After their raucous set at 2000 Trees I got to sit down in the sun shine and have a little chat with CJ and Aled from Dream State. Enjoy us talking about their eternal love for Dave Grohl, being grounded, new music and why music means everything to Dream State. It was so much fun chatting to these two, so enjoy!

Photos are by the amazing Nici Eberl Photography!

Hi Dream State, you have just come off stage from your 2000 Trees set. What a show, you killed it out there!

CJ: We feel really good. We had a shaky first half with some technical problems on our side, so apologies to fans that were just there come back next year and we’ll make it up to you! But we still enjoyed it regardless.

Aled: It’s cool to see how many people come to 2000 Trees! It is our third year here and playing now is basically our bucket list ticked off!

CJ: It was ticked when we got asked!

What’s your secret to your ridiculously energetic live shows?

CJ: I want the fans to have a good time! My secret, hmmmm… don’t think about it! Once you start thinking about it you start to feel the pain and the aches.

Kerrang Awards, you won the precious ‘BEST BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH’ award. Did you have time to digest this massive win and what it means for you?

CJ: We are over the moon! Our label mates saw that night that we had no inkling that we would win.

Aled: We were up against a lot of really good bands and we didn’t think that we would win. Seriously, it was a big surprise! I don’t think it will ever sink in!

How did you manage to capture the essence of early 2000 rock music so well and at the same time putting your own fresh spin on it? Your music is literally the soundtrack of my teenage years.

CJ: I think the 2000 were really emotional with a lot of emo bands coming out. And we are quite an emotional band as well. For me, I have to put all my emotion into it for it to be real, natural and really experience it rather than just going in and watch it like a piece of art. It has to have a human aspect.

Music is not just art for us, it is therapy, it is life, it is everything.

Who would you say are your biggest inspirations / influences for the unique Dream State sound?

CJ: Linkin Park, Slipknot, The Used, Marmozets, In This Moment

Aled: Bring Me The Horizon

Any teenage heroes you would love to collaborate with?

Aled: Dave Grohl! He was sat next us at the Kerrang Awards and I wanted to say Hello but they left as soon as the ceremony was over, so I didn