| Dreamend — Dreamend (April 6th, 2018) |
Dreamend — Dreamend (April 6th, 2018) 
♠♣♠ “And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave” is Part 2 to “So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite,” which came out in August of 2010. Part 1 is the true story of a normal man’s unraveling psyche and his grisly misdeeds. Years ago, I bought one of the real life serial killer’s journals at an auction in the woods. I was so moved by his seeming mediocrity, that I had to write about him. Part 1 covers a fairly large span of time in his life — childhood to his thirties. Part 2 takes place after his initial taste for blood and accurately ends with his death.
♠♣♠ A million things have changed in my life since I recorded Part 1: I’ve changed cities, lost a ton of stock in a flood, am involved in a lawsuit with my former distro, opened a record store and lost someone incredibly close to me. In the move from Chicago to Savannah, the moving company I hired to haul my things not only charged me several thousand dollars more than my quote, but when the stuff finally arrived (3 weeks later than promised) a great deal of it was destroyed. My cello neck was snapped in half, my banjo was butchered, my expensive bell set was somehow obliterated, my organ’s insides were ripped to shreds, my main vocal mic was broken, not to mention all the damage they did to my non~musical possessions.
♠♣♠ I was scheduled to record Part 2 in December, but I was unsure how to proceed. Since the main instrumentation was in shambles, I was forced to change my outlook on the album~making process. I recorded only using things mangled in the move. I felt that would parallel the storyline quite nicely. The result is a great deal of out of tune, broken and raw emotional sounds. You can hear these instruments dying with each note. Most of the percussion on the record is done by me bashing my anxiety pill bottles onto the floor or table. Oftentimes they are not even in beat. For the three weeks I recorded this album, I was at an all time low. This is some real downer music, but looking back, it was quite fun to make.
♠♣♠ Like Part 1, the LP version of “And the Tears Washed Over Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave” is presented like a phenakistoscope, a classic Victorian animation machine. If you thought picture discs and colored vinyl were cool (both mediums you Graveface aficionados will know a lot about), wait until you get a load of William Schaff's painstaking, brilliantly delivered design. It’s truly a remarkable accomplishment in the annals of the Album as Artform, which is a hallmark of Graveface Records.
Location: Savannah, Georgia
Genre: Post rock, Shoegaze
Album release: April 6th, 2018
Record Label: Graveface Records & Curiosities
Duration:
Tracks:
01. Introduction 4:01
02. Falling 4:17
03. In tune we rest 4:40
04. A year and a day 5:16
05. P.D.M. 5:28
06. Inside the head of a monster (featuring The Casket Girls) 3:43
07. Halfway between you and me 4:07
08. Remember the first time 2:50
09. In my heart 4:40
10. To see this moment 6:18
Members:
♠♣♠ Ryan Manon
Credits:
♠♣♠ Amazing artwork by Chloe Pinnock
♠♣♠ All music and some voice by Ryan Graveface
♠♣♠ All percussion by TW Walsh
♠♣♠ Additional vocals by The Casket Girls and Alexandra Morte
♠♣♠ Mastering by Collin Jordan
♠♣♠ Mostly recorded in the Mary Cogswell Preservation Society in Savannah GA
♠♣♠ For over a decade and a half, Ryan Graveface has been at the center of the Savannah, Georgia label Graveface Records. In addition to putting out efforts from The Appleseed Cast, Xiu Xiu, Mount Eerie, Serengeti, and others, Graveface himself has released music as part of Black Moth Super Rainbow, Casket Girls, and The Marshmallow Ghosts. Now he’s set to revive yet another project that’s been dormant for six years, as his solo Dreamend project release the new self titled album.
♠♣♠ But a lot has changed for Graveface since Dreamend’s 2012 LP And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave, and it’s completely altered the way he makes music. A rare medical condition is causing his hearing to slowly deteriorate, meaning there are certain tones he simply no longer registers. In order to account for this on the new record, Graveface used a composition technique that actually leaves the songs “incomplete” with “just enough notes to trick the ear into thinking it’s a complete song.” As a press release explains, “The listener is responsible for filling in the gaps without being aware of it; this creates a unique experience for each listener, as we each fill these spaces differently based on our individual senses and various musical backgrounds.”
♠♣♠ Each song on the 10~track collection started as a loop which often ended up out of time with the rest of the track. Helping Graveface build up around those repeating lines were vocalists Alexandra Morte (Night School), and Phaedra and Elsa Green (Casket Girls). Pedro the Lion’s TW Walsh provided percussion, while Graveface himself handled every other piece of music.
