Q&A: Dream, Ivory Take A Leap Into A New Sound With Alluring Album ‘About A Boy’
CREATING A NEW SOUND WITH UPBEAT ACHE — Dream, Ivory is ready to transcend genre. In the past, the band has had a bit of everything — shoegaze, dream pop, lo-fi, and the right amount of sadness through it all. Now, their new album, About A Boy, is a new era for the brother duo. The sound on the album is reminiscent of early 2000s pop rock and far away from their usual dream-pop sound. It’s a big leap — a confident and exciting one. And Christian and Louie Baello do it well — elements that still encapsulate ache are still present but are masked by an upbeat tempo. These elements will find you, but with no more genre associations you’ll be able to experience the album on more than just one level.
The band holds much significance to my own teenage years; I can flash back to listening to the songs on their self-titled EP, particularly “Sometimes I Wonder,” and becoming so flooded by their sound. And, of course, “welcome and goodbye” was on every playlist of mine. Nothing could compete with the aching instrumentals that completely sunk into my bones every time, and About A Boy is no different.
About A Boy’s opening track, “Soaking Up The Sickness,” starts off with a notable hint of older Dream, Ivory before bringing in stronger guitar tones and a new tempo. It still has a warm and sweet feeling lingering through the instrumentals and the vocals that feels reminiscent of their older stuff, just more present. In the following track, “Wake Up,” the song starts off with a strong instrumental introduction, as the duo explore more edgier sounds with the tempo before bringing in the significant element of the album — the shouting. With more present vocals and tone changes, the vocals have more energy in them, making the lyrics come at you harder in the best way possible.
The album is deemed to be one of their most personal as they shift from singing about a broken heart to singing about themselves, vulnerably. Not many artists can shift their sound the way Dream, Ivory has, seamlessly and feeling completely right.
Read down below for more on the album, the duo’s songwriting process, and their thoughts on gatekeeping.
LUNA: First off, how are you guys? How has the year and summer been so far?
LOUIE: It's been really good. It's been hot, so that sucks. But it's been good. We've been doing our first tour. Last year in December, we did our first show at The Roxy in LA, so that was cool. But I feel like things are moving fast. But it's definitely good.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, we finished our album so we've just been taking a break.
LUNA: Touring soon, right?
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, we got a tour in, like, a week and a half.
LUNA: Your new album, About A Boy, comes out on Sept. 30, so congratulations on that! You guys have stuck to a shoegaze dream pop sound for quite a while and have been killing it. But this upcoming album is a new sound that kind of reminds me of a lot of early 2000s nostalgia. What would you guys say motivated or inspired you to try something different for this album?
CHRISTIAN: Since our last release, songs on Spotify and stuff. Can I swear or not?
LUNA: You can. Yeah, go ahead.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, since our last songs, we've been making a lot of songs but we just haven't dropped them. So I can say it was like a natural evolution. It wasn't something that was a deliberate choice to just stray away from our old stuff.
LOUIE: Just kind of piggybacking off what you said, from the perspective of outsiders, the difference seems way more crazy because they haven't heard of… Like, what Chris said, we've been working on stuff just kind of on the side and the sound has kind of been gradually changing. So we were in high school when we started Dream, Ivory, so it's just kind of different.
LUNA: Yeah. That kind of leads into my second question: When you guys came out with your single “Amateur Night,” it still had your signature notes, such as lush guitars and a whistle feel to it. That was your last release before your singles for About A Boy and it's a big leap, a very confident one. How did you guys feel before and after doing that?
LOUIE: That song “Amateur Night”? That is crazy because I didn't think about it like that but that was the last single. I remember when we were working on that, we weren't actively writing music at the time, like, every day, but Chris just kind of made that instrumental and I was like, “Dude, we got to upload this.” This is the song that we're back [with]. He actually even did the bass on that, which I usually play bass. And after the release, it was cool because I feel, like you said, it was still kind of reminiscent of an old Dream, Ivory sound. So I feel like the fans really fucked with it and they were just kind of hyped that we're back.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah. And then after that, it's been, what, two years? Three years. And putting out “Soaking Up the Sickness,” which is our first single off About A Boy, was more exciting than anything. I wouldn't say we were really nervous about it. It was just kind of, like, “Finally we're putting something out.” People like it, but it's like what we're into right now, so I think that's kind of how we view our releases.
LUNA: Both of you live in Southern California but you guys recorded a lot of this album separately, and I know a lot of artists do that, especially with collaborations, but I don't really know how that works. What does that look like for you guys?
