Q&A with the Dreamscapes Project

Can you share with our readers a little about how the Dreamscapes Project came to be?

Keith Center (Frontman,vocals and guitar): In a word, collage. It started with Jeremy and I meeting in college. He was a music major and I was a theater major, I asked him to be in my band, he said no. After quite a bit of musical coercing, a pack of cigarettes and a handful of magic beans, he finally changed his mind. After that the other definition of collage kicked in. We pasted together musicians from bands we had played with and who were fans of the band. I think in the end the unique style of music we play really drew the musicians who wanted to play it. Eric Sanford (Percussion): I am the most recent member to join (albeit four years ago), so I can only talk about what drew me to this band. I had been in a couple of other established bands in the area. What drew me to the Dreamscapes Project was their uniqueness of style. There is an unbelievable amount of room to explore new things with this band.

The "Twelve Days Project" is a unique idea during which the Dreamscapes Project will release one exclusive new music track for free during each month over the course of the year. Please share with our readers a little more about the project and what you hope to accomplish.

Keith Center: The music industry has been turned on its ear the last few years. The old guard is on its way out and everyone is scrambling to figure out how the industry will work in the future. We have always been willing to do things differently musically, this was just our opportunity to let that carry over into how we released that music. We released our last album on a national level and were blessed enough to get a lot of great response from it. With this release we wanted to focus more on the region which got us there, the DC area. We realized in the process we could really shine a spotlight on so many of the other artists, writers, film makers, and musicians from the area who deserve the exposure. This area is so culturally rich and rarely gets the attention it deserved. The icing on it all has been being able to involve all the charities and give back to community in that way as well. In the end I hope that this release ends up not just being another release, but more of a community event. This month we released our first single “Fragile’ as a free download. We also collaborated with award-winning visual artist Amanda Fultz, experimental film maker Sky Adams, creative writer Lyla Dabbe, and industrial/goth artist, DJ Cosmo. The charity for January is N Street Village, a non-profit organization which helps homeless and low-income women in the DC area. All the details are on www.twelvedaysproject.org

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The band has a number of shows planned, what should someone attending a live performance expect?

Keith Center: Oh lord, WE barely know what to expect from show to show! When it comes to having a good show, we are all in this together. We just get up there and try to have an incredible time and hope that everyone joins us on the journey. Sometimes its silly, sometimes its intense, but we hope that its always memorable. Ben Guy (Cello, Backup Vocals): Expect to have a good time, and expect us to have a good time. That’s what we do.  We go to a performance expecting to have a good time on stage, and off. We want the people who have come out to see us to do the same.  We don’t plan out what we are going to do or say. We just live in the moment and do what comes naturally. That’s what makes every show different. The songs we play for one show, will be different from the next. Our dialogue between the band, and the audience is not a script.  It’s based on whats going on now, or something that happened earlier in the day, or that might happen later.  If we saw or did something fun or funny on the way to the show, or the day before, that we think is worth sharing we will share it. I guess to sum it up, just come out and expect to have a good time with other people expecting the same thing.

You have a dynamic sound showcased by some fan favorites like Food for Thought and Still Love--these songs showcase a variety of instrumentation and depth in the lyrics. What was the spark of inspiration for these songs and how did you strike the right balance within each?

Keith Center: ‘Still Love’ grew from my roots in theater. I have heard so many songs which use the Romeo and Juliet metaphor, that it has become a cliche. The thing is that most of them focus on the intensity of their love, not their morbid fate. ‘Still Love’ explores if the former exists without the latter. ‘Food for Thought’ on the other hand was lashing out about the sinking feeling that music needs to be more and more dumbed down to be widely excepted. We tried to surround these lyrics sonically with an arrangement which would appeal to the main stream radio listener, almost out of irony. When I started playing acoustic guitar, I was so disappointed that every acoustic song seemed to have to be sweet and sappy. I felt like acoustic instruments had so much more breadth than that, and these songs are such a fun exploration of some of the other emotions that they can express. Eric Sanford (Percussion): We all come from different musical backgrounds, so we have a lot of influences to pull from. Even when pulling from all of those styles, we do a good job of being true to the meaning or emotion behind the song. That might actually be the thing that I am most proud of. I feel like there is an artistic purpose to what we do.

Where would you like to see yourselves in 5 years from now, musically, personally, or otherwise?

Keith Center: We will be throwing a huge bash celebrating our 5th anniversary of being written up on District of Sound. Hopefully you can make it. Take a quick spin with the Dreamscapes Project and find your own dream soundtrack.