Meet Dublin three-piece Dreaming Of Jupiter. This ‘future pop’ outfit is composed of Zoë Gough (Keyboard/Guitar/Lead Vocals), Dave Levins (Guitar/Vocals) and Sam Oye (Drums). They've just released their new video, Eyes Of Stone. They're going places. Prepare for lift-off!
When did you start the band?
Zoë: Dave and I originally started jamming and writing some songs a couple of years ago. Then, one year ago Sam joined us. Dave and I were friends from years ago, we used to work together in a music shop and what’s funny is that we met Sam in this same music shop a few years later!
We were looking for a drummer and had specific ideas. We wanted to fuse traditional sounds with electronic sounds. We started producing tracks at home and mixing. We wanted the same thing.
Then, we started to go to the studio and recorded a few songs. We started playing together a year ago, so last year we were literally just about getting started.
Why ‘Dreaming of Jupiter’?
Zoë: That’s funny - everybody asks that! All together we are big fans of astronomy, we’re always watching space documentaries and stuff.
How can you describe your music?
Zoë: Some kind of future pop, I think. We try to mix live sounds with pre-imported sounds, blending them together. We try to make something new.
What are your influences?
Zoë: From a musical perspective, personally I’ve been very influenced by soul music, like old school stuff. I love all the ladies, from Alicia Keys all the way back to Chaka Khan, all those amazing singers! And then we have a sort of... electronic flavour. We love bands like Imagine Dragons, and Sam has a great gospel influence. We like Jack Garratt and those people who mix older soul styles with electro. Kate Bush also. It’s very varied.
Sam: We’re big fans of Life for example, they’re a big inspiration for us. Emeli Sandé is a big inspiration. But yes, I’m from a gospel background, and we add things like reggae, African styles. So I think that’s a big part of me and then I can fuse those styles with the electronic stuff.
How do you work?
Sam: It depends of the song, it starts with general idea... like Zoë jumping in from the shower...
Zoë: It's such a cliché, but it’s actually true! I’m totally by myself in this calm space, and I get ideas and stuff! So, usually after the shower I run out like : "Guys! I have this great idea!...
We try to keep our minds open while writing, so we don’t just write about ourselves necessarily, we write from different perspectives.
Sam: So yes, sometimes we begin with an instrumental, and we’re like "This sounds good, we’re gonna work around it...". And sometimes we work the opposite way. It all depends on the song, I guess.
Are you doing everything by yourself?
Zoë: We co-produce , we have an engineer who does a little bit of production, but we are very much involved in the production.
Sam: Basically we have the song ready to go, and then we just take it to the studio to make it '3D'.
In your song This Is Life you’re singing some parts in Spanish. Why?
Zoë: I lived in Spain for a long time, it's like a really important part of my past and history, so sometimes I write in Spanish, sometimes in English.
Sam: It’s nice, it’s different. Next time we’ll try in Yoruba, my language, from Nigeria!
How do you find the music industry in Ireland? Is it tough to break through?
Zoë: We’re still a very new band, so in that sense I guess maybe it can be a little bit tricky to get to know people, and we’re probably a little bit shy too so... we're getting to know people. Also, there’s great support from the Irish music scene!
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What feedback have you been getting from audiences?
Zoë: In Ireland we get great crowds, people really show up!
Sam: It’s different from other countries in a sense that, there are opportunities here for live music, DJs and promoters try to push the artists. Whereas in other countries it’s really hard to get to those people. So we’re very lucky to be in Ireland!
What are your plans?
Sam: We plan to drop the new single, do a single launch, and record more songs. We try to record as much as we can, we’re always writing.
Zoë: We're looking forward to share it with everybody! Also, this year we have a couple of festivals lined up, like Bare In The Woods and You Bloom. So come see us!
Follow Dreaming Of Jupiter on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
