First of all I just want to give a huge shoutout to Dreamgirl for being so cool. I've been away for a few months because of health issues, and they have been nothing but patient and understanding. A few months ago we had the opportunity to talk to the Kansas City Band about music, the future, and the Spice Girls' hand to hand combat abilities. Check it out!
Rapidfire Questions
1. What do you love most about Ray Romano?
He played in the World Series of Poker 7 times.
2. What album do you think had the biggest impact on you?
OH, COME ON! Too hard. But okay. Lacey - Chico Buarque De Hollanda Volume 3 - Chico Buarque
Skylar - Discovery - Daft Punk
Chase - Kid A - Radiohead Austin - nothing* Ian - Wait To Pleasure - No Joy
*some DC Talk album
3. What was the last thing you learned?
Which essential oils cure hives.
4. Who do you think would be a better kisser The Big Friendly Giant, or the big green giant (the vegetable guy) ?
Are you kidding? The BFG (have always read that as “The Big Fucking Guy”) would be the worst kisser of all time. Too big, too sloppy. Also, The Big Green Giant is pretty attractive.
5. We’ve been trying to come up with a slogan for the site. Any suggestions?
“You suck, but we suck more.” (Dreamgirl does not actually think this magazine sucks!)
6. First concert you ever went to?
Skylar - “I’m excluding locals. Klaxons. My first real one.” Lacey - “Wynton Marsalis was my first concert, but I was in the sixth grade and didn’t appreciate it. So for a long time I said that my first concert was Alicia Keys/Eve.” Ian - “Rush. I’m gonna go get a beer.”
Chase - “Mine was John Mayer, okay?” Austin - “Carman.”
7. Which Spice Girl do you think you could beat up?
None of them.
8. I introduced my friend Chandlor to you music. What is the worst piece of life advice that you can give her?
You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.
9. Can you write a song about Ray Romano?
We probably could but we’re not sure it would be any good.
10. I saw a tweet where you quoted a Selena song. Can you please do a cover of a Selena song?
Maybe ;)
Isaac Gutierrez for Born Loser Mag: Can you introduce yourself and give us a bit of background on the band?
Dreamgirl: Dreamgirl is Skylar, Austin, Lacey, Ian, and Chase. Long story short: An old band of Skylar’s and Lacey’s broke up, but we still wanted to play music, so we started this one.
BL: Is starting a band something that you always wanted to do, or did it just kind of come together?
DG: Skylar and Lacey were in another project that broke up. Austin and former bass/trumpet player, Sam Stephan, were borrowed from another group. Ian joined a couple years ago after the original drummer quit. Sam joined the US Navy in February, so we picked up Chase more recently. So, we’ve gone through some lineup changes, but it’s definitely come together in a sweet way.
BL: The first song of yours that I listened to was ‘Teenage Blue’, and I absolutely loved it. Where did you draw inspiration from for that song? It has a very old school, nostalgic feel to it that I haven’t heard many artists go for.
DG: Thank you, first of all. We can’t fully comment on the inspiration part because some of the people on that record are no longer in the band. But, at the time, we were writing lots of rock n’ roll with elements of 50s/early 60s-ish influence. A few of us grew up with older parents and were raised on “timeless oldies” like Rosie & The Originals, all the Bobby’s (Vee, Vinton, Rydell, Goldsboro, etc), Richie Valens, The Penguins… That song really just sort of happened.
BL: Speaking of ‘Teenage Blue’, that song has over 2 Million listens on spotify. What does that feel like??
DG: Absolutely nuts. It feels surreal because it just exploded one day - at the time, we were just wanting to play shows with our friends and never gave much thought to marketing any of our music. A kid from Belgium put it up on Youtube and it went from there. It’s crazy and wonderful to think that people have cared about and listened to that song so much.
BL: Which song that you’ve written thus far are you most emotionally attached to? Which one do you feel like has the best story attached to it?
DG: American Blonde - it’s the first song we’ve recorded in the most recent lineup. Everyone was involved, and it’s a soft preview of sorts for what’s to come.
BL: In what ways would you say that your latest release differs from your first EP Illuminaughty?
DG: The Dreamgirl LP was a labor of love in an uncertain time. It was stressful because we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to release all this music we’d been playing at shows/sitting on for a couple years. We went through a few lineup changes during the process of recording it, which, of course, slowed things down a bit. For instance, “Dreamgirl” took a year to record; “Illuminaughty” took two days.
As for the song content, “Dreamgirl” feels like an extension of “Illuminaughty.” We wrote some of the Dreamgirl LP songs around the same time that we were releasing the EP. “Bad Bizzness” and “Mythos,” two tracks off the LP, were released in 2016 as video singles a couple years prior to being on the album and available for streaming. The album is a conglomerate of old stuff and newer stuff.
BL: When I first found your music, one of the things that really caught my attention was the album art for Illuminaughty. Can you talk to us a bit about that?
DG: A former member, Zach Sauls, designed the album art in a college class.
BL: Over the course of time, what has influenced the shift in the overall sound of your music?
DG: Age and time. Lineup changes. New equipment. We think we always sound like Dreamgirl.
BL: What is the dynamic within the band like?
DG: A family of friends, lost in a dream. Austin is our dad, Ian is the good son (an Eagle Scout), Chase is the cool uncle, and Skylar and Lacey are the fraternal twins who squabble and cause ruckus. We love each other and have a good time.
BL: What is the hardest part of being in a band?
DG: Scheduling is tough with five members, who all have lives and jobs and things going on outside of the band. Other than that, it’s pretty cool and lots of fun.
BL: You guys have been doing music for a while now. What is something that you do differently now as opposed to when you first started?
DG: We’re more on the same page than ever. Touring out of the Midwest seems more of a necessity than it did before - earlier, we mentioned how in the beginning we just wanted to make music, have fun and play shows with our friends. Now we might take things a little more seriously. We want to play everywhere and share our live show with people who’ve only heard us through streaming.
BL: What advice would you give to someone that is wanting to pursue music?
DG: Surround yourself with people that care about and want the same things you do.
BL: Is there anything that you actively do to push you to grow as a band?
DG: We’re always trying to write better a better song than the last one. Some of us are trying out new instruments, and we’re always trying to absorb new media and experiences that help to just… make us better people.
BL Talk to us about your latest release.
DG: It’s a collection of (mostly) older work that took quite some time to finally come to fruition. Some of the songs were just ideas that got put on the shelf when we lost a couple of our members, and then we were finally able to finish them out. Featuring more synth-driven songs, the album captures more of our sound as a whole. It’s a lot of songs that we’ve played in our set forever, so we felt compelled to record and release them in a way to kind of move on.
BL: What is something about Dreamgirl that most people wouldn’t know?
DG: There are almost more ex-members of the band then there are current members.
BL: What can we expect to see from Dreamgirl in the Future?
DG: We just signed with a booking agency, Rogue, so we are planning out tours for 2019 - expect to see us going both East and West in the coming year. We’re currently writing and recording some new music (maybe an EP, and we’ve talked about doing some cool splits with other great KC artists) and there are a slew of great local shows coming up (9/4 Chad Valley at recordBar, 9/18 Hunny and Hot Flash Heat Wave at the Encore).
BL: To wrap things up, do you have any questions for me?
DG: Will you ever forgive us for how long we took to do this interview?
BL: Only if you forgive me for taking just as long to publish this.
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