The Only Way Out Is Through: Streamlined DTES plays V Club 3.22

photo: LA Watson

Lexington, Ky.-based progressive rock band Dream The Electric Sleep (L-R: Chris Tackett, Matt Page, Joey Waters) will perform at The V Club Friday.

Reposted from The Huntington Herald-Dispatch

It’s been two years since Dream The Electric Sleep released its debut album, Lost and Gone Forever, for free, out of nowhere, to critical acclaim. The Lexington-based progressive rock band’s stunning 14-song concept record about the life of an eastern Kentucky coal mining family would not be easy to duplicate.

So, live, and in the studio, Matt Page, Chris Tackett and Joey Waters would move on in a new direction, continuing to see where their diverse musical influences take them.

“When we finished the first record, sometimes you just kind of know that you have something special on your hands, and you just cross your fingers and hope for the best,” bassist Chris Tackett said.

“Nobody knew who we were; we weren’t anyone. We hadn’t recorded anything and we’d never played any shows. So it was just really important for us to just get the music out there and let people hear it. We thought we’d achieved something pretty damn special.

“It’s been nice to get the good response; we’ll take it.”

After downsizing into a three-piece a few months ago, the guys in DTES were challenged with recreating live, the richly layered sound (think Pink Floyd meets Muse) found on the debut record.

“It was a definite transition,” singer-guitarist Matt Page said. “We were trying to figure out how to fill up the space, since the album that we wrote was fairly lush with keyboard parts, acoustic guitars, and harmonies.

“We sort of debated whether we wanted another guitar player, or someone that can do keyboards, but nothing really worked out. So at this point we’re a three-piece. We’re trying to work [arrangements] with samples, and applying the stuff we need to, as opposed to finding another member.

“So we worked hard at figuring out ways to sort of beef up the sound again, and I think we’ve finally got to that point. Last year was sort of us testing stuff out live while we were writing new material. But it’s kind of nice that the three of us gelled, and work together so well. We’re all pretty happy with where we’re at.”

Dream The Electric Sleep performs Friday at The V Club in Huntington with John Lancaster and Horseburner.

“Even though the three-piece, live, with the material from [Lost and Gone Forever] at certain points was maybe a little thinner than the album was obviously, because there’s not five or six guys on stage playing,” drummer Joey Waters added. “It made us a little less muddy live. So, from that standpoint it was a good thing.”

Tackett, who’d came on around the time the band was finishing the debut album, said writing as a three-piece has had its benefits.

“This record we’re getting ready to record was written as a collaboration between the three of us, as opposed to the last record, where I kind of stepped in and helped finish the album. This one, we all worked together on. So it does sound a little bit different. I wouldn’t say it’s anything drastic, but it sounds more like a real band.”

Tackett, with years of experience being in bands as diverse as Chum, The Heptanes, and Hyatari, said Dream The Electric Sleep is bringing everything together as a three-piece.

“As far as doing the three-piece thing, my role in it, like Matt mentioned, we’ve really experimented with some effects and different techniques to fill up some space, especially in trying to mimic the older songs. But the new material, I think, since it was kind of hashed out in a room with the three of us, it sounds a little more natural live.”

Page said Tackett’s sonic tendencies and sensibilities were more integral this time around, and that each member’s influences make the band what it is.

“This album, Chris’ influence and sound have really helped to shape that. Like, I don’t listen to anything like what Chris listens to, and I don’t know that Joey listens to anything that I do, so we all have our feet in different musical genres. It’s an extraordinarily exciting thing for me.”

“These guys have been really cool about letting that sort of influence leak into this band,” Tackett added. “I certainly wouldn’t say it’s taken over or anything like that, but there’s definitely some Hyatari-type elements that we employ from time to time. They’ve been really gracious with letting me express that side.

“It is a weird style, and it’s kind of like, my style, so it’s cool that they let me include that in this project. I personally think it makes for a really unique sound with Matt’s harmonies and writing. We do incorporate some of that Hyatari-type slower, doomy, dissonant stuff, and it works!”

Waters seconded Tackett’s increasing influence in DTES.

“I’ve always played with a really aggressive style, but I’ve never enjoyed playing metal, per se. I like listening to it, and that’s mainly what I’m listening to right now. Chris let me fill in on drums for Hyatari, and that was one of the coolest shows I’ve ever played. So he’s definitely been an influence on me as far as getting back into heavy music again.

“In Dream The Electric Sleep I hit as hard as I want, and really get the demons out. At the same time, I’m able to play that aggressive style but be in a band that’s more accessible to a wider audience. Matt and Chris are good at reining it in and making it sound like Dream The Electric Sleep.”

“Joey and Chris have kind of melded together,” Page said matter-of-factly, describing the rhythm section.

Page said it’s the experimentation and openness that makes DTES what it is.

“It’s really fun to work with two other musicians of high caliber that are also willing to take somebody more like me, who’s going to be more like a singer-songwriter, and put Hyatari riffs and thundering drums behind it, and come up with a sound that’s surprising to me. That’s why it’s so exciting.

