If you’re feeling down about the effects of the current once-in-a-century health scare on your work and creative exploits, spare a thought for Melbourne metalcore veterans Dream on Dreamer.
The Victorians were gearing up to release their farewell album What If I Told You It Doesn’t Get Better before heading out on a huge final tour to wrap their celebrated career. Those final shows ended up going on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but unlike the title of the LP suggests, things will definitely get better from here.
“We’re trained to believe that something is going to be negative, but I believe that you can look at everything from two different sides. You can take what you want from it by listening to this record. It’s very emotional, but also very beautiful”, says frontman Marcel Gadacz, speaking to us from isolation in Melbourne ahead of the LP’s release.
“It’s not necessarily that depressing because there’s a double meaning there. You’re always gonna leave the party when things are at their best.”
Despite the crisis situation in the world around them, things are very much in focus for the band, with Marcel noting that they intend to keep things short and sharp when the time for the shows does roll around.
“With this farewell tour, our songs that are recorded will always live on – you can listen to them whenever you want. So with that in mind we are trying to showcase everything again because we’ve had that eleven year career”, he says.
“ We wanted to have an exit plan. How did we want it to end, what could we give to people for us to still leave something behind without just disappearing…”
“We don’t want to just play new songs, because that’s not who we were – we’re just going to pick the strongest stuff that people have connected with and condense that into an hour or so to really showcase what it is that we’ve done.”
Dream on Dreamer have been a mainstay of the Aussie metalcore circuit for years, often finding themselves on bills with the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, We Came As Romans and Pierce the Veil.
With more Australian acts than ever touting a similar brand of metalcore, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was never a better time to be throwing out breakdowns and clean choruses to the masses. However, as Marcel reminds us, sometimes things need to move on as life changes.
“We’ve played with the idea of ending for about two years. We wanted to have an exit plan. How did we want it to end, what could we give to people for us to still leave something behind without just disappearing…” says Marcel of the decision to call it quits, citing a “bunch of reasons” for making the final call.
“We feel like we can now be allowed to embrace ourselves individually maybe a bit more than beforehand, which is a really positive thing for us.”
“We’ve learnt that normal life presents all kinds of challenges, we’re all older, priorities change, as with anyone,” he notes. “We all developed our own tastes – but we still agree on most things – it was more individually we can look into other areas of our lives that we can have the space to be more passionate about….We feel like we can now be allowed to embrace ourselves individually maybe a bit more than beforehand, which is a really positive thing for us.”
Marcel is keen to note that the end of the band had nothing to do with the decision to call time, pointing out that as far as performing goes, things have never been better. “To me there was a massive change in the way of me delivering my voice. At the start, I wasn’t able to perform and sing the things that I wanted to. My ability has grown ten-fold since back then”, he reflects.
“I’m really happy that I’ve been able to grow as a human – I firmly believe that if you feel good at something, then that’s the time that you should really push it and try to further develop yourself.”
“Since maybe six years ago I feel like I now have the confidence to really express myself in that way – personally I’m really happy that I was given the chance to showcase something else.”
It might be awhile before we get to see Dream on Dreamer perform one last time – but that’s all the more time to familiarise ourselves with what is sure to be a huge final statement with their forthcoming LP. Learn those pit calls and start stretching for those rescheduled dates.
What If I Told You It Doesn’t Get Better is out on April 10.
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