“A labour of love it was, that record. But hopefully you can hear that”
probably right, seeing as it’s not even out until April 2nd. The delay can be put down to the band, who wanted to “do it justice” and ensure ‘Choreography’ had ample time to build excitement in the press. It was recorded at Palace Studios with modish east London producer Rory Attwell, although the band produced it themselves, not entirely due to a lack of funding. “Regardless, it would have been self-produced,” Craig assures as Doran describes the process. “I think I would have just got into an argument about it because I know exactly how I want each bit to sound,” he says. “I’d love to work with a producer that I know I can work with, but I’ve had experiences in the past where that’s not been the case and it can get really ugly. I
can see the faults in the record from there not being a proper producer there, but I think that’s good for your first record, that’s how it should be. “But what I was saying, about having a singular vision and wanting to keep it that way, it wasn’t an option for me to have someone else produce it. And financially, it was a lot more viable. I would love to work with someone on the next record. I really would. Because I wrote everything myself and did all the demos, then when we were recording I did my guitar, bass, some second guitar, vocals and three-part harmonies for all the songs, and being there for every second to make sure every note is played in the right way is really tiring. I hit the wall quite hard in the middle, which sounds crazy because it should just be
fun, but I wanted it in a certain way so much that it took its toll. A labour of love it was, that record. But hopefully you can hear that.” From start to finish, ‘Choreography’ is a clear indication of how Weird Dreams have grown as a band since their formation in July 2010. A record that combines gushing doo-wop instrumentation and the indie classicisms of The Shins with unsavoury social topics and a certain amount of psychedelia, it starts off fast-paced and urgent, with more of an upbeat tone than the skewed ballads that approach towards the end, like ‘Little Girl’ (one of the oldest songs) and the last track Doran wrote, ‘Choreography’, named so because Doran’s mum used to be a dance teacher. “When I was really young,” he clarifies, “she was doing a masters or a degree in contemporary dance and my nursery was on the campus, so I was always there. I remember the grounds of the polytechnic – it had these rolling hills; it was quite amazing. My grandma would always pick me up and I remember spending a lot of time sitting in the studios watching my mum teach and a lot of the music they used was Philip Glass, Kate Bush and things like that, and I remember the movements were really interesting. There’s a weightlessness about it – a lot of twisting and letting people fall into your arms – and when I think of all of the songs on the album, they have a lot of meaning and metaphors. There is a theme, but it’s not trying to tell a story. Choreography reminded me of growing up and seemed to sum it all up. I think that it’s also a really beautiful word.” There’s certainly a leitmotif running through Weird Dreams’ songcraft. Their whole sonic aesthetic basically encompasses that bit in old school films when someone is daydreaming and the scene ripples into their fantasy, but with each track,individual visions are conjured. “It feels to us like it’s a seamless collection of songs,” proffers Craig. “When you listen to it, the texture of sounds carry on through the whole thing. That was our intention the whole way through,” he states as Doran mentions that it’s funny it worked out that way because the songs are from different EPs. “I think the first EP and the second are quite different, which we did on purpose,” he declares. “Everyone was talking about beach music and even though I’m a really big Beach Boys fan that really pissed me off. We live in east London – there’s not a beach for hundreds of miles and at that point it was getting really cold, it was a shitty winter so we wanted to make a darker album. It was seasonally affected. So the two best songs from both EPs are on an album with newer tracks.” “It’s all part of what we are,” Craig justifies. “It doesn’t sound completely alien from the first track we ever recorded to the last track we did. It’s all Weird Dreams.”
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