Welsh post-hardcore troupe Dream State are definitely ones to watch. Well, to be fair, if you aren’t already watching then you’ve missed out on a hell of a lot. At the time of writing this, their single ‘White Lies’ has racked up over 5 million views on YouTube, and they’re playing just about every major festival the UK has to offer – including Slam Dunk.

We caught up with the band at the South date of the festival in Hatfield to discuss their new EP ‘Recovery’, being compared to Paramore, and their plans for world domination…

Gareth Bull Photography

DP!: You guys signed to UNFD last year, how did that come about?

Aled (guitar): We signed back at Reading Festival! Literally in the guest area.

Rhys (guitar/vocals): Well, we had had a meeting with them before, but that was when pen went on paper. It was probably the week before that we’d been getting stuff finalised? It feels so long ago.

CJ (vocals): They’ve got a good relationship with our manager, and they were really enthusiastic about everything. They’d been talking to our manager for a while.

Jamie (drums): They’d been friends for years anyway.

CJ: They found us through ‘White Lies’.

DP!: So how does it feel to finally have ‘Recovery’ out?

Danny (bass): Amazing!

CJ: We’ve been dying to get it out, haven’t we?

R: It’s nice because some of the songs we were playing on our February tour, people didn’t know. The difference of the crowds between now and then, people knowing the songs and singing along to ‘Help Myself’ and stuff, it’s great.

DP!: ‘White Lies’ has done crazy well, what made you lead with that one?

J: It was the only song written at the time! We released our last EP, and the plan was to have a bridge song, in the gap that we had between that and ‘Recovery’, and then we released ‘White Lies’ and it just exploded. We didn’t know what to do.

DP!: Do you guys have a favourite song on ‘Recovery’?

CJ: I’m going to say ‘White Lies’ because of all the doors that it’s opened for us, and it was a big decision to be as honest as we have with that song, so definitely ‘White Lies’ for me.

D: I like ‘Help Myself’, because I can really throw down to it when we’re playing it live.

R: I like ‘Solace’. It was the first song that I wrote with the band. I didn’t join until the beginning of March, and it’s been mental.

A: It used to be ‘Solace’ because we’ve been playing that live for nearly a year now, way before the EP came out. But recently it’s been ‘Help Myself’, because it’s got a good breakdown and it’s heavy, and now that people know it they anticipate the heaviness and can lose their shit.

J: I agree with CJ, ‘White Lies’ because of what it’s done for us, but I think ‘New Waves’ is my favourite to play just because it’s less mental than everything else, a bit more relaxing, haha.

DP!: You guys get a lot of comparisons to Paramore even though you sound nothing like them. Is that just something that’s part and parcel for female fronted bands?

CJ: Yeah, my friend fronts a jazz band, and people are like “She’s just like Paramore”, and it’s like… it’s jazz! Don’t get me wrong, Hayley Williams is a legend and her voice is amazing, but it seems that because Paramore are in the mainstream so much, people don’t talk so much about all these other female fronted bands that are killer from years back. It’s a bit of a lazy comparison, really.

J: Flyleaf is the other one we get compared to as well.

CJ: I didn’t even know the singer in Flyleaf screamed until recently, but I can hear where that comparison comes from at least.

R: I guess people just pick the band that they most know that has a female singer.

CJ: It’s weird as well when you think about it, you don’t hear people describe male-fronted bands as being “that male-fronted band!”

DP!: You guys are on the line up for pretty much every major festival going! What’s still on the bucket list?

A: Well, we’ve got Download coming up!

J: Download IS the bucket list. We did Reading & Leeds last year.

CJ: But is there any other festivals that you’d want to play?

J: No, haha.

D: Warped Tour would have been one of them, but I think we’ve missed the boat for that one.

A: Kerrang! Tour, maybe.

CJ: I would say something like Bloodstock, but that’s a bit heavy for us. Maybe we can write some heavier stuff, haha.

J: What’s the German one?

D&R: Rock AM Ring!

CJ: Yes, that’d be amazing. All of them, really.

A: All of the UK ones are pretty much ticked off, so now we just need to dominate the rest of the world really.

DP!: Who are you guys wanting to catch on the Slam Dunk line-up this year?

CJ: PVRIS, Good Charlotte…

J: I haven’t seen any bands yet! PVRIS, Northlane, Comeback Kid, Every Time I Die…

D: I can’t wait for Every Time I Die. I’m gonna try my best not to break a bone or something stupid.

A: We were so busy yesterday we didn’t get chance to see any bands!

R: We’ve been doing signing at our merch tent, and we were expecting them to be really quick, but there’s been lots of people!

DP!: So what’s next for you guys?

CJ: We’re supporting Babymetal in June!

R: But we’ve got our hometown show first!

CJ: Oh yeah, our own EP release show. But lots more music and lots more touring. We can’t give too much away!

The band’s sophomore EP, ‘Recovery’, is out now through UNFD.

You can purchase it online from the label’s webstore (here), iTunes (here), and Amazon (here).

You can keep up to date with the band online by following them on Facebook (here), Twitter (here), and Instagram (here).