That was a bit of a reality check really. Life’s not all about pretending to be a rock star. That’s real shit. Every day. Fighting for your life. That’s being real. You know, I’ve never personally been involved with anything like that before. I’m pretty fortunate I guess. None of my family members have been affected by cancer related issues. So that was a bit of an eye-opener. For all of us. Aaron was in hospital for a good couple of months. He couldn’t tour with us when we toured Japan. And that was the first time we though “oh, it could all be over”. You know, it just makes you appreciate life so much more.
Surely that’s given you plenty of inspiration for new lyrics. Loveless was only released last year, but do you have any plans for new material?
Yeah! We’re locking in some time later this month. We’re got a place somewhere out of Melbourne, a couple hours drive away. We’re going to lock ourselves in a beach house or something. We want to be able to work somewhere with no distractions so we can actually write a new album. It’s going to be good!
Is this a different approach to your previous writing efforts?
The process we’re about to undertake, where we all sit down to write, as a band, all five of us sitting down, writing music, has not happened before. Not with any of our previous releases. In the past, it was only our guitarist Callan who wrote the structures of the music, who essentially wrote the songs. I would be on my own, writing the lyrics. It’s going to be different this time. I’ll still be writing the lyrics, but we’ll all be there together, in the moment. It’s not like we’ll have to send each other the tracks and ask “do you like that, do you like this”. This time, we’ll be in the same room, putting our own artistic input into every single song. That’ll be different. You know, some bands don’t work like that. Some bands do work like that. Even better. So I’m really excited to see how it’s going to pan out.
Yeah, it was. A lot of really exciting things happened. And a bit of a rough time as well, with Aaron and all of the things he was going through. That was a bit of a reality check really. Life’s not all about pretending to be a rock star. That’s real shit. Every day. Fighting for your life. That’s being real. You know, I’ve never personally been involved with anything like that before. I’m pretty fortunate I guess. None of my family members have been affected by cancer related issues. So that was a bit of an eye-opener. For all of us. Aaron was in hospital for a good couple of months. He couldn’t tour with us when we toured Japan. And that was the first time we though “oh, it could all be over”. You know, it just makes you appreciate life so much more.
Surely that’s given you plenty of inspiration for new lyrics. Loveless was only released last year, but do you have any plans for new material?
Yeah! We’re locking in some time later this month. We’re got a place somewhere out of Melbourne, a couple hours drive away. We’re going to lock ourselves in a beach house or something. We want to be able to work somewhere with no distractions so we can actually write a new album. It’s going to be good!
Is this a different approach to your previous writing efforts?
The process we’re about to undertake, where we all sit down to write, as a band, all five of us sitting down, writing music, has not happened before. Not with any of our previous releases. In the past, it was only our guitarist Callan who wrote the structures of the music, who essentially wrote the songs. I would be on my own, writing the lyrics. It’s going to be different this time. I’ll still be writing the lyrics, but we’ll all be there together, in the moment. It’s not like we’ll have to send each other the tracks and ask “do you like that, do you like this”. This time, we’ll be in the same room, putting our own artistic input into every single song. That’ll be different. You know, some bands don’t work like that. Some bands do work like that. Even better. So I’m really excited to see how it’s going to pan out.
What prompted you to take this new direction?
I think... now that we have a new member, well, a new-ish member, since Zach’s joined the band, with his clean singing and guitar... he’s a great writer. And I think we can take advantage of that, where there’s not only one person writing the music, there’s now two. It’s something we want to try out. And why not? It’d be wasting potential. It’s just so different. Sometimes you write a song and a week later you just decide that the song isn’t any good any more, because just one person is writing it. Whereas this time, if it’s not good, four other people will tell you it’s not good straight away. And of course, the other way around too. If it’s great, every one will be behind you and back you up.
At the end of 2012 you went from a 6 piece to a 5 piece after Daniel moved from keys to bass to fill the gap after Michael left. How did you go removing an entire instrument from your sound, particularly in a live environment?
Well, on Loveless, there’s not too much electronic, synthesizer elements any more. We kind of reduced it a little bit. And for our live performances, we now have a back track. We play our instruments, of course, because that’s what we’re about. But the track keeps the elements from the other songs. You know, to be honest, even when we were playing with live keyboards, we were running a back track as well. Our keyboardist was playing keyboards, of course, but now it’s pretty much the same thing, but with one less member. It makes it all easier (laughs).
When you go on tour, you tend to have a pretty hectic schedule! You must love touring and playing live!
That’s true. That’s what we love the most. Playing live shows, really being ourselves. Just playing a very expressive and emotional show. That’s what we’re about. That’s the only time that I feel that my lyrics... it’s the only way we feel that we can express ourselves, live. Our lyrics are very, very personal and when we play in front of people, it’s such a great feeling where we can be seen and be connected to the fans. And they can really see the expressions on our faces, because we really mean what we say.
