Marcel Gadacz - Dream On, Dreamer (28/06/2013)
Celebrating the release of the sophomore LP Loveless, released today, and their upcoming tour with A Day To Remember and The Devil Wears Prada, we had a chat with Marcel Gadacz of Dream, On Dreamer.
Hey Marcel, how are you?
Hey, man. I'm pretty good. You?
I'm good thanks. I heard the new album Loveless earlier and it's bloody brilliant so congratulations first of all.
Thank you very much, I'm glad you like it.
What was the recording process like for that?
Well we were writing songs for Loveless probably half a year to a year go so that's when it all started. Callan (Orr) our guitarist was the man behind that. He's been writing the record, recording it, doing pre-production. We did the whole record in house and that's what Loveless is all about. Being ourselves.
When you're writing the album, what influences the writing process?
That question gets asked a lot and what I always say is that we have completely different influences musically. We never wanted to sound like anyone else or anything we've heard before, what we wanted to do is create a sound that is us. A few bands that I always mention that have always been an influence on our band are As Cities Burn, Callan especially has been heavily influenced by them, and then even Underoath and Norma Jean is more the sort of stuff that influences us. Thirty Seconds To Mars, Deftones and La Dispute are a few other ones.
I wanted to talk to you about your influences, have they changed much from when you were younger to now?
I still love the bands I grew up listening to. Even though most of them broke up many years ago I'll still always carry them around in my life but I've just added more stuff as I've gotten older. I don't just listen to hardcore music though, I listen to a lot of electro, ambient and RnB music. Really just anything I can just feel and relate to that has a good message. That's my biggest influences.
A few months ago there was a bit of reshuffling within Dream On, Dreamer. How did that affect the band?
Yeah when we found out that (Michael McLeod) McCoy's girlfriend was pregnant and he's gonna be a daddy soon it was kinda hard and heartbreaking but we kinda asked him to leave because it'd be for the better for his baby and he needs to be their for his family rather than travel around the world doing music. It was just the right thing to do but then we suddenly had to decide were we even going to keep clean singing and all that sort of stuff. We even ran auditions and found heaps of awesome people. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people trying to step into McCoy's shoes but none of them really felt right. I'm not saying they weren't good singers or whatever but we wanted someone that had kinda been part of the family already in some way or another and with Zachary (Britt) he was exactly what we were looking for. We loved playing shows with his old band, we'd play with them a bit when we first started playing shows. The Dream The Chase they were called from Brisbane. So yeah, we shuffled around a little bit and got rid of keys so Daniel (Jungwirth) could go back to bass, he was actually a bassist from the start but he just never had the opportunity to play bass because McCoy was already doing that. So yeah, we shuffled it all around and Loveless came together and I think the band has never felt any stronger and I'm just excited to get out on stage now and show the people what we're about.
What are your expectations with the new album coming out without McCoy?
I always say that the world changes and changes are healthy because then they don't get boring. There's now a new element to our music, a new voice and people seem to be receiving it really well. We've even heard a few people say our new record is the best record ever which gives us a lot of strength and belief that we don't have to hide because we do feel stronger than ever now. Through the shuffle this lineup is the band we've always wanted to be. I'm not bagging out our past members because we had the best time with those guys but we've moved on and changed and it almost feels like a missing link coming together. If you're a Dream On, Dreamer fan we hope you can accept that there was no fighting, it was a mutual thing. There's no bad blood between us and the old members, we're all still friends and brothers and if McCoy wanted anyone to replace him in the band it would've been Zach anyway because they've always been friends so I don't think there's any bad blood and people should know that. The band is still Dream On, Dreamer, we still have the same message so I don't think people should turn away from us now. I think if anything the fans should find it more interesting, hopefully. (laughs)
You're launching the album this weekend in Melbourne so you must be pretty excited for that?
Yeah, I'm really excited for it. Can't wait. To play the Corner Hotel again and these new songs it's gonna be great.
Are there any songs off Loveless you're really keen to play live?
Firstly I've just gotta say that I love every single song that we put on the record and it's never been like that in the past but to answer your question I think Black Maine, Infinity and The World In Front Of Me will be a lot of fun to play live but as I said I love every song on the record and I can't wait to play them all eventually. (laughs)
Next month you're touring with A Day To Remember and The Devil Wears Prada, have you toured with either of those guys before?
Yeah, we did The Devil Wears Prada tour in 2011 I think it was and that was awesome. That was with We Came As Romans as well. We can't wait to see those guys again on a tour that's even bigger than last time especially with A Day To Remember headlining it's gonna be three times as many kids so it's gonna be crazy.
Yeah and then later this year you're off to tour the world with Silverstein which is pretty exciting I bet?