♠♣♠ The result of all this — the hearing loss, the looping, the collaborators — is Dreamend’s most experimental effort to date. The first record under the name that doesn’t center on a concept, it swirls through post~rock and shoegaze, even finding space for some of the project’s folkier inclinations (“In Tune We Rest”, “In My Heart”).
♠♣♠ For more insight into how this latest album came together and where the songs originated, Graveface has provided a Track by Track breakdown of the entire thing.
“Introduction”:
♠♣♠ I think coming from the classical music world has made it so my brain requires hearing intros, interludes and conclusions. So if you go back through the history of Dreamend you’ll see a bunch of instrumentals at the beginning, middle and end. Historically I write quite a bit of material each year (although that hasn’t been the case since my retail storefront has started to do better) and I’ll just pluck my favorite sounding instrumental bits for these. This being no exception.
“Falling”:
♠♣♠ been carrying this song around for a long time. I originally wrote it to be on the second Casket Girls full length but the girls didn’t connect with it (it was instrumental at the time). I struggled with the perfect vocal hook and like it generally does, it hit me whilst I was taking a five~mile walk in Savannah. Glad this one ended up being a Dreamend tune.
“In Tune We Rest”:
♠♣♠ This is one that I sent to Lexy (of Night School, formerly of Whirr) as soon as I finished it. I could hear her voice on it immediately. She came through with a great vocal melody. Most of the tunes on this album lyrically seem to be about love lost, longing or obsession. Basically the same as every other Dreamend record (although there’s no murder songs on this one). The only difference being this is the first Dreamend record that has no story to it — this was intentional. Felt I had beat that concept to death.
“A Year and a Day”:
♠♣♠ One of the weirder tunes on the record. If you haven’t noticed by now, almost every song either begins or ends with a loop that I created. This was intentional. Some are more bizarre than others. Quite frankly I don’t know how Lexy wrote such a good vocal melody over it since there’s virtually nothing there. Super minimalist approach to songwriting for me. Loop 1 fades out around two minutes which is where Loop 2 begins. TW Walsh’s drums on this song seal the deal for me. He was kind enough to play on the entire record and it helped tremendously.
“P.D.M.”:
♠♣♠ An instrumental tune I wrote whilst thinking about [John Wayne] Gacy’s old company. Or really focusing on the fact that he was also a small business owner (strange thought, I know). My fascination with this thought is really in wondering about his day to day. Was he struggling with urges that most normal people don’t deal with and 9 times out of 10 being successful and focused on his work? Did he celebrate tiny successes within the company? I’ve owned a small business since 2002 and haven’t held an outside job since 2007 so I think that’s what drives these thoughts. ♠♣♠ Again, I know it’s weird to focus on the small biz aspect of a serial killer, but I can’t help but ponder it.
“Inside the Head of a Monster”:
♠♣♠ This is a tune I wrote for the Casket Girls third album but didn’t make it on. Felt too much like a Dreamend song (and here we are). The girls wrote the lyrics so I can’t speak to their meaning. Pretty happy we decided to just make it a Dreamend tune honestly. My favorite part is the distorted high slide guitar part in the second verse.
“Halfway Between You and Me”:
♠♣♠ Yet another song that made me think of Lexy’s voice immediately. I feel her voice and writing style is completely underrated (read: more people need to know she exists — go listen to Night School ASAP). I wrote this one when I was composing for the 2016 Marshmallow Ghosts release but couldn’t come up with a Marshmallow Ghost~y chorus to go with the verse structure (which felt very Ghost’y to me). Went back to the drawing board and came up with a more Dreamend vibe in the chorus, hit up Lexy and BAM, it’s in your ear hole.
“Remember the First Time”:
♠♣♠ Autoharp is the main instrument. My autoharp was destroyed when I moved to Savannah because of neglectful movers so it can’t stay in tune now (which I felt worked nicely for the song). Really like the middle part of the song. It’s all broken instruments except for the drums. If you listen to my last Dreamend LP, And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave, that’s when I started recording exclusively with broken shit. It’s an odd choice in reality but does help add to the desperate vibe I tend to be going for with the project. ♠♣♠ https://consequenceofsound.net/
Bandcamp: https://graveface.bandcamp.com/album/s~t~2
Label: http://www.graveface.com/
Discography:
♠ Dreamend (CD/LP, 2018)
♠ And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave (CD/LP, 2012)
♠ So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite (CD/LP, 2010)
♠ The Long Forgotten Friend (CD/2xLP, 2008)
♠ Maybe We’re Making God Sad and Lonely (CD, 2005)
♠ As If by Ghosts (CD, 2004)
♠ Preface (Split CD with Monster Movie, 2002)
♠ Stigmata Boy (CDEP)
♠ Dreamend (CDEP)
♠ The Sickening Pang of Hope Deferred (CD)
♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠
| Dreamend — Dreamend (April 6th, 2018) |
♠♣♠ A million things have changed in my life since I recorded Part 1: I’ve changed cities, lost a ton of stock in a flood, am involved in a lawsuit with my former distro, opened a record store and lost someone incredibly close to me. In the move from Chicago to Savannah, the moving company I hired to haul my things not only charged me several thousand dollars more than my quote, but when the stuff finally arrived (3 weeks later than promised) a great deal of it was destroyed. My cello neck was snapped in half, my banjo was butchered, my expensive bell set was somehow obliterated, my organ’s insides were ripped to shreds, my main vocal mic was broken, not to mention all the damage they did to my non~musical possessions.
