Irish new-wave ambient band Dirty Dreamer have released their debut album, The Everyday in Bloom. We asked them the BIG questions . . .
Dirty Dreamer was formed in 2018 from previous members of Choice Music Prize-nominated electro-folk outfit Come On Live Long and features Louise Gaffney, Daithí O'Connor and Ken McCabe.
The Everyday in Bloom is an album four years in the making; the accumulation of hundreds of hours of recorded material taken from the band's weekly improvised and recorded practice sessions.
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"When we all started getting excited about the same moments of the recordings we knew there was something there that was worth crafting into a track," McCabe says. "We had a running start, we had it all figured out."
The band says: "The Everyday In Bloom has a lighter feel from our previous EP. There's a wider set of sounds pulled into this work whereas before we almost intentionally limited ourselves to a small collection of gear. Some tracks are led in a more acoustic space, some still maintain that big synth heavy sound."
Speaking of the album's themes, Louise says: "It’s about that feeling of distraction, and when people get trapped in a sense of banality that breaks with noticing one moment that makes their world feel bigger for a second.
"We consume so much stuff that nothing seems to be meaningful - or something isn’t clicking. You get a little bit of entertainment from it but then you forget it. The Everyday in Bloom is being able to stop and take meaning from small stuff and simple stuff."
Tell us three things about yourself?
We are Daithi, Ken and Louise. We have been playing music together for many years. When we are not playing music we all work in education across the three strands of primary, secondary and third level.
How would you describe your music?
Our music is born out of free-flowing improvisation and jamming. We record absolutely every note we make in our room when we play together. Ken is the archivist. He trawls through the hours of music from each rehearsal and picks out bits that are interesting and sends them to Daithi and Louise who in turn pick bits that they like and then we focus on these pieces at the next rehearsal. We use synthesizers, guitars, samplers and drum machines and our friend Paul Kenny plays drums with us too. The music has threads of electronic, folk and beats running throughout.
Who are your musical inspirations?
Jeff Buckley, OutKast, Adrianne Lenker, Grouper.
What was the first gig you ever went to and the first record you ever bought/downloaded?
Ken - My first gig was Counting Crows at the Olympia in December 1997. My dad brought the whole family. The first record I ever bought was Oasis' Definitely Maybe. I think it cost something like 20 Irish pounds for the cassette and I wore that thing out. It was a prized possession at the time, and I'm pretty sure I still have it around here somewhere.
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Louise - My first gig was Alicia Keys. I worked pretty hard as a teenager on my piano training. I maybe didn't have a lot of friends at that age and so that was where my attention went.
The first tape I ever owned funnily enough was Celine Dion - The Colour Of My Love. I think I was seven or eight and remember wearing out Think Twice, I'd stand up on the kitchen counter to reach the tape deck and just keep rewinding it back so I could sing along.
What’s your favourite song right now?
Louise - I've been rinsing Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders album Promises since I first heard it. Jonny Greenwood once described something interesting about recorded music sounding like it was made in a place and time, that you can sonically create the room in the listeners mind and this has that feel. You can hear the alchemy of the space this album is performed in.
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Also Bones by Radiohead - I've been listening to The Bends a lot lately and this song always surprises me. It's teetering on the edge of dad rock, but the chorus is irresistible.
Favourite lyric of all time?
"It's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter" - Lover You Should Have Come Over - Jeff Buckley.
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If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Ken - It's difficult to imagine a worse form of torture, but if I had to choose it would probably be Separator by Radiohead. It's uplifting; it has a beautiful blend of electronic and acoustic elements. It takes the listener on a journey; it is masterfully recorded/produced/mixed. I also think it's only fair that Four Tet's remix be included in the deal (seriously though, check out that remix.
Where can people find your music/more information?
