Meet Dream Phases And Pick Up Their New 7 Inch 'Helen Highway' b/w 'Tandy'

On Friday, October 30th, LA-based Psychedelic Rock band Dream Phases are releasing a 7" record from Hypnotic Bridge with two new songs, "Helen Highway" and "Tandy", with the music also available on Spotify. "Helen Highway" has received a video that marks Dream Phases vocalist and guitarist Brandon Graham's directorial debut.

Dream Phases is very much a California band, made up of Brandon Graham, Shane Graham, and Keveen Baudouin, heavily influenced by its landscape and history and their biggest goal is evolve the sounds ushered in by The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Elliot Smith, and others who seek out that elusive thing, an ethereal dreamscape created by music. They love obscure music as much as vibrant traditions and you'll catch glimpses of both in their work.

Not long ago, both Brandon Graham and Shane Graham appeared on our Tower Instagram Live show, which you can still watch here, but earlier this month, Tower's PULSE! also sat down for an in-depth discussion with both Brandon and Shane about the band's ethos, their 2019 album So Long, Yesterday, from Nomad Eel Records, and all the great music that inspires their work.

Hannah Means-Shannon: To start off with a general question about sound and recording for Dream Phases, do you use analog equipment to make recordings, or are you more digitally-focused?

Brandon Graham: Actually, we do it both ways and embrace both technologies. Recording has definitely gotten more streamlined with digital technology and I think there’s a huge advantage to using things like ProTools. But the first record we did with Nomad Eel, So Long, Yesterday, was a hybrid of the two.

The three of us recorded the basic rhythm tracks live to a tape machine, and that was dumped into ProTools, where we did the overdubs on top of that. A lot of our favorite music is from the 60s and 70s, and those periods where it was all analog. There are certain sounds from that time that we try to use as a hybrid with modern technology.

Shane Graham: As Brandon mentioned, we recorded the first album on tape and dumped it into ProTools, but on this new record we’re working on, we still like to use things that emulate analog, such as tape saturations and tape delays, so a sound like that can be achieved either analog or digitally. That’s the end result we’re looking for. We love things like micing amps rather than just going straight through interface, but we’ll do a little of everything.

HMS: I’ve heard that you can emulate analog really well with digital, but only at the highest level of budget and expenditure. So, it’s kind of up to bands to figure out what works best for them and what’s possible for them.

Brandon: It goes the other way, too, because in order to go to a really nice studio that has all analog, it’s also extremely expensive. To get a reel of two-inch tape alone costs three hundred dollars. Analog equipment also has to be repaired constantly, so the cost is understandable. But digital has gotten so good at this point, you can get something that sounds good out of it. I think you could get some mid-level from digital more easily than you could on analog gear.

When I first started as a songwriter, one of the first things I got for Christmas was a Tascam 4-track recorder. I started recording on that, and that’s how I learned about overdubbing. But in retrospect, it’s so lo-fi, despite the charm to it. We’re going for something clearer, at least mid-fi quality at this point. There’s also something to be said, though, for being able to try all this stuff out at home if you can, because if you do go to a studio, there’s more of a time crunch.

HMS: I’ve heard that discussion a lot from bands who are on the cusp of deciding to be their own Producers on albums and are figuring that out.

Shane: Nowadays everybody can pretty much Produce professional tracks from their bedroom. I’ve been recording drums in my bedroom for this new Dream Phases record and we’ve been very happy with the result. Kevin Parker recorded Tame Impala all on his own.

Brandon: It’s not even about the most expensive equipment that you own, it’s about learning to use the tools you have. Notable Producers say stuff like that, such as Nigel Goodrich, who does Radiohead. He doesn’t care about the most expensive microphones anymore, but about capturing a sound.

Shane: Another factor in all this relates to the evolution of the music industry. We’re at a point where every artist has so much more control over every aspect of their careers that there’s the ability to wear all the different hats in a way that you were never allowed to do before.

One of my favorite bands is The Byrds, and I finished reading this massive book about them recently. They were not allowed to make any Production decisions early-on. They had no control over which version of a song was going to come out. Now we’re really fortunate in that we can do as much as we’re capable of and have a say in the outcome.

