What are your names?
Jeremy Lyon
What is the bands name?
King Dream
How did you come up with the bands name?
I got the name from “The Sandman” comics by Neil Gaiman and the idea of the eternals, not good or bad, not born or dead, not a passing fad, not Gods. I was drawn to the mystique of those who’ve always just been.
What is your genre of music?
I play American rock music. To mean that means it’s influenced by soul, country, r&b, folk, psychedelic, alternative, indie.
Give us a little bio about you.
King Dream is a Bay Area rock ‘n’ roll band helmed by Oakland native Jeremy Lyon, a lifelong songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who crafts dive bar anthems with heart, brains and soul. Hard-rocking yet poignant, his music combines a love for American rock masters like Springsteen and Petty with ‘60s West Coast psychedelia and more contemporary torch-bearers like My Morning Jacket and The War on Drugs — all brought to life by a band of Northern California’s most in-demand players.
What made you go into music?
There was no backup option. It’s how I’ve met everyone in my life. It’s a compulsion. Any day I’m not making music is an existential crisis.
Who are your influences?
I spent my formative years in the late aughts listening to bands like My Morning Jacket, Wilco, Beck, and Flaming Lips. Then I got really into guitarist/producers such as Blake Mills and Jonathan Wilson, before the next phase of neo-psychedelic rock bands like War On Drugs and Tame Impala. The most recent artists I’ve been obsessed with are Brittany Howard, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Caroline Rose, and Bombay Bicycle Club.
Are you signed?
Nope! My home studio / label is called Dimed Records. I started it with my buddy Graham Patzner from Whiskerman. We joked that after you shop your record around to labels for a year and get nowhere, there’s always Dimed Records. It sounds like records.
You released your new latest album ‘Glory Days V’, tell us more about the album and the meaning behind the album.
This record explores new territory for me. The first side leans into bedroom r&b/pop influenced by the likes of Still Woozy, Childish Gambino, Vulfpeck, and “Midnite Vultures” era Beck. Flip the record over and we travel back in time through psychedelic rock – starting with more contemporary influences like Grizzly Bear and Radiohead influences before paying homage to the classics Pink Floyd and George Harrison. This is the second instalment in the “Glory Daze” trilogy, what began as a 4 song EP back in January 2020 blossomed into an ambitious 24 song triple album, culled into 3 distinct volumes (IV-VI) with a nod to both Springsteen and “Star Wars.” Through the process I developed into a producer and engineer learning by working on my own material with a myriad of collaborators from Grammy award winners Michael Brauer and Dave Way to mixing my own tracks. I got to work with so many of my favorite musicians and best friends on these records, it feels like a fitting testament to this period in our lives.
Describe each track in two words.
- “The Wild Card” anxiety dankness
- “Past Present Future” sexy thirties
- “Golden Shore” utopian falsetto
- “If It’s Magic (it Must be Real)” murky math
- “Helmet, Stone, & Sand” origin story
- “Return to Zero” Thailand Audiomovers
- “You’re Doing Fine” Alabama Gilmore
- “Many Moons Ago” Golden Gate
What was the writing and recording process like?
I wrote “Return to Zero” with a drum machine stoned in Thailand on my dad’s weed. “Many Moons Ago” came to me as I was driving home from teaching one evening as the sun was setting and that Golden Gate bridge was so damn gorgeous I pulled over and penned the song on the spot. “The Wild Card” was a track I built out using loops in Logic, stacking riffs on riffs and taking a stab at pseudo rapping on top of it – I was going for a very Jim James on “Eternally Even” sort of vibe. “Helmet Stone and Sand” I wrote after reading the introduction to the 2nd or 3rd volume of “The Sandman” series from which I borrowed the band name King Dream. The objects are the Horcruxes – if you will (for all the “Harry Potter” nerds out there) the King of Dreams places his power into. I wrote “Golden Shore” back in 2017 but didn’t have the vocal chops to attempt recording it til late night jams with Lorenzo from the California Honeydrops on my Tascam 388 tape machine several years later. He played keys and bass on the track and really shaped it sonically. As you can see, each song came from a totally different and unique place. As a recording artist and producer, it’s your obligation to honor where the song came from and follow that intuition all the way to completion – trusting it will make sense with the rest of your work.
Who did you work with on the album?
Much of the album was recorded and mixed with Ian and Jay Pellicci at Brothers (Chinese) recording in Oakland. I’ve made more records in that studio with them than anyone else, they’re just so great to work with. The rest was recorded at home under the tutelage of Jonathan Kirchner who taught me how to record and mix by helping me work on “The Wild Card,” “Golden Shore,” and “You’re Doing Fine.” Scott McDowell, who mixed my self-titled debut record, produced “Return to Zero” over Zoom and broadcasting the entire session on Twitch. Everyone recorded their parts remotely using the plugin Audiomovers so we could monitor their performances in the context of the track and provide feedback. Then they uploaded to Dropbox when it was complete and the next musician downloaded it and repeated the process. It was a wild way of making a song completely unique to the 2020 experience.
Are we expected to see any music videos from any of the tracks off the album and if so can you tell us more about what can we expect from the creative process?
My best friend from college and old bandmate Rob Fidel animated an incredible music video for “The Wild Card.” He taught himself to animate and began landing work for Epitaph, ANTI, Green Day, Sierra Ferrell, and more within seemingly a matter of months. I sent him the track and lyrics, and told it’s a basically a song about anxiety starting with the self and spiraling out until it swallows the whole world, and he ran with that and delivered an incredible statement that elevates the track to a whole other level.
“The Wild Card” Official Music Video
We also shot a couple live videos at our buddy Jonathan Kirchner’s studio with his band Con Brio. He engineered and mixed the tracks, and also taught me how to engineer and mix over Zoom lessons during lockdown. Not only that, but he mastered my first record as well as a bunch of the albums in our music community.
“Past Present Future” Live Video
“Return to Zero” Live Video
Do you have any live shows coming up?
Oh yeah!
3.26 – Novato | Hopmonk Novato*
3.27 – Santa Cruz | Moe’s Alley*
3.29 – Santa Rosa | The Lost Church^
4.11 – San Francisco | Rickshaw Stop
4.12 – Santa Rosa | The Next Record Store
5.17 – Guerneville | Cosmico
8.11 – Sebastopol | Gravenstein Apple Faire
*= supporting Particle Kid
^= solo
Let us know where we can get tickets if so.
Right here
What else can we expect in 2024?
I have a spring European and UK tour followed by a tour of the Western US. In the fall, I’ll release the last installment in the “Glory Daze” trilogy and embark on a solo tour to promote it.
Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
Headlining Coachella lol
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
It’s a toss up between “Tommy Bahamas all the way down” and “It’s Saturday somewhere.”
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
- Drink Tickets
- Your set time
- What city you’re in
- The name of the band before or after you
- The sound engineer’s name
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Facebook
Instagram
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