Yeah I've always been a Silverstein fan from when they first started making music which I think has been about thirteen years now so to be on tour with them, the main support in fact at most shows is frigging crazy. Who would have thought? (laughs)
Are there any places that you're going to that you've never toured before?
On the Silverstein run?
Yeah.
Yeah there's actually two countries that we haven't been to, well haven't played at, and they are Sweden and Denmark. It's super exciting but it's going to be super cold because it's gonna be right in the middle of winter but it'll be amazing.
Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.
Absolutely.
Are there any plans for an Australian headline tour?
There are plans, definitely. I dunno if I can say this but the tour will probably be taking place before the Silverstein tour but that's all I can say.
Sounds exciting. Now, when it comes to your ambitions and dreams what are they not only for the band but for yourself personally?
Like everyone in the world my main goal and ambition is to achieve happiness and to be happy in life. Money is not always what buys happiness, they aren't really related, happy is what you feel and if you reach that happy feeling in your life then life is good. With happiness you can make your life really good no matter what country you live in or your situation. Happiness is half the job done, you can become a much more positive person and with that comes the success like with anything in life.
Just another personal question, when you get some time off what do you like to get up to?
Well I'm a graphic designer so I design a lot of things and do artwork and all that sort of stuff like designing merch. That's what I love to do. Also get out with nature a little bit and over the past year and a half I've gotten into fitness so I'm really into healthy eating which has really improved the way I feel and look (laughs) but it's made me really happy. It's something I put a lot of time into now, if I don't get my daily workout I almost feel a bit depressed so I wanna be able to keep doing that because it's a great way to take your mind off things.
Are you going to be able to keep that up on the road?
Yeah, I tried to on the last European tour and I'd like to continue to do so. I always have my skipping rope so I can skip around and shit and that's usually the best I can do but if we pass a gym I'll try and get in there even if it's just for a couple of minutes but on tour it's kinda hard.
I bet. Well we'll make this the last question. What would you say is the best and the worst thing about being in Dream On, Dreamer?
The best thing is that we are able to inspire people and make them believe in themselves which is the best thing that we can ever do as a band so I'm really proud of that. The worst thing is....umm, what's the worst thing.... I really don't know (laughs) I guess it's that I can't sleep because in my head I'm always at work and I think I'll just never find that peace because I always just want to do things. I guess that's not really bad, there's really not anything bad about being in Dream On, Dreamer really, well, not nothing I'd talk about anyway (laughs)
(laughs) Well that's fair enough. We'll wrap it up there. Thanks very much for your time and good luck with the album, and I look forward to the headline tour announcement
Thank you very much.
Matt Barton
Hey Marcel, how are you?
Hey, man. I'm pretty good. You?
I'm good thanks. I heard the new album Loveless earlier and it's bloody brilliant so congratulations first of all.
Thank you very much, I'm glad you like it.
What was the recording process like for that?
Well we were writing songs for Loveless probably half a year to a year go so that's when it all started. Callan (Orr) our guitarist was the man behind that. He's been writing the record, recording it, doing pre-production. We did the whole record in house and that's what Loveless is all about. Being ourselves.
When you're writing the album, what influences the writing process?
That question gets asked a lot and what I always say is that we have completely different influences musically. We never wanted to sound like anyone else or anything we've heard before, what we wanted to do is create a sound that is us. A few bands that I always mention that have always been an influence on our band are As Cities Burn, Callan especially has been heavily influenced by them, and then even Underoath and Norma Jean is more the sort of stuff that influences us. Thirty Seconds To Mars, Deftones and La Dispute are a few other ones.
I wanted to talk to you about your influences, have they changed much from when you were younger to now?
I still love the bands I grew up listening to. Even though most of them broke up many years ago I'll still always carry them around in my life but I've just added more stuff as I've gotten older. I don't just listen to hardcore music though, I listen to a lot of electro, ambient and RnB music. Really just anything I can just feel and relate to that has a good message. That's my biggest influences.
A few months ago there was a bit of reshuffling within Dream On, Dreamer. How did that affect the band?
Yeah when we found out that (Michael McLeod) McCoy's girlfriend was pregnant and he's gonna be a daddy soon it was kinda hard and heartbreaking but we kinda asked him to leave because it'd be for the better for his baby and he needs to be their for his family rather than travel around the world doing music. It was just the right thing to do but then we suddenly had to decide were we even going to keep clean singing and all that sort of stuff. We even ran auditions and found heaps of awesome people. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people trying to step into McCoy's shoes but none of them really felt right. I'm not saying they weren't good singers or whatever but we wanted someone that had kinda been part of the family already in some way or another and with Zachary (Britt) he was exactly what we were looking for. We loved playing shows with his old band, we'd play with them a bit when we first started playing shows. The Dream The Chase they were called from Brisbane. So yeah, we shuffled around a little bit and got rid of keys so Daniel (Jungwirth) could go back to bass, he was actually a bassist from the start but he just never had the opportunity to play bass because McCoy was already doing that. So yeah, we shuffled it all around and Loveless came together and I think the band has never felt any stronger and I'm just excited to get out on stage now and show the people what we're about.