HMS: You’re reminding me of that story about The Beatles, with “The Long and Winding Road” and the dispute over whether Paul McCartney had any say in the sound of the final release.

Brandon: Phil Spector!

HMS: Yes, he added the symphonic parts.

Shane: I know he’s always hated the final version.

Brandon: Yes, you’re right. I know all about that. They handed the entire sessions to Phil Spector and he just did that. Then in the early 2000s, Paul put out “Let It Be Naked”. Which strips all that stuff out. The original thing about Let It Be is they were supposed to go back to their roots, and they recorded so many hours of material. That’s celebrating a 50^th anniversary and Peter Jackson’s making a movie about it. When they fell out and left all that material, Phil Spector went through the tapes and just did his own thing there, too. It is pretty wild.

Brandon: Ringo says that Paul had heard those versions and signed off on them, then complained later. I guess it’s in who you believe!

HMS: Wow, it’s hard to doubt Ringo. He’s usually so straightforward.

[Laughter]

Brandon: We love Ringo.

HMS: Well, the principle remains that people used to do crazy shit to other peoples’ music and probably still do. So, The Byrds, The Beatles, who else is Dream Phases obsessed with? What other musicians really draw you in?

Brandon: A couple we really agree on are Elliott Smith, who’s a really big influence, and Velvet Underground. For modern bands, we really like this one out of London called Ulrika Spacek. They are trippy, and shoegazey, and Post-Punky, but also kind of have a 90s influence, like Sonic Youth. They have three guitar players with great interlocking guitar parts.

Shane: Also Deerhunter, who have a big influence on us cumulatively. But individually, Miles Davis and John Coltrane really speak to me. When I hear “A Love Supreme”, it’s a spiritual journey all the way through. Neil Young’s a big influence on the band. It’s endless.

HMS: If you hear something from these bands that you want to emulate, how do you figure out how to do it?

Brandon: One of the things we’ve been doing lately as an exercise, just for fun, is cover songs. Not just on acoustic, but making a recording of the song, which forces us to learn it inside and out. To break that down further, we’re thinking about how a musician plays, the kinds of sounds they are using, their arrangements they are working with. I nerd out on it and deconstruct it just for fun. For me, that doesn’t take any of the magic away either, it just makes it more magical.

Shane: I’ve been doing a ton of recording and mixing throughout quarantine and I feel like my ears are getting more dialed in. I’m able to separate out sounds and also see how they blend together more. So I hear a sound and I try to replicate it, whether it’s a drum sound or bass sound. We just start experimenting to come up with a sound that inspires us.

Brandon: Yes, inspiration is the main thing. It’s an inspiration that might spur a new idea.

HMS: How do you feel about the themes of the songs you’re currently working on for a new album in comparison to the themes of the songs on So Long, Yesterday? Do you feel like you see a difference in terms of direction in terms of the songs themselves?

Brandon: I write most of the lyrics and that part of it is definitely an evolution forward. The first two albums were pretty much dealing with the closing of one chapter of my life. With So Long, Yesterday, it was about letting one chapter of my life go and opening up to new things. I would say the older stuff is very, very personal, writing about relationships and that sort of thing.

The newer stuff is a little more outward-looking rather than being self-reflective and that’s a big change. I’m trying to tell stories more with the new songs and make up characters. Another big influence on me are The Kinks, who wrote all these cool character studies. I’ve also been reading a ton during quarantine, absorbing different stories. It’s not necessarily traditional storytelling like in Folk or Country, but it’s a little more about observable things.

HMS: So, you’re moving away from the first-person perspective of “I” toward more of a third-person or narrator’s perspective?

Brandon: Yes, exactly. I’m not always starting off with, “I feel this.”, but instead with, “What would that person feel? What would that be like?” The single that we have coming out on our 7” has two stories about two different female characters. Those are really character stories, though one is about a relationship between two people.

I even wrote something that’s kind of about the environment for the new record. There are definitely a couple of relationship songs, though, I can’t ditch them altogether. The writing is broader overall, I’d say.

HMS: Is one of those “Helen Highway”?