♠♣♠ I was scheduled to record Part 2 in December, but I was unsure how to proceed. Since the main instrumentation was in shambles, I was forced to change my outlook on the album~making process. I recorded only using things mangled in the move. I felt that would parallel the storyline quite nicely. The result is a great deal of out of tune, broken and raw emotional sounds. You can hear these instruments dying with each note. Most of the percussion on the record is done by me bashing my anxiety pill bottles onto the floor or table. Oftentimes they are not even in beat. For the three weeks I recorded this album, I was at an all time low. This is some real downer music, but looking back, it was quite fun to make.
♠♣♠ Like Part 1, the LP version of “And the Tears Washed Over Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave” is presented like a phenakistoscope, a classic Victorian animation machine. If you thought picture discs and colored vinyl were cool (both mediums you Graveface aficionados will know a lot about), wait until you get a load of William Schaff's painstaking, brilliantly delivered design. It’s truly a remarkable accomplishment in the annals of the Album as Artform, which is a hallmark of Graveface Records.
Location: Savannah, Georgia
Genre: Post rock, Shoegaze
Album release: April 6th, 2018
Record Label: Graveface Records & Curiosities
Duration:
Tracks:
01. Introduction 4:01
02. Falling 4:17
03. In tune we rest 4:40
04. A year and a day 5:16
05. P.D.M. 5:28
06. Inside the head of a monster (featuring The Casket Girls) 3:43
07. Halfway between you and me 4:07
08. Remember the first time 2:50
09. In my heart 4:40
10. To see this moment 6:18
Members:
♠♣♠ Ryan Manon
Credits:
♠♣♠ Amazing artwork by Chloe Pinnock
♠♣♠ All music and some voice by Ryan Graveface
♠♣♠ All percussion by TW Walsh
♠♣♠ Additional vocals by The Casket Girls and Alexandra Morte
♠♣♠ Mastering by Collin Jordan
♠♣♠ Mostly recorded in the Mary Cogswell Preservation Society in Savannah GA
♠♣♠ For over a decade and a half, Ryan Graveface has been at the center of the Savannah, Georgia label Graveface Records. In addition to putting out efforts from The Appleseed Cast, Xiu Xiu, Mount Eerie, Serengeti, and others, Graveface himself has released music as part of Black Moth Super Rainbow, Casket Girls, and The Marshmallow Ghosts. Now he’s set to revive yet another project that’s been dormant for six years, as his solo Dreamend project release the new self titled album.
♠♣♠ But a lot has changed for Graveface since Dreamend’s 2012 LP And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave, and it’s completely altered the way he makes music. A rare medical condition is causing his hearing to slowly deteriorate, meaning there are certain tones he simply no longer registers. In order to account for this on the new record, Graveface used a composition technique that actually leaves the songs “incomplete” with “just enough notes to trick the ear into thinking it’s a complete song.” As a press release explains, “The listener is responsible for filling in the gaps without being aware of it; this creates a unique experience for each listener, as we each fill these spaces differently based on our individual senses and various musical backgrounds.”
♠♣♠ Each song on the 10~track collection started as a loop which often ended up out of time with the rest of the track. Helping Graveface build up around those repeating lines were vocalists Alexandra Morte (Night School), and Phaedra and Elsa Green (Casket Girls). Pedro the Lion’s TW Walsh provided percussion, while Graveface himself handled every other piece of music.
♠♣♠ The result of all this — the hearing loss, the looping, the collaborators — is Dreamend’s most experimental effort to date. The first record under the name that doesn’t center on a concept, it swirls through post~rock and shoegaze, even finding space for some of the project’s folkier inclinations (“In Tune We Rest”, “In My Heart”).