What are your expectations with the new album coming out without McCoy?
I always say that the world changes and changes are healthy because then they don't get boring. There's now a new element to our music, a new voice and people seem to be receiving it really well. We've even heard a few people say our new record is the best record ever which gives us a lot of strength and belief that we don't have to hide because we do feel stronger than ever now. Through the shuffle this lineup is the band we've always wanted to be. I'm not bagging out our past members because we had the best time with those guys but we've moved on and changed and it almost feels like a missing link coming together. If you're a Dream On, Dreamer fan we hope you can accept that there was no fighting, it was a mutual thing. There's no bad blood between us and the old members, we're all still friends and brothers and if McCoy wanted anyone to replace him in the band it would've been Zach anyway because they've always been friends so I don't think there's any bad blood and people should know that. The band is still Dream On, Dreamer, we still have the same message so I don't think people should turn away from us now. I think if anything the fans should find it more interesting, hopefully. (laughs)
You're launching the album this weekend in Melbourne so you must be pretty excited for that?
Yeah, I'm really excited for it. Can't wait. To play the Corner Hotel again and these new songs it's gonna be great.
Are there any songs off Loveless you're really keen to play live?
Firstly I've just gotta say that I love every single song that we put on the record and it's never been like that in the past but to answer your question I think Black Maine, Infinity and The World In Front Of Me will be a lot of fun to play live but as I said I love every song on the record and I can't wait to play them all eventually. (laughs)
Next month you're touring with A Day To Remember and The Devil Wears Prada, have you toured with either of those guys before?
Yeah, we did The Devil Wears Prada tour in 2011 I think it was and that was awesome. That was with We Came As Romans as well. We can't wait to see those guys again on a tour that's even bigger than last time especially with A Day To Remember headlining it's gonna be three times as many kids so it's gonna be crazy.
Yeah and then later this year you're off to tour the world with Silverstein which is pretty exciting I bet?
Yeah I've always been a Silverstein fan from when they first started making music which I think has been about thirteen years now so to be on tour with them, the main support in fact at most shows is frigging crazy. Who would have thought? (laughs)
Are there any places that you're going to that you've never toured before?
On the Silverstein run?
Yeah.
Yeah there's actually two countries that we haven't been to, well haven't played at, and they are Sweden and Denmark. It's super exciting but it's going to be super cold because it's gonna be right in the middle of winter but it'll be amazing.
Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.
Absolutely.
Are there any plans for an Australian headline tour?
There are plans, definitely. I dunno if I can say this but the tour will probably be taking place before the Silverstein tour but that's all I can say.
Sounds exciting. Now, when it comes to your ambitions and dreams what are they not only for the band but for yourself personally?
Like everyone in the world my main goal and ambition is to achieve happiness and to be happy in life. Money is not always what buys happiness, they aren't really related, happy is what you feel and if you reach that happy feeling in your life then life is good. With happiness you can make your life really good no matter what country you live in or your situation. Happiness is half the job done, you can become a much more positive person and with that comes the success like with anything in life.
Just another personal question, when you get some time off what do you like to get up to?
Well I'm a graphic designer so I design a lot of things and do artwork and all that sort of stuff like designing merch. That's what I love to do. Also get out with nature a little bit and over the past year and a half I've gotten into fitness so I'm really into healthy eating which has really improved the way I feel and look (laughs) but it's made me really happy. It's something I put a lot of time into now, if I don't get my daily workout I almost feel a bit depressed so I wanna be able to keep doing that because it's a great way to take your mind off things.
Are you going to be able to keep that up on the road?
Yeah, I tried to on the last European tour and I'd like to continue to do so. I always have my skipping rope so I can skip around and shit and that's usually the best I can do but if we pass a gym I'll try and get in there even if it's just for a couple of minutes but on tour it's kinda hard.
I bet. Well we'll make this the last question. What would you say is the best and the worst thing about being in Dream On, Dreamer?
The best thing is that we are able to inspire people and make them believe in themselves which is the best thing that we can ever do as a band so I'm really proud of that. The worst thing is....umm, what's the worst thing.... I really don't know (laughs) I guess it's that I can't sleep because in my head I'm always at work and I think I'll just never find that peace because I always just want to do things. I guess that's not really bad, there's really not anything bad about being in Dream On, Dreamer really, well, not nothing I'd talk about anyway (laughs)
(laughs) Well that's fair enough. We'll wrap it up there. Thanks very much for your time and good luck with the album, and I look forward to the headline tour announcement
Thank you very much.
Matt Barton