Brandon: Yes, and the other is called “Tandy”. Those are on the 7”. It’s coming out from a 45-only label called Hypnotic Bridge. We’re excited because that kind of points us in a new direction.

HMS: 45s are a whole other realm of justifiable obsession!

Brandon: Totally. We tried to do whatever justice we could to this format, trying to make a classic A side and B side. We go to a lot of vinyl nights where our friends are DJs, so my question was: What’s going to work for us? And what can I imagine those DJs spinning and people dancing and having fun? That was the intention behind the sound of the songs.

HMS: How did the current pandemic situation, especially in California, affect working on the new record?

Brandon: Well, we’ve gotten as much done as usually would in two or three years combined because we have the time. Not only with this band, but I work a lot as a touring musician with other bands, and Shane plays with some others, too. There’s just not always the time at home. A silver lining for me is that I have been able to write a lot, which is a fulfilling thing.

HMS: I’ve heard plenty of people say it’s a double-edged thing because all their plans have been cancelled, and the financial support of touring isn’t there, however, they’ve been able to write music they wouldn’t have managed to get to for two more years otherwise.

What does it do for you guys working with small, indie records labels vs. doing your own thing? Also, I’m wondering what part Bandcamp plays in your life?

Brandon: The first part of this, being on smaller labels, I think it’s a major advantage. It’s going to be different for everybody, but with the ones we work with, they take an enormous financial burden off of our shoulders, even when it comes down to the manufacturing. I’ve worked at a record store for a long time, and I’m still a big physical media collector. It’s not just vinyl. I still collect DVDs and CDs. I love building out my library.

That’s a big part of it, for us, having a goal to put out music not just digitally, but also on CD or vinyl. We have all those things that a label provides for us. We don’t really make much money off of stuff. For us, we make the most from merch sales when we play shows, and that’s how we sustain things. We don’t have shows right now, but we do have merch.

When it comes to streaming and Bandcamp, some people make money off of them and do well, but, honestly, we don’t make much money off of that. We do get some sales on Bandcamp. Those Friday sales have been really cool. They also have revenue shares that help. Bandcamp is, in a sense, also about the model of giving away your music for free. But I use it to listen to other peoples’ music as well. I think it’s a cool platform that helps people interact.

But I do think there’s a benefit to being on a label. The label, hopefully, even has other bands that you like and you get to tour together, and build relationships. It creates a community and a scene. There could still be independent labels who might screw you, but luckily the ones we’ve worked with so far have been super supportive. They do the label for the same reason that we are making music: for the passion and the drive. It’s nice to have that extra support.

Shane: It’s been a pleasure for us to be on the label of our friend Damon [Duster of Nomad Eel] and to have the physical product in our hand. It’s really rewarding to be able to share that with others. To be in the company of other friends on the label has been great. We’ve done lots of shows together. Bandcamp has been a really cool indie platform for a decade or so. You’re able to listen to songs without ads, for one thing. A lot of bands are able to use a “pay what you want” model, too, and release things that have never been physically printed. You can discover a lot of underground stuff, too.

HMS: I’ve found Bandcamp to be really useful to learn about bands and find new music. Being on an indie label, though, reminds me of being on display in a cool boutique shop rather than being in a giant mall.

Shane: It’s going to be a little more curated.

Brandon: With an indie label, you also get people who might help with art or PR, and it’s great to have a team who are passionate about what you’re doing. A lot of this self-recording is about self-motivation from you or the band, so it’s really nice to have some people around saying, “Hey, you’ve got some deadlines.” It’s very helpful.

HMS: If you know someone is actually watching and paying attention, it’s easier to bring your best.

Shane: As music fans and collectors, we’ve always loved finding out about bands and learning new things, and I think we also just want to keep building our own discography to be part of that as musicians and as a band.

HMS: That makes total sense. I can imagine it must be a great thrill to go into a record shop and see something of yours in there. It’s all very actualizing. Especially during quarantine, it could be easy to feel like you’re creating stuff, but it doesn’t really exist out in the outside world.

Brandon: Totally. And these indie labels do have the distribution to be in local record stores, and even internationally in some places, so it is nice they have those connections as well.