Dreamend
Savannah, Georgia pop-provocateur Ryan Graveface, oka Dreamend, returns with the upcoming untitled album arriving April 6 via their own prestigious Graveface Records imprint that. Representing the roster proper with contributions from Night School’s Alexandra Morte, The Casket Girls’ Phaedra & Elsa, Pedro the Lion’s TW Walsh, mixed by Darren Jackson (oka Kid Dakota) & mastered by Collin Jordan at Chicago’s The Boiler Room; Ryan returns after the six years its has been since And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave with a record he refers to as It’s merely a massive life transition in album form. Having a rare condition that diminishes tonal frequencies gradually, Graveface’s entire approach to composition has been altered & takes on a new brave & experimental series of forms on the new record. The familiar components of creative ethereal designs align like stars in the cosmos, as loops are heard as echoing specters of sound that encapsulate Ryan’s own haunted delivery that invites a host of other obscure electro elements into the mix. “Sometimes the loops are not in time thus throwing writing a song on top of it out whack,” Ryan described when reflecting on the unexpected unorthodoxy of an almost accidental approach to innovation, “The end result is oddly experimental for me not being an experimental artist.”
Stepping into the Dreamend world, we present the world premiere for “To See This Moment” that spins the gears of time in reverse to recall precious & meaningful memories. The dissonant ambiance stirs emotive & sentimental underpinnings of nostalgia as the track progressively grows more elaborate like the accumulating feelings that slowly build up during candid reminiscence. The remembrances of times that made indelible impressions on our lives are exhibited in psychic expressions that break outside of the mortal timelines to bridge aspects of the past to the realized & relevant understandings in the present. “To See This Moment” starts out like the opening sequence of an art house cinematic production, where the camera slowly progresses its focus zoom on the inciting moment of the song’s narrative. As the distant loop continues its sway, Graveface works in gravely alliterative recitations that welcomes drum machine beat-cues & wave rocking choruses that contribute greatly to the gradually rising swells of orchestrations. By the time the peak of all the components reaches its zenith the audience is left with a haunting music box melody that gently pivots & pirouettes like a mechanical ballerina figurine in your heart.
Exchanging long-distance cables while Dreamend has been on tour, Ryan Graveface took the time to elaborate on the making of the new album & the single “To See This Moment”:
The new Dreamend album is very different for me. Typically there’s some large story attached that all the songs are tied to. The idea for this one was to squash that and just write whatever I feel on any given day instead. I think the end result is a far more diverse LP. “To See this moment” is pretty obsessive lyrically—like a ton of Dreamend songs. I wanted all the tracks on the album to be built around a single simple loop and for this specific song the loop happens forwards, backwards and half speed. So it sounds like different parts but it’s really just treating the loop instead. The drums are this adorable 80s toy I’ve had since my childhood run through some effects. I beat the hell out of them when recording this song so much that they are now toast (RIP). I was stumped on the vocal melody for a long time. The day I decided to stop forcing vocal into it the melody popped into my head as I was walking around Forsyth park. Excuse my manic thoughts, I’m at the tail end of a 16 hr drive. xo
The new Dreamend album will be available April 6 via Graveface Records.