Looking ahead to recording 11 new songs and 80 or so minutes worth of material with Jay Groves at Sneak Attack in Lexington, Page said he hopes the recording will be as much of a natural, creative process as the songwriting.

“I’m hoping that comes across when we start recording the album, that this is a step forward, sonically. I want to make sure we capture that as opposed to us setting up a bunch of microphones and crossing our fingers and hoping we get the sound we want.

“I’d rather go into a studio and work with a professional and get that sound, then take those tracks and kind of sculpt them outside of the studio session, in our rehearsal space, and start experimenting with amps, guitars, keyboards and vocals, all that.

“So I think that’s the process, at least at this point,” the singer and guitarist said. “To be honest, the recording process for us isn’t going to be recording something that’s already finished. It’s going to be us creating as we record.”

The guys said they’re looking forward to playing RosFest, a big prog rock festival held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in May.

“It’s a pretty big deal for us,” Page said. “People from all over the world fly in for this festival and they’re super stoked to be there, and they’re music aficionados, and they already knew about us, which was also weird to have people know who you are but you’ve never played for them before.

“These people-- the fans, the organizers, have been extremely supportive; they want us there. So I think it’s going to be a really positive experience for us.”

Page said 2013 is shaping up to be a good year for Dream The Electric Sleep.

“We’re playing shows, we’re playing new material, we’ve got the festival coming up, which is a really big deal, and we’re gonna be in the studio trying to finish an album.

“It’s gonna be a crazy six months I think.”


IF YOU GO:

Dream The Electric Sleep, John Lancaster, Horseburner

WHERE: The V Club, 741 6th Ave., Huntington
WHEN: 10 p.m., Friday, March 22
COST: $5
INFO: http://www.vclublive.com/, (304) 781-0680
ONLINE: http://www.dreamtheelectricsleep.com/

DTES w/Sly Roosevelt T.A.N.D. show 2.23 @ the V Club

Every so often, a Facebook status update comes along that, deep down, you know sounds too good to be true.

This was exactly the case late last night when we noticed (via their ReverbNation page) that the Lexington, Kentucky-based prog rock band Dream The Electric Sleep was playing at TBA in Charleston tomorrow, Thursday, February 23rd!

It was weird because we knew they were scheduled to play the V Club that night for a This Ain't No Disco show with our friends in Sly Roosevelt.

We knew this because we'd saved Jimbo Valentine's most awesome flyer to our desktop to remind us of the show daily. Maybe there was some scheduling snafu, and DTES was coming to Charleston, making it entirely possible that we could make it to said TBA venue, see the band, and then maybe camp out at the Transit Mall or something.

You know what they about stuff that sounds too good to be true. Just as we expected, after confirming it with bassist Chris Tackett, something silly happened deep inside of ReverbNation, and it confused Charleston for Huntington.

But make no mistake dear readers, just as you've come to expect subpar coverage here, Charleston's loss is Huntington's gain Thursday night. Dream The Electric Sleep and Sly Roosevelt have each been working on new stuff, and we'll look forward to hearing that when it is ready. DTES singer-guitarist Matt Page has dutifully and descriptively been keeping fans abreast of the writing and demo process on their site, even after the band released Acoustics and B-Sides, but the blog is something very cool to see if you're a big fan of the band.

And even though, in our heart of hearts, we knew that DTES wasn't coming to Charleston, we know this show Thursday in Huntington should be killer.

Top 10 CDs of 2011

It’s always a fun challenge putting together the WVRockscene Top 10 CDs at the end of the year. But in 2011, it definitely wasn’t easy.

From the many EPs that came out, to rock solid releases and stellar concept records, 2011 was packed with great music from local (and regional) bands. Since we started doing this thing here in 2008, there has not been a better year to be following West Virginia bands.

Just as a quick introduction to the hard fast rules and metrics to selecting the illustrious WVRockscene Top 10: there are no hard fast rules. Basically it’s how much I like the songs + production value divided by the number of songs. Many bands put out great EPs this year, but more songs = more chance of something being a “great record” or something like that.

And production -- having help in the studio is always a plus. But then there’s killer garage/punk rock stuff and more lo-fi type recordings that, as long as the songs rock, might come in ahead of overproduced type stuff. ‘Nuff said there.

One big thing I’ve noticed with this year’s batch of releases is the almost gravitational pull of great regional releases into the West Virginia rock scene.

Some Morgantown area dudes might move to Pittsburgh, and still either play shows here or have some stamp or influence on “the scene” or whatever. Then there’s nearby cities, like, say, Athens, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky. But, as long as a particular band, be it from Pittsburgh, Lexington, or Athens, plays a few West Virginia shows in a year, in addition to having state residents or natives in the band, they should be included in the top 10, right? I think so.