♠♣♠ For more insight into how this latest album came together and where the songs originated, Graveface has provided a Track by Track breakdown of the entire thing.
“Introduction”:
♠♣♠ I think coming from the classical music world has made it so my brain requires hearing intros, interludes and conclusions. So if you go back through the history of Dreamend you’ll see a bunch of instrumentals at the beginning, middle and end. Historically I write quite a bit of material each year (although that hasn’t been the case since my retail storefront has started to do better) and I’ll just pluck my favorite sounding instrumental bits for these. This being no exception.
“Falling”:
♠♣♠ been carrying this song around for a long time. I originally wrote it to be on the second Casket Girls full length but the girls didn’t connect with it (it was instrumental at the time). I struggled with the perfect vocal hook and like it generally does, it hit me whilst I was taking a five~mile walk in Savannah. Glad this one ended up being a Dreamend tune.
“In Tune We Rest”:
♠♣♠ This is one that I sent to Lexy (of Night School, formerly of Whirr) as soon as I finished it. I could hear her voice on it immediately. She came through with a great vocal melody. Most of the tunes on this album lyrically seem to be about love lost, longing or obsession. Basically the same as every other Dreamend record (although there’s no murder songs on this one). The only difference being this is the first Dreamend record that has no story to it — this was intentional. Felt I had beat that concept to death.
“A Year and a Day”:
♠♣♠ One of the weirder tunes on the record. If you haven’t noticed by now, almost every song either begins or ends with a loop that I created. This was intentional. Some are more bizarre than others. Quite frankly I don’t know how Lexy wrote such a good vocal melody over it since there’s virtually nothing there. Super minimalist approach to songwriting for me. Loop 1 fades out around two minutes which is where Loop 2 begins. TW Walsh’s drums on this song seal the deal for me. He was kind enough to play on the entire record and it helped tremendously.
“P.D.M.”:
♠♣♠ An instrumental tune I wrote whilst thinking about [John Wayne] Gacy’s old company. Or really focusing on the fact that he was also a small business owner (strange thought, I know). My fascination with this thought is really in wondering about his day to day. Was he struggling with urges that most normal people don’t deal with and 9 times out of 10 being successful and focused on his work? Did he celebrate tiny successes within the company? I’ve owned a small business since 2002 and haven’t held an outside job since 2007 so I think that’s what drives these thoughts. ♠♣♠ Again, I know it’s weird to focus on the small biz aspect of a serial killer, but I can’t help but ponder it.
“Inside the Head of a Monster”:
♠♣♠ This is a tune I wrote for the Casket Girls third album but didn’t make it on. Felt too much like a Dreamend song (and here we are). The girls wrote the lyrics so I can’t speak to their meaning. Pretty happy we decided to just make it a Dreamend tune honestly. My favorite part is the distorted high slide guitar part in the second verse.
“Halfway Between You and Me”:
♠♣♠ Yet another song that made me think of Lexy’s voice immediately. I feel her voice and writing style is completely underrated (read: more people need to know she exists — go listen to Night School ASAP). I wrote this one when I was composing for the 2016 Marshmallow Ghosts release but couldn’t come up with a Marshmallow Ghost~y chorus to go with the verse structure (which felt very Ghost’y to me). Went back to the drawing board and came up with a more Dreamend vibe in the chorus, hit up Lexy and BAM, it’s in your ear hole.
“Remember the First Time”:
♠♣♠ Autoharp is the main instrument. My autoharp was destroyed when I moved to Savannah because of neglectful movers so it can’t stay in tune now (which I felt worked nicely for the song). Really like the middle part of the song. It’s all broken instruments except for the drums. If you listen to my last Dreamend LP, And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave, that’s when I started recording exclusively with broken shit. It’s an odd choice in reality but does help add to the desperate vibe I tend to be going for with the project. ♠♣♠ https://consequenceofsound.net/
Bandcamp: https://graveface.bandcamp.com/album/s~t~2
Label: http://www.graveface.com/
Discography:
♠ Dreamend (CD/LP, 2018)
♠ And the Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave (CD/LP, 2012)
♠ So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite (CD/LP, 2010)
♠ The Long Forgotten Friend (CD/2xLP, 2008)
♠ Maybe We’re Making God Sad and Lonely (CD, 2005)
♠ As If by Ghosts (CD, 2004)
♠ Preface (Split CD with Monster Movie, 2002)
♠ Stigmata Boy (CDEP)
♠ Dreamend (CDEP)
♠ The Sickening Pang of Hope Deferred (CD)
♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠♣♠♠