I think... now that we have a new member, well, a new-ish member, since Zach’s joined the band, with his clean singing and guitar... he’s a great writer. And I think we can take advantage of that, where there’s not only one person writing the music, there’s now two. It’s something we want to try out. And why not? It’d be wasting potential. It’s just so different. Sometimes you write a song and a week later you just decide that the song isn’t any good any more, because just one person is writing it. Whereas this time, if it’s not good, four other people will tell you it’s not good straight away. And of course, the other way around too. If it’s great, every one will be behind you and back you up.
At the end of 2012 you went from a 6 piece to a 5 piece after Daniel moved from keys to bass to fill the gap after Michael left. How did you go removing an entire instrument from your sound, particularly in a live environment?
Well, on Loveless, there’s not too much electronic, synthesizer elements any more. We kind of reduced it a little bit. And for our live performances, we now have a back track. We play our instruments, of course, because that’s what we’re about. But the track keeps the elements from the other songs. You know, to be honest, even when we were playing with live keyboards, we were running a back track as well. Our keyboardist was playing keyboards, of course, but now it’s pretty much the same thing, but with one less member. It makes it all easier (laughs).
When you go on tour, you tend to have a pretty hectic schedule! You must love touring and playing live!
That’s true. That’s what we love the most. Playing live shows, really being ourselves. Just playing a very expressive and emotional show. That’s what we’re about. That’s the only time that I feel that my lyrics... it’s the only way we feel that we can express ourselves, live. Our lyrics are very, very personal and when we play in front of people, it’s such a great feeling where we can be seen and be connected to the fans. And they can really see the expressions on our faces, because we really mean what we say.
You designed the cover for Loveless. It's an intriguing logo. Is there a story behind your design?
Well, there’s a story behind the whole Loveless album. But when you look at the album artwork, you see that it’s two Ls, back to back. It almost looks like a character that’s falling. But it’s not really falling. It’s going through a majority of people, which is the big circle around the logo. And if you were to think of his head as the other circle, then he’s broken through the big circle, which means he’s moving away from the majority and the masses. And the other, much smaller circle, that could be anything, it could be another planet, another world, it could be the minority. He’s moving towards that smaller circle. He’s just breaking through. He’s being unique. That’s what the whole thing is about. As a band, we want to be as unique as possible. We want to stand out. We want to break away from this whole... I won’t say break away from this whole scene, but we want to become us. We don’t want to be a metal-core band, we don’t want to be a hard-core band, we don’t want to be a rock band. We just want to be Dream on Dreamer. We want to be seen as that. That’s what’s behind the logo. And if you turn the logo upside down, it’s like the person that you saw falling is now walking away. It’s very positive. He’s not falling any more, he’s walking away. He’s quite majestic looking, that he’s walking away from the majority. I guess we interpret it that way. And I hope people can make their own story from it.
Well, there’s a story behind the whole Loveless album. But when you look at the album artwork, you see that it’s two Ls, back to back. It almost looks like a character that’s falling. But it’s not really falling. It’s going through a majority of people, which is the big circle around the logo. And if you were to think of his head as the other circle, then he’s broken through the big circle, which means he’s moving away from the majority and the masses. And the other, much smaller circle, that could be anything, it could be another planet, another world, it could be the minority. He’s moving towards that smaller circle. He’s just breaking through. He’s being unique. That’s what the whole thing is about. As a band, we want to be as unique as possible. We want to stand out. We want to break away from this whole... I won’t say break away from this whole scene, but we want to become us. We don’t want to be a metal-core band, we don’t want to be a hard-core band, we don’t want to be a rock band. We just want to be Dream on Dreamer. We want to be seen as that. That’s what’s behind the logo. And if you turn the logo upside down, it’s like the person that you saw falling is now walking away. It’s very positive. He’s not falling any more, he’s walking away. He’s quite majestic looking, that he’s walking away from the majority. I guess we interpret it that way. And I hope people can make their own story from it.
Dream on Dreamer are part of the huge 2014 Soundwave lineup. Tickets on sale now from Soundwave and Oztix.
Sat 22nd February - Brisbane, RNA Showgrounds
Sun 23rd February - Sydney, Olympic Park
Fri 28th February - Melbourne, Flemington Racecourse
Sat 1st March - Adelaide, Bonython Park
Mon 3rd March - Perth, Claremont Showgrounds
Sat 22nd February - Brisbane, RNA Showgrounds
Sun 23rd February - Sydney, Olympic Park
Fri 28th February - Melbourne, Flemington Racecourse
Sat 1st March - Adelaide, Bonython Park
Mon 3rd March - Perth, Claremont Showgrounds