Another thing that’s been entirely promising to witness is bands getting their music out on bandcamp sites. There were all kinds of cool EPs that came out in 2011. Up in Morgantown, Brian Spragg’s bands (Pat Pat/Single Dads) released four EPs, two apiece from each respective unit, this, in addition to his work as an engineer, helping other cool bands record. It’s a challenge just to keep up with all the music being released, and I personally would rather hear short EPs once or twice a year than wait two years for a band to get a full-length out.

And again, this is more a “my own favorite releases” top 10. Some listeners and fans might disagree and that’s cool. More than a competition, this is more a celebration of the great bands that got their music out this year.

So without further ado...



10. Sasha Colette and the Magnolias: Leave It Alone

The young Eastern Kentucky songstress brought her Magnolias into Bud Carroll’s Trackside Studio, had him join in on guitar and pedal steel, and walked out with eight songs worth of rockin’, bluesy folk and Americana. Longtime fans of Colette’s sweet, soulful voice, catchy, alternately poetic and lovelorn bar ballads were rightfully stoked to get this back around April, and likely weren’t let down.

Although only eight songs, with standout tracks like “Sacrifice,” “Rock of Ages,” “Victory,” and the most awesome “Mercy Moment,” evoking a Janis Joplin-Led Zeppelin combination with Carroll on guitar, Leave It Alone rightfully takes its place in the top 10, and Colette fans can look forward to the follow-up in January of 2012.

Related: Sasha Colette can’t ‘Leave It Alone’ (Feb. Gazette article)




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9. Prison Book Club (self-titled)

Prison Book Club is a band that never got the memo that said side projects are to be relegated to second-tier status. And this is saying something considering that The Fox Hunt’s John Miller and The Demon Beat’s Adam Meisterhans and Tucker Riggleman, with Andrew Ford on drums and Morgantown’s Billy Matheny sitting in on this sophomore effort, continue to make fans by steady touring of their own.

With a more southern rock and alt-country flavor than what you’ll hear from The Fox Hunt or The Demon Beat, on this 10-song August release, with Miller’s instantly recognizable country tough voice, still sharing the singing and songwriting with Riggleman and with Meisterhans’ guitar (and studio) work, Prison Book Club both expanded their own sound and continued to prove that side bands don’t always suck.

Standout tracks: “Do As I Say,” “Too Much Livin’,” “Six Pack,” “Sons of Heaven,” “Coming Down”

Related: Dave Mistich’s live PBC review from June, and his review of the new Prison Book Club CD from Graffiti Magazine



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8. J. Marinelli: Stone-Age Kicks Vol. 3

If you missed the first two volumes of the Morgantown native’s (not always) angry one-man band’s cover series, you can jump right in and fall in love with his own versions of the Ramones’ “Judy Is a Punk,” Guided by Voices’ “The Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory,” and my own favorite, “And Then He Kissed Me.”

Just as the Ramones covered so many songs and made them their own, Marinelli, on the Stone Age Kicks series, takes his favorites, puts his own sonic stamp on them and simultaneously turns his fans onto bands they might not have been into. Two of my favorite songs on the release, “Virginia Plain” (Roxy Music) and “Flying Pizza” (Swearing at Motorists) are good examples of this for me.

As Marinelli has followed up on 2007’s Keep It Fake and last year’s most awesome Pre-Emptive Skankery Sessions, he’s broadened his own sonic palette from caveman guitar and maximum stomp and swing with banjo, stripped down vocals and just a softer side overall, still keeping things weird. It’s been ages it seems since I bought his Pity the Party EP at Budget, and I’d like to think Marinelli fans can look forward to his own version of The Emergency’s “I’m Not Angry” on volume four.

Is it wrong to have a CD of cover songs in the top 10? If it’s wrong, then I don’t wanna be right.



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7. Rozwell Kid: The Rozwell Kid LP

I can honestly say here that if you liked Jude Universer’s 2009 release Lingering Blue, you’ll love Jordan Hudkins’ now renamed project Rozwell Kid. The Demon Beat’s drummer again steps out to front his own rock band, and this time, with The Demon Beat’s Adam Meisterhans providing lead guitar parts, The Rozwell Kid LP takes you back to your own personal Weezer-Rentals hybrid band.

It really is 1994-ever on this 10-song (complete with a totally 90’s hidden track) effort of raw, catchy, almost always hilarious power pop slacker anthems. And remember: if it’s too loud, turn it down.

Standout tracks: “Rocket,” “Dylan, Don’t Do It,” “My Saturn,” “‘93 Connie & Ronnie,” “Ace Ventura Pt. 3”



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6. AC30 (self-titled)

Two years in the making, one Monday at a time, this Huntington power-pop super group met at Bud Carroll’s Trackside Studio, and this September released their 10-song debut, the result of all that work, to awaiting fans.

What was originally a studio project slowly congealed into a live band, as Carroll joined forces with Ian Thornton and Ryan Weaver and welcomed drummer Alex McCoy and guitarist Doug Woodard into the band. Sharing the singing and songwriting on songs like Weaver’s “I’m Free,” Carroll’s “Miss Misery,” and Thornton’s “Sure To Win,” AC30 proved that the best things come to those who wait.

