HEYDREAMER ANNOUNCES DANCES IN WONDERLAND
Indie band’s first full-length release produced by Collective Soul’s Will
Turpin at legendary Real 2 Reel studios in Jonesboro, Ga.
Available for streaming and download on all digital retail providers via Distrokid
Atlanta, GA – You can’t keep a good band down.
And Atlanta band HeyDreamer wouldn’t let a pandemic stop their dreams of releasing new music during these troubled times. They persevered and created Dances in Wonderland, a ten-song selection that chronicles the ups and downs of the musicians who tried to create art in a world that needs it more than ever. “This work is a reflection on surviving a crippling pandemic as an artist,” said HeyDreamer’s Melody Kiser, the band’s principal songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. “We started about a month before COVID-19 hit. So while our timing was awful, our perseverance cannot be denied.”
No, it can’t.
HeyDreamer’s perseverance, versatility, eclecticism, musicality and appeal shine through on each of Dances In Wonderland’s tracks, which is produced by Will Turpin, co-founder of Collective Soul and a member of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Dances In Wonderland is due out on March 4, 2022 across all digital platforms and in select independent record stores. Pre-orders will be available everywhere starting February 4, 2022 and can be accessed HERE. The album’s first music video, “Untamed”
“My plate is full with Collective Soul, my own solo career and about 100 concerts a year, but HeyDreamer is so talented that I wanted to not only share them with the world but produce them,” said Turpin, who is also a co-owner of Real 2 Reel Studios in Jonesboro, Ga., where the album was written, recorded and produced. “This is the kind of music I like, and these are the types of artists I like working with. HeyDreamer is legit.”
As a teenager cutting her teeth in the dark, seedy clubs of the Atlanta music scene, Kiser realized two undoubtable truths: everyone has a story, and she was destined to tell these stories through music. Through her formative years (she received an Epiphone Les Paul for her ninth birthday), Kiser developed an intensifying passion for creating music that made people feel something and expressed an attitude, but she needed a group of incredible musicians to support her powerhouse vocal qualities and electric guitar skills. When bandmates Dustin Williams (bass) and Dylan Hansen (drummer) entered the picture, circa 2019, the musical circle was closed.
Kiser said there was instant chemistry between the three players; a musical shorthand they developed in rehearsal and live shows. That was due to the fact that all three were reared on classic and alternative rock music, memorizing song catalogs of the Beatles,Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin and yes, even Collective Soul, which Kiser says was a big influence.
It was by sheer coincidence that Kiser heard about Real 2 Reel Studios, who liked their work when they mastered their first release. She then met Turpin, and he liked what he heard. He signed Kiser to a development deal, and they got to work. “Will really taught me how to work on arrangements and take a less is more approach,” Kiser said. “He believes the song should be more valuable than the production. Everything he did methodical and intentional. Everything is well thought out.”
Kiser, Williams and Hansen started work on Dances In Wonderland in February 2020. The songs were being road tested in clubs, arrangements were being finalized and recording dates were about to be selected when the pandemic struck…then mayhem ensued. Tours and gigs were canceled, a former band member left the group and moved away, a six-song EP (If You’re Out
There) was released without live support, and songs were scrapped, replaced by new ones that were more reflective of what HeyDreamer were going through as artists.
“You can’t go through something like that and not write about. The world had experienced something truly dystopian, and at times I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole having to mask and glove up everywhere I went,” Kiser said. “This is essentially a journal of my experience during the pandemic. The songs reflect this really weird and hard time period. Some are happy. Some are angry. Some are depressing. Some are ironic. But you’re going to feel something.” Kiser also warns Dances In Wonderland is not a depressing work by any means and that HeyDreamer came out the other side of the musical journey, better, stronger, and tighter.
“At the core of our signature sound is a groove. Our music is intentional because we don’t want every song to
sound the same,” Kiser said. “Yet, every song has something that catches your ear.”
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Photographer and Editor/Founder of AllMusicMagazine.com. My love of live music has taken me to incredible experiences with the top bands of all time in stadium shows to the smallest venues with equally inspiring musicians. Using the medium of photography and my publication, these memories will last forever.
