KCOU DJ Noah Schmitz interviewed Columbia-based new wave/indie pop band Dream Squeeze on air, following the release of their new album, Behave around the Beehive, on April fourth. The band consists of keys player John Roberts, bassist Jason Garton, Josh Ray on vocals and guitar, and Dylan Lorenz on drums.

The band talked about the layout of their rehearsals, and how they keep organized. They make the most of their limited practice time.

Dylan: There’s not a lot of free time. So it’s like, you’ve got an hour, and we make the most of that hour. Like, as soon as we get there, we get cracking.

Josh: If there’s a new song, for example, I’ve usually already laid out all the tracks in GarageBand, and sometimes, I’ve sent it to them before to maybe listen to, or I bring it that day, and we listen to it. Then we can kind of know what the feel is. 

Dream Squeeze simplifies parts of their songwriting process to fit into limited practice time, but this creates new opportunities and challenges.

Josh: I try to write, like, three chord songs so that there’s not a learning curve. It’s like, we can just do this right now…I don’t know how I thought of this, but its like how poets have certain structures they’re limited to, like, if you want to write something with iambic pentameter, to keep you on a certain rhythm, you can’t leave that structure. It’s nice to say, I’m only gonna do two chords, I’m only gonna do three chords, and see what you can build into that. I like that challenge.

All of Dream Squeeze’s members came together from separate music careers, and being in the band has changed the way that each member plays.

Jason: It definitely changed the way I played. I mean, you can go through and listen to, like, our first album, second album, now our third album. And there’s been an evolution, I’ve been evolving and becoming a better bass player… you have to find where you fit into the song, you know where’s your spot.

Josh: Once we found out what we sounded good doing, you could kind of find other bands that sounded like that, even though we weren’t trying to model after them, like who else sounds like this? And then go listen to those guitars and then say, oh yeah, that’s cool. I’m gonna play it like that, you know. So you go back and learn from other people too

Dylan: Usually, Josh and I are on the same page when it comes to drums, but “Sharks,” which is on the new album, he told me how to play that, and I would have never have played it like that. I mean, that is the most basic… but it really serves the song. And now I love playing it, but I never would have come up with it

The band’s newest album, Behave around the Beehive, has been another step on the journey towards a sound that they love.

John: So there was one record before I joined the band. Then, Angst for Adults, our last record, was the first record that I had been a part of like at all. And I think I was just still figuring out how to fit into the band and how to be a keys player. I really just wanted somebody to tell me what I was supposed to play and tell me what to do. And on this record, I didn’t want that. I just wanted to do my thing and make my spaceship noises.

Josh: There’s a sound that I like, and I want to keep trying to get that sound that’s like in my head, and so maybe a lot of it doesn’t branch out far from the last album. Maybe because I’m still trying to find that sound I like. I think we did try some new things, but it’s not one of those things where all the band changed their sound completely, not like that at all. 

Jason: I would say, you know, there’s been some differences from album to album to album, but this one definitely kind of honed in on our sound, kept it Dream Squeeze, and then maybe ventured out, did some stuff a little bit harder, and then dialed it back, with a little subtleness here and there.

Josh: Yeah, we went acoustic. We hadn’t done acoustic on  a track before that. It was the “Leaving Home” track with the lead acoustic guitar. And then, when we first played “Sharks”, I remember in practice, they were like, oh, like, no one else can play. And it felt really vulnerable. I like to hide behind big synth sounds. So I just was getting the confidence to hear without that wall of sound, but on “Sharks,” everything’s way down and makes it so effective. But it took a lot to get there. 

John: One time after one of our shows, I want to say it was maybe Jared I was talking to, and he told me that the first record y’all released sounded like Treehouse, and the second record sounded like Dream Squeeze. And now I feel like the second record was like the transitional record, but this record sounds like a band called Dream Squeeze. 

Each band member brings in their own inspiration, and the band picks up pieces of their style from various influences.

Josh: So for the band sound in particular, I really love The National and Future Islands, and a lot of, like vocal phrasing I try to pick up from The National and then a lot of, like drumming techniques and synth stuff comes from Future Islands, so that hybrid of those two mostly. I grew up on oldies and The Beatles and stuff, but this is where I am now.

Jason: When we started the band, Future Islands was new to me… I didn’t know anything about them, and then became immediately obsessed with them and just loved them. And I definitely try to, not mimic, but have a similar style of bass playing to them. Growing up, I was definitely a punk rock kid. Blink 182, Alkaline Trio, that’s what I like listening to. And I do pick up little bits and pieces from that, but it’s definitely not me.

Josh: I also want to add, like, various songs have various influences. I went back and listened to the Eagles randomly, like, oh, I stole something from the Eagles… It just comes from everywhere

John: So we got asked this question recently, and I did not have an answer for it. I ended up making a joke answer that Josh is like my keyboard influence, because that’s who writes a lot of the stuff. But the more I thought about it, I think these days I try to be like Bernie Worrell, who played in Parliament-Funkadelic, and then also the Talking Heads. I play in a funk band, and a reggae band as well. And when I’m playing that stuff, it’s more like Parliament-Funkadelic, Bernie Worrell, when I’m playing with these guys, it’s more like Talking Heads Bernie Worrell.