Related: Hanging out and jamming with friends became a regular thing for AC30 (July Herald-Dispatch article), AC30 gets CD release party, columnist’s full attention (Sept. H-D article by Dave Lavender)



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5. FOX Japan: Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!

The fourth studio release from the brothers Wilmoth and Andrew Slater (“Slater-Wilmoth”) is at once more welcoming, appealing and catchy as a follow-up to last year’s Reenactment, almost making that great record seem almost lo-fi compared to the rich, near-orchestral arrangements on this 12-song November release.

Singer-guitarist Charlie Wilmoth’s irreverent, insightful lyrics, on subjects ranging from the personal/religious to the cultural/political, (just take the first three songs, “Casual Sex,” “On Christmas,” and “Not My Car,” the subtly disguised title track, as fine examples) make FOX Japan one of my favorite bands. Think Talking Heads-meets-The Pixies and you’re kind of close. Released just in time for Christmas, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! has the warm feel of something you’d rock out for the holiday season. Or, any season.

Standout tracks: “Casual Sex,” “Above This City,” “On Christmas,” “Not My Car”



Related: WVRockscene Q&A w/Charlie Wilmoth of FOX Japan

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4. The Demon Beat: Bullshit Walks

The fifth release in as many years from these three Shepherdstown dudes is arguably their best. Following up on last year’s eight-“movement” concept record 1956 with 10 songs worth of soulful, bluesy, badass garage rock, incorporating some of the more retro tones from the most recent release, (with all appropriate fuzz and feedback) Adam Meisterhans, Tucker Riggleman and Jordan Hudkins continue to embody not only rock and roll like it used to be, evoking something like The Who (Meisterhans nails Townshend’s windmill guitar live) and The Stooges but embrace a totally DIY aesthetic as well.

Recorded by Meisterhans, released on Riggleman’s Big Bullet Records label and on vinyl in conjunction with Caustic Eye, with artwork again provided by Hudkins, Bullshit Walks only builds on and adds to the band’s impressive discography, and further cements the band as West Virginia’s hardest workers and hardest rockin’ as they are even now in the studio recording new stuff. Total rock stars that don’t seem to give a shit about being rock stars or where they end up on end-of-the-year top 10 type blog posts.

Standout tracks: “Give Me All Your Money,” “Get It,” “Bang,” “Totally Blissed Out,” “I’m Not Really There”





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3. Southeast Engine: Canary

Calling Canary, the fourth Misra Records release from the Athens, Ohio-based folk rock four-piece Southeast Engine “rustic” is close, but almost a disservice. Singer-guitarist Adam Remnant, with brother Jesse on bass, drummer Leo DeLuca and oh-by-the-way Morgantown’s Billy Matheny on piano and organ, capture the feel and paint a picture of life in Depression-era Appalachia over 11 “rustic” yet rockin’ songs.

Songs like “Cold Front Blues,” “1933 (The Great Depression),” and the beautiful “Adeline of the Appalachian Mountains” and Canary as a whole remind me of Wilco’s Being There in that it’s deliberately roots-oriented, mainly acoustic-based with great melodies, but not at all minimalist, and is a great concept record to boot without some contrived feel. One of the best records I heard all year.

Related: Southeast Engine w/Todd Burge on Mountain Stage 11.24



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2. The Phantom Six: Plastic Rain

Since one band (AC30) in the top 10 is named after a Vox amplifier, it’s fitting that The Phantom Six takes its name from a 60’s-era Vox guitar. Formerly known as Moon, Mark Poole’s Morgantown-based power pop five-piece starts fresh on this 13-song effort that, if nothing else, helps them make a new name for themselves.

With Poole joined by talented musicians and songwriters like Billy Sheeder, Woody O’ Hara and Clint Sutton, not to mention Billy Matheny, making this, his third appearance on a band’s CD in this year’s top 10, playing bass and providing sweet vocal harmonies, Poole’s songs stand out as evoking something like Matthew Sweet jamming in some awesome garage band with British Invasion nods here and there, singing mainly songs about love. Poole, describing The Phantom Six’s musical output in one interview as “catchy songs that rock pretty hard,” sums it up best for those unfamiliar with the band.

Not only has Poole been fronting various incarnations of Moon for over twenty years, Poole no doubt helped steer The Phantom Six through his own Zone 8 Studios. As great as the richly arranged songs are, and they’re all pretty much standout tracks, the production captures an energy and a raw feel that helps make Plastic Rain arguably the best record of the year from a West Virginia rock band.

Related: CD review: “Plastic Rain”

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1. Dream The Electric Sleep: Lost and Gone Forever

They say the best things in life are free, and such was the case in March when I was clued into the free download that Lexington, Kentucky’s Dream the Electric Sleep had made available.

Some bands are around for years and years, and don’t come up with such a coherent vision for a concept record. That DTES did this as their debut effort, only a year after singer-guitarist Matt Page and drummer Joey Waters welcomed Huntington native Chris Tackett (Chum/Hyatari) into the band is even more impressive.

To say that Lost and Gone Forever though, is epic, is almost an understatement.

Lost and Gone Forever is as much a story as it is a record. Told in three acts, Page weaves the split narrative of Clementine and Jack, an Eastern Kentucky coal miner into and over 14 songs worth of vast, stunning sonic landscapes that may bring comparisons to something like Pink Floyd, only heavier, with nods to Radiohead and Muse.



As the story, recalled originally by Clementine on her deathbed, unfolds from young love, marriage and hope into a desire to leave the danger and hard life of the coalfields, the fear of the unknown, of leaving Appalachia, and evolves into Jack’s untimely death in a mining accident, it seems on its face plainly a heart wrenching, well told tragedy. Listen to it repeatedly, even if you’re not from Appalachia and don’t know any coal miners, and you’ll find it’s really a treasure.

With samples from the documentary Harlan County, USA sprinkled throughout, through the story of Jack and Clementine, with album art that masterfully captures the very real world that Page and DTES have pulled out and shown to listeners, few concept records are so deftly woven together into such a complete, beautiful picture; sonically, lyrically, visually, and emotionally.

Reviewing CDs at the end of each year, sometimes you can catch yourself liking the more recent releases. When it became clear after hearing Lost and Gone Forever for the first time back in March or April, the scope of what Dream the Electric Sleep had done, I knew it wasn’t likely just going to be number one on my list, it was one of the best records I had ever heard.

It’s appropriate that they gave away something so sublime for free.



Related: Drama, tragedy, love, life and death: Dream the Electric Sleep brings new concept record to V Club Saturday (4.8.11 DTES H-D article), Q&A w/Matt Page of DTES “Lost and Gone Forever” dissected aptly at danteprog.com

Q&A w/Matt Page of Dream the Electric Sleep

We were stoked to see that the Lexington, Kentucky-based prog rock band Dream the Electric Sleep had recently uploaded a three-part series on their debut record Lost and Gone Forever to YouTube. Singer-guitarist Matt Page (above) talks in-depth about the music and coal mining love story behind each of the fourteen songs on the concept record.

So, as excited as we were to revisit the songs with Page, and as much as we love the record, we thought it appropriate to catch up with Page over email to see what’s up with the band these days, and where they’re going after Lost and Gone Forever...


WVRockscene: The reviews are in for Lost and Gone Forever, and the phrase “critically acclaimed” comes to mind, with praise from outlets like The Big Takeover, how great is it for the debut album to have been so warmly received?

Matt Page: I never really thought it would have been so highly praised... it was a shock... I think when we were writing the album, listening to demos, and throughout the recording process, we kept saying to each other “I think this might be something special,” but most of the time I think we would fall back on “maybe we’re just too close to it.” The first couple of great reviews we thought, “well at least there are a few people that really get it,” but then they just kept coming. That’s when I think we knew the album had legs.

I honestly think the album has something in there that we had not planned, something that can’t be accounted for, beyond our abilities. It’s like the album is actually smarter than all of us in the band, and is actually still teaching us. I am not sure if any of that makes sense, but it certainly feels like part of the success of the album came from some place we all don’t really understand... the culmination of all these random things coalescing into one piece of work... it was so much fun to be a part of!

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WVRockscene: You’ve had a few shows over the summer, how have those gone? Won over many new DTES fans live and in person? What kind of shortcuts do you have to make just playing live, trying to give people the scope of the record in its totality just playing a few songs? I mean you don’t exactly have time to play the entire record beginning to end, right?

Page: Honestly, the live shows have been the hardest part. This work needs to be thought of like theatre, and you can’t do theatre in a bar with a 40 minute set. We have learned a lot about what we want the live shows to do, and at this point, we know the theatrical nature of it, and thus the narrative will never really come through. We have to hope that the few songs we play intrigue a few listeners enough to want to dig into the content. I think in some ways, we have to expand our notion of a band. To conceive of what we are trying to do as fitting in the confines of a band is a limiting way for us to go about doing this, and we are constantly questioning what the scope of this project is. We have made a few fans from live shows, but the vast majority of our success is coming from our online presence, and mostly from Europe.



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WVRockscene: You’ve recently been reworking a few songs into acoustic songs, what songs have you been working on, is it a direction you think the band will take up more moving forward and what is up with a DTES EP with an “unreleased” track coming out any time soon?

Page: I told [bassist] Chris [Tackett] and [drummer] Joey [Waters] that I wanted to take these songs into non-rock venues to try and find more people who might be interested in the content of the album. I thought some acoustic versions would be appropriate. When we wrote these songs, I always approached them as songs that could be simplified, so this was my chance to actually test my theory. I decided to take “The Joneses,” “Hold Steady Hands,” and “Roots and Fear,” and rework them for this purpose, and then decided it would be fun to record them and offer them as a companion EP.

As for the unreleased track, it was the only song we decided not to include on the album. It was actually the last song on the album, and was meant to be a sort of moral-tale ending. At this point on the album, it ends with Clementine holding Jack’s body after he is pulled from the mine. The unreleased track would be sung in a narrator’s voice so to speak. The song didn’t get included for a couple reasons, first was that it was agreed that it was more powerful and poignant to end with Clementine and Jack, second, it would have forced the album to be a double album, which we decided we didn’t want, and third, it is the most stylistically different in that it is actually our version of a bluegrass tune.

It will be perfect on an acoustic EP, and is cool to know everyone will hear the alternate ending to the album now. This should be released in the next 4-6 weeks.



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WVRockscene: You haven’t even been a band very long; what’s changed as far as chemistry or approach to songwriting? More comfortable as a unit?

Page: Trevor [Wilmott], our guitar player recently left the band. He lives three hours away, and is working on his undergraduate degree. It was just too hard for him to fully engage the project. We miss his input dearly, and he really wanted to stay with us, but it was just too much for him, and he was never able to be here for writing and rehearsals. After he mixed and mastered the album, which he did brilliantly, he had to step down. So now we are a three-piece.

As far as writing goes, I can already tell our chemistry is stronger and tighter. Chris and Joey and I are all very different stylistically, but at the same time, we are very open to allowing disparate sounds to come together and challenge our sense of self and vision. I might come in with something that sounds like Elton John, Joey will throw in some thunderous Bonham beat, and Chris might throw in the a percussive rhythm. In my head, that’s not what I had in mind, but that’s why I play with these guys... because I want the surprise and the challenge, and in the end it always sounds fresh to my ears... it’s like I know I would be bored if just wrote it the way I heard it, and what’s even better is that Chris and Joey feel the same way... We are all chomping at the bit to get back to writing, and in fact already have some new material that sounds really interesting…

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WVRockscene: So Chris and Joey approached you with the idea about doing this three-part mini-doc on the songs and the concept behind the album, right? Who filmed it, where, and what was your initial response to the idea?

Page: I was totally into the idea when they approached me. I just want people to have whatever it takes to get lost in the narrative, and if these videos help some people do that, I am very happy. Content is king. That’s my motto right now. The music has to be good, but the content is king for us. Music that carries narrative like this is more difficult than film, so having supplements like these videos makes it easier I think to find your footing.

It was filmed in an old farmhouse my wife and I are renovating. It was built in 1790, and in part, was the imaginary place where the album took place. I know no one would know that, but it’s just another way to tie my life into the narrative of the album. I shot it with my wife’s help, who is also an artist, and then gave the footage to Chris to edit.



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WVRockscene: In each part you talk in depth about arranging the songs, the split concepts of Clementine and Jack’s personal perspective on life with coal mining, displaying a very real depth and maturity in the songwriting, telling what is still a timeless story of these people’s lives, placing it in an Appalachian culture. Throughout you seem at ease talking about all this, all the themes inside a very real, cyclical concept record. When and/or if you’ve been told how special this record is by people who may or may not have friends or family members who work in the mines, how does that affect you and how important is it to know that you’ve touched people with the story of Clementine and Jack on Lost and Gone Forever?

Page: I have been told by some family members who were coal miners that this album really captured something for them, and we have had people from all over write us and tell us how moved they were, and some said they even cried... I was pretty floored by that. To really move someone that much is unreal. Again, it’s been so gratifying hearing from so many people about the way the album has affected them. I guess the album was real for me, and it becomes real for others. That’s what I wanted though, to share in these emotions with other people. I want there to be a give and take with our listeners. I am writing this music in hopes that it adds to your emotional life, and in return, that process adds to my emotional life, to be heard and understood by strangers from all over the world... it’s life affirming.



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WVRockscene: There are no shortage of bands that make a great record and may not reach that same level with subsequent recordings. Aside from any changes or directions the DTES sound may take (acoustic, etc.) do you continue to see your inspiration coming from or being rooted in Appalachia? So much of what makes Lost and Gone Forever a great record is the dual narrative, coal mining love story embedded inside it. Do you feel pressure to make another concept record or just what themes might fans expect the next DTES record to explore, if you even know yet? You had so much personally involved with this, with the passing of your grandparents, we can almost expect something different, right?

Page: Different for sure. I am not going to try and top this, or repeat it. I will leave Appalachia for a while conceptually, and focus in on other content sources. Lost and Gone is a project that I am very proud of. After writing music and making art for over 20 years, it’s the first project that I can say surpassed my creative expectations. I had a professor tell me once, a good piece of art is always smarter than its creator… it has a life of its own. As I said earlier, this work is definitely smarter than me, and has its own life to live without me now. As for what’s next, or what to look forward to... I can tell you this, from this band/project, you can always expect an in-depth record. I am really interested in seeing how music might work for a vehicle for history, myth, narrative, and social investigations.

Our music will always be about exploring content in depth. I want to know about the world that I live in, and one way to investigate and engage the world is through art. Art helps us reflect and better understand where we are coming from, and where we are going... it’s a conversation meant to be engaged, and I plan on using music to engage it. I think that’s part of what makes Lost and Gone interesting, it engages the world and its histories and myths in a interesting way, so regardless of what the content for the next album is, you can be assured it will be immersed in questions about the world around us, and hopefully offer new ways of thinking about it through music.



