HEAVY talks to Marcel Gadacz, vocalist for Melbourne nu-metalcore band Dream On Dreamer about self producing their latest album, Loveless.
Former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Óscar Arias Sánchez once exclaimed that: “The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves.” Whilst the aforementioned quotation’s relevancy toward any topic of humanity is more than respected and even highly praised, its application to the art of music speaks in volumes practically above comprehension. Melbourne’s Dream On Dreamer undertook a much larger responsibility with the recording of Loveless, the all-important sophomore record. Rather than seeking assistance from a high profile producer, the band embarked on a journey to self-produce the record, free from any outsider influence and felt the unavoidable pressure to deliver a record that they would be proud of and their long committed fans would adore.
Vocalist Marcel Gadacz explains, “From the start it was always a viable option to do this album ourselves. We did have time booked with a producer early on and we had some others in mind we wanted to approach and actually did, it did look like it was all going to go ahead at one point, but we decided because there are five people in this band, if we fly to USA, that’s probably around $12,000 alone without considering accommodation and living expenses while remembering we have an album budget to consider here. Instead of that we wanted to put that kind of money into production so we can be proud of that stuff ourselves, take our time and make it the best we can personally and be really proud of something we created without a producer. I wouldn’t have changed it a thing now, I have no regrets.”
Marcel continues “It was a really awesome experience actually; it taught us a lot of things. It made us actually want this more if that makes sense? Don’t get me wrong it was a lot more work, but Callan (Orr, guitarist) and his brother Kevin (co-writer) who have been there from day one, recording, writing, mixing and mastering, they definitely have the experience to undertake this project. It was challenging, we didn’t want to put out a record that was less-satisfying than our old stuff, we wanted to step it up and we had that control in our hands. If we did a bad job that would have only reflected badly on only us. There was a lot of pressure, but an awesome experience all the same. We had more time to iron things out, pull the songs apart, sometimes up to 100 times and I think we were able to achieve our best.”
Sometimes actions do speak louder than words and in the case of Loveless, this is a superior record compared to their debut full-length album Heartbound. Musically the quintet has certainly enhanced their nu-metalcore formula with more ambience and effects attributed to the members of the outfit and their growth as musicians. However, the new colleague in Zachary Britt showcasing his role as a rhythm guitarist and clean vocalist heightened DOD’s chemistry to levels not before experienced.
“Everything has improved a lot, the writing musically on every release we have done has been by Callan and by me lyrically. Nothing really changed from that this time around, our previous members never really had that much of a song-writing role anyways, so their departure didn’t have any impact on the situation. What it did alter was the sound we created afterwards, obviously our new clean singer and guitarist Zach (Britt) has a different voice to what Michael (McLeod) had, that was something changed our melodies and sound in the end, it would have been different if we still had Michael. But we all really clicked together, especially vocally, Zach and I relate well together, we are always on the same page and I don’t think it’s something we had before.”
Before conclusions are drawn that this is no longer the same Dream On Dreamer who found fans worldwide partially thanks to a new defunct partnership with USA indie label powerhouse Rise Records, followers need not to worry. The lyrics are as emotional and sincere as ever and DOD version two is only developed and enriched their genuine recipe of heavy music.
“It’s just me spilling my heart out with my lyrics, it’s what goes on inside me, and I put it on paper. It has always been that way, but with Loveless I think this is the most personal I have ever written lyrically. We want our fans to relate personally to us, we don’t want to sing about bullshit, we want to sing about truth, we want to sing about fact, about our experiences and opinions; we want to share that with the world. I think that’s why people relate to us so well and so often, the best thing about our jobs as an artist or musician is not money, it’s finding out we have helped someone. That’s exactly what we have tried to achieve since day one and I think from album to album we will only dive further into that idea. We let people in and that’s how we relate to our fans, it’s all real, people know what I am saying and it’s incredibly rewarding.”
Check out the video for Dream On Dreamer’s single The World In Front of Me off the album, Loveless.