CHRISTIAN: Essentially, it would just be a back and forth through either discord or FaceTime and email. It would either be Louis starting an idea or I'm starting an idea. And we kind of just send stems back and forth, and stems are pretty much each single part of the song. So like the guitar part, bass part, this and that. Just like a back and forth thing. We talk frequently. We're super close as brothers, so it's essentially the same shit.
LOUIE: The thing about that, too, was even when Chris and I lived together, just because we'd like to work on our own devices and stuff… Like, let's say I was writing a baseline or whatever. And I'd have to send him the stems. I'd still do it through email, so it was pretty much the same process. It didn't feel like we were getting anything less out of it because we're just kind of so used to it anyways.
LUNA: That makes sense. Second nature.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah!
LUNA: So, I used to listen to you guys a lot in high school. It felt very personal from your end, and then eventually listening to you guys felt very personal to me. I remember listening to “Scorpion” during a breakup and I really carried that song in my heart for a while, and now I'm 22 and every time I listen to it, it brings a lot of comfort to me. It also brings a little sadness to it too. So I was just wondering, what do you guys hope your listeners take away from your music? Are there any feelings that you hope your music invokes in people?
LOUIE: I feel like that's such a good question because I feel like that was initially — at least for me personally — when I first started making music, I was like, “I want to make something that makes people feel emotional, that makes them feel all these feelings.” But I feel like nowadays it's like people have so many different experiences. Even as a writer, you have so many different experiences and different ways you can interpret the song. So I don't think we're looking for a specific emotion to invoke, but I think it's definitely cool when people can, like you said, use our songs and kind of place it in a specific time in their life and kind of resonate with it in that moment.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, I agree with what he said. Essentially, I'd say even with “Soaking Up The Sickness,” our new single, phonically it sounds happy but the baseline is kind of emotionally driving. It's always stuff like that, like underlying tones that you can interpret your own way. And definitely we're just trying to drive emotion out of people. Even our happiest songs, maybe even lyrically, might have an emotional undertone or something.
LUNA: Yeah, that's what I like about your music. It's very up to your own interpretation. Even with the instrumentals. I'm very big on instrumentals. That's what makes me sad — not the lyrics or anything. So I like that you guys do that. Moving on, what things do you guys explore in About A Boy, and how did those things come along into the album?
CHRISTIAN: It's called About A Boy because it's a very self-reflective album. It's pretty much just life experiences. I moved out of the house and Louie's been pretty much the only child at our family's house. I'm living away and we've grown up a lot since the first few songs we've written. So I just feel like we have a lot more to say about relationships and looking into experiences. Yeah, looking inwards to yourself.
LOUIE: The thing, too, is, like Chris said, there's been new experiences. But you could still take this concept About A Boy and still go back to our old music just because it's like we write super self-reflective things that don't necessarily sound like we're talking about us. Maybe it could be sounding like we're singing about another person, but then when you interpret the song like, “Wow, this could be a really super self reflective song,” like, “The singers talk about themselves,” or it could be talking about a situation — stuff like that.
LUNA: You guys have said that you were born and raised on the internet to explore new things every single day. How do you think that applies to our generation with music? Either as an artist or listener? I know you guys blew up on TikTok, and TikTok is now a new way to find music. So what are your thoughts on all that?
LOUIE: It's funny that you said [that] even from a listener perspective because I used to be guilty of… it's funny because TikTok wasn't even a thing, but I used to be guilty of finding bands and when they kind of went more commercial, I guess, and more people knew them, I felt like some type of way about it. Like, man, you weren't even there for the genesis start of it. But as an artist, I feel like that is such bullshit shit. Because it's like you can find a song and you could think it's good — you don't even have to know any of the history between the artists. No one even has to know who we are. But if they connect with it… Just first listen, then they connect with it. But I feel like that's harder to understand. It was harder for me to understand that when I wasn't making music because I was just like gatekeep-y. I know it's cringe, but that's what I was.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, especially with the internet nowadays. We grew up on the internet when the internet was different. We're all pretty much the same age. You're 22, we're 23, 24. And now the internet is even more inclusive, especially with young people. And it's just … sharing music and finding music is going to hold another level and allows people to just feel whatever emotion from our music.
LOUIE: I feel like it allows people to find themselves way easier than before because, let's say someone could have been into a certain genre, but maybe in society that's not the cool thing to listen to. But I feel like music now, it's so expressive in so many different genres. People are listening to stuff that other people don't listen to and vice versa.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, all the subgenres and stuff. That's how people are finding our old music now. No one really gave a fuck before.