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WVRockscene: Regardless of whether or not DTES even ever makes another record, Lost and Gone Forever really can stand alone as a very real achievement. How proud are you of what you, Trevor, Chris and Joey accomplished with just one record?

Page: I can say that it has been a great honor working with Chris, Joey, and Trevor. They are talented and creative beyond words. That has been gratifying enough, but to have had our creative collisions produce something like Lost and Gone means that for the rest of my life I have a work that I can be proud of. I think it’s pretty clear that to produce an album like this is not going to sky rocket one to fame and fortune, and with that being said, its should be clear that we are not letting those distractions get in the way of our vision.

We put out a record we all believed in for no other reason than to satisfy our creative and emotional desires. Of course one always hopes those ambitions are met by some friendly ears who also understand those desires. I know there is a small contingent of people in the world that want to share in music that engages content in a thought provoking way, and we plan on continuing that effort well into the future.




Related -- CD Review: Lost and Gone Forever; Drama, tragedy, love, life and death: Dream the Electric Sleep brings new concept record to V Club Saturday (Huntington Herald-Dispatch article)

photo: Ashley Watson

Drama, tragedy, love, life and death: Dream the Electric Sleep brings new concept record to V Club Saturday

The Lexington, Kentucky-based four-piece Dream the Electric Sleep brings their debut CD “Lost and Gone Forever” to Huntington Saturday for a show at the V Club

Reposted from the Huntington Herald-Dispatch


“Why can’t music deal with drama and tragedy at length?”

This was the question Matt Page asked himself as he embarked on writing Dream the Electric Sleep’s debut concept record, “Lost and Gone Forever,” two years ago.

“I wanted to see music as something greater than entertainment,” the singer-guitarist said.

The fourteen-song, 76-minute long prog rock opus, broken up into three parts and told quite beautifully (and heart wrenchingly) from the perspective of an Eastern Kentucky miner and his wife, was recently made available as a free download by the Lexington-based four piece.

Dream the Electric Sleep (Page; Trevor Willmott: guitar; Chris Tackett: bass; Joey Waters: drums) plays the V Club this Saturday with Suede Brothers and John Lancaster.

This is more conceptual art than a collection of randomly arranged songs. From the album’s art through the interweaving narrative of the husband and wife on the songs, as they journal their hardscrabble travails in life, love and death, to the samples of Harlan County, USA interspersed throughout, “Lost and Gone Forever” is itself a story.

Page talked about how seeing the 1976 documentary Harlan County, USA, that, and his family’s own history in the coal industry, influenced him to tell the story of Jack and Clementine, the narrators on the record.

“I wanted to take on coal and see if I could not promote or demonize it, but unravel the dense complexities of energy consumption and production within the lived lives of a small Appalachian town, to recognize the real lives bound up in this issue, and to not let binaries oversimplify the issue.

“In many ways, it was also a portrait of my wife and I, struggling to make ends meet, feeling trapped, and unable to wiggle out of difficult situations in our own lives.”

Page said the concept of “Lost and Gone Forever” largely grew out of the death of his maternal grandparents, who then became the influence for writing from the perspective of Clementine and Jack.

“This album was loosely based on my grandmother and grandfather,” Page said. “While writing this album, both of them passed away. I was there with them in their last moments. I began writing what I had just experienced, seeing them on their deathbeds, a lifetime of stories passing on with them. All I could imagine was that somehow they were able to leave records of their lives with the spirits there to gather them, that somehow reciting all they had done, all they had loved, was a rite of passage into the beyond.

“For me, this album became a necessary way of understanding what was lost with my grandparents, but like many works of art, sometimes their inspiration is not revealed until the work is complete.”

Drummer Joey Waters, himself with family in the mines, said he thinks if people pick up on the themes explored and the story told by Page on the record, it will blow up like so much dynamite.

“My uncle Roger was a career miner in Virginia,” Waters said. “He is long since retired, but is dealing with the health hazards of his profession on a daily basis. I have spoken with him and my aunt about some of the themes that Matt has brought to life on the record. Hearing their firsthand accounts of that lifestyle made the album have an even greater impact on me.

“I think that if a listener was to pick up on the heavy themes of the story that Matt has created, the album will absolutely have a greater impact.”



There’s also the visual concept to the band’s music. While it’s hard to pin down one genre to plug DTES into (the band sounds like Queensryche’s singer joined a heavier version of Pink Floyd) the band plays in the dark on stage, silhouetted only by a choreographed light show, which Tackett runs live through a Midi pedal.

Tackett explained that adding to the visual experience of the live show was something he’s wanted to do forever, whether it was in Chum, Hyatari, or now, in Dream the Electric Sleep.

“DTES talked about adding some visual elements to the live show, but we couldn’t quite put our finger on it,” Tackett explained. “Then I saw the band M83 at the Wexner Center in Columbus. I really liked the way the theater lighting looked. I bought some LED wash lights and starting thinking about what we could do with them. I talked to the guys about possibly playing in silhouette, and the idea just grew from there.”

Between the lighting, the synthesizers and the samples, Dream the Electric Sleep, a long-time studio band, does a good job bringing their big sound and expansive vision to the live show, Page said.

“All in all, we manage pretty well,” Page said, with one important drawback. “Unfortunately, most live shows, we have to play fewer songs because of time constraints, which disrupts the sense of narrative. But we figure if someone likes what they hear, they might actually download or buy the album and dig into the narrative.”

Digging into the past to better appreciate the present manifested itself in another way for Page.

“I actually decided to learn the banjo for this album. I wanted a way to really connect with a certain heritage that, despite living in Lexington my whole life, had never taken on with any interest seriously. I think losing my grandparents, and that sense of needing to keep some memory alive, drove the sound towards a bluegrass aesthetic.”

Maybe the most important listeners are the ones waiting on the CDs to get in.

“My family hasn’t heard it,” Page said. “They’re waiting for the CDs to come in. I think it will mean a lot to my mom though, knowing that her parents, my grandparents, are part of this project that lives on. I really wanted to write a drama, something that dealt with real life and real people.

“This project has barely seen the light of day, and I really hope it has a chance to live on.”

Want to go?
Dream the Electric Sleep, John Lancaster, Suede Brothers
Where: The V Club, 741 6th Ave., Huntington (304) 781-0680
When: Saturday, April 9, 9 p.m.
Cost: $7
Info: http://www.dreamtheelectricsleep.com/

CD Review: "Lost and Gone Forever"

CD: Lost and Gone Forever
ARTIST: Dream the Electric Sleep

You know how they say if you squeeze a piece of coal hard enough it turns into a diamond? Well, Matt Page and Dream the Electric Sleep, the Lexington, Kentucky-based prog rock four-piece, have done just that on Lost and Gone Forever, their recently released debut concept record about life as an Eastern Kentucky coal miner.

Fourteen songs, 76 minutes, played out in three acts and told from the perspective of a husband and wife, this is one great record.

Evoking something like a heavier sounding Pink Floyd with the singer from Queensryche, with an experimental, synth-flavored sample-based bent ((Ambient noises and samples ranging from air alert sirens to railroad crossing bells used as percussive accompaniment on a song!)), the entire vision -- from the lyrics describing the trials of an Appalachian miner, the wife who waits on him and worries about him, to song samples and excerpts from Harlan County, USA, down to the cover art for the record (done by Page and bassist Chris Tackett) -- is tied together quite beautifully and coherently on the debut effort.

The entire concept of the record is summed up in the first part of the title track, which opens the record:

“Speak of what you know
The hills and of coal
And love, lost and gone forever”

This is to say nothing about the very rich instrumentation, driving arrangements (maybe most notably “The Joneses” and “Sundown”) thrown in with the Pink Floyd nods (“Canary”), beautiful chord progressions, bridges kicked out into jams, and Page’s emotive, almost faux-European singing and vocal range (this guy can belt it out) underneath angelic vocal harmonies.

You might think that bands these days don’t have the vision to pull a concept record off -- much less a GREAT concept record. The DTES sound is symphonic hard rock with enough of an Appalachian roots sound (banjo, acoustic guitar) to anchor the goosebump-inducing epicness of the songs.

You can hear Tackett’s influence on the sound on “The Joneses,” as the song breaks down into guttural Hyatari-like organ-backed doom. The LFO/noise jam on “Feel My Way,” taken with the ambitious vision and sound of “Echoes Chasing Echoes” -- somber acoustic and banjo, haunting e-bow sound and blasting cap drums found on the opening title track -- put DTES’ more experimental side and sound on display.

The entire record is one big standout track, but the heart of the order, the Appalachian anthem “Roots and Fear,” “Stay on the Line” and “Hold Steady Hands” hold Act II together quite nicely. Page sings on the latter:

“Hold my affection
Hold steady hands
Take these seeds
and plant them
And grow them again”

As the songs play out and the record reaches its climax by the time you get to the stellar “This Is This,” (our personal favorite) and the final song, their adaptation of “Que Sera Sera,” “What Will Be,” you realize the end, in this case death, is sort of a beginning, and, fading out, the entire record neatly folds back in on itself, and you can begin anew listening to the whole thing all over again with the opening title track.



Calling this CD a diamond in the rough only plays on the very hard coal miner life described so vividly by Page. This is a diamond with very smooth edges, two years in the making, it’s a quite thoroughly polished finished product and requires only those listen to it as a record to get the full picture.

Lost and Gone Forever is indeed the crown jewel of releases so far this year from local and regional rock bands that we’ve come across; it’s really sublime, a true masterpiece of a record.

--- Dream the Electric Sleep will release Lost and Gone Forever Saturday, April 9 at the V Club with Suede Brothers and John Lancaster