LUNA: Yeah, maybe we should stop gatekeeping.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, definitely.
LUNA: So with About A Boy sounding different from your past work, we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier. You guys have mentioned before that people are either going to love it or hate it, but that the true tones of Dream, Ivory are still within them. I feel like sticking a band to a certain genre category isn't useful at all because it's limiting. You guys are artists, and artists are always going to explore beyond their scope. That's what makes you an artist. So with that being said, what sort of advice would you have for beginning musicians or artists who feel intimidated by that?
CHRISTIAN: I would like to [say to] listen to a ton of music you're not comfortable with, watch a lot of movies you're not comfortable with. Kind of open your mind and deep dive into stuff — go on some music forums, really explore stuff that will open your mind. Find your own sound. Use all of those inspirations and kind of create your own sound out of that.
LOUIE: I feel like another good tip too… Like, me and Chris were just talking about this actually the other day. Let's say you do make music and it succeeds or whatever and you're scared of you not sticking to that sound. It’s like when you're uploading music, thank God music is just on streaming. Anybody can go back to it, you know what I mean? So I don't think you should always limit yourself to that sound. Like, “Oh, I'm always going to try the best of what I think is going to get the most views and stuff.” Because when we were making Dream, Ivory music in 2016, we weren't thinking about views. We weren't even thinking about what it could be. It was just kind of like, we're just into making that music. It was fun for us, you know what I mean? So I feel like the more you keep it genuine … maybe it won't be as fast, but you'll find actual fans that actually support you, through bullshit and stuff.
CHRISTIAN: And if they don't like the new stuff, like Louie said, just go back to the old stuff. The 1975 is, like a perfect example because, dude, the last album, Notes on a Conditional Form, was like every song sounded different.
LUNA: Oh, yeah.
CHRISTIAN: You know what I mean? I don't know. And a lot of people hate the new stuff. Like the old shit. Just go back to the old shit. Artists evolve. People evolve. Not even just artists.
LUNA: Streaming is kind of cool, though. Like, you can kind of go back to nostalgia.
LOUIE: Yeah, for sure. It's cool like looking at the evolution of going back and comparing shit.
LUNA: Yeah. I also really like the whole exploration of the uncomfortable kind of thing that you guys are saying because I read that you started off with making rap music or you guys were into doing rap music, but somehow ended up doing shoegaze stuff. How did that come about?
LOUIE: We were doing rap stuff. We were also doing song covers. So I guess that is more related to our music. We were covering Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber and shit like that on YouTube. But I feel like it's just because Chris and I were just always into different genres when we made music. It wasn't that necessarily, like, at that time we were only into that. It was just like, we like this type of music, let's try and make it. But we listen to a lot of just diverse things. So whenever we tap into another project, it could be completely unrelated to something that we're actually doing.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, we still got a rap project.
LUNA: Is it released?
CHRISTIAN: It is, but it's out there somewhere.
LUNA: Okay so, moving on. Just a fun little question. I like asking this because I think it tells a lot. You guys are stranded on an island. What three records would you have to take with you?
LOUIE: Oh, that's so easy. I would probably take the White Album from The Beatles, which is funny because I feel like a lot of Beatles fans don't like that album, but it's a good album. And then I'd probably take Cruel Summer by Kanye West, which is like a collective thing. It's pretty diverse. It's not just Kanye West. And I'd probably take some more modern things just to see how it ages on the island. Like, probably like some Playboi Carti, Whole Lotta Red.
CHRISTIAN: I was literally going to say, just to see how it ages throughout desolation and shit. Yeah, you need some lit shit. I was going to take The 1975 self- titled, Depression Cherry by Beach House and Whole Lotta Red.
LUNA: It's like one is more nostalgic and the other one is more fun. So, last question, wrapping it up. Aside from the new album, what are you guys up to for the rest of the year? Anything else to look forward to from you guys? Is there anything you guys are looking forward to next year?
LOUIE: We just had the tour and it actually got cut short because the band that we were opening for us, Girlpool, just broke up. So we have that. But I'm actually kind of hyped to just have the rest of the year. I'm ready for Christmas and, like, spending time with family and stuff. Next year nothing is official yet but we're supposed to do like way more towards next year. We're going to be on the road way more.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, we'll do an album tour. We'll probably do like a spontaneous LA park day for the album release and just have whoever wants to come. That would be cool. We got our discord going up. We go live on Twitch every Tuesday, pretty much. It's pretty relaxed for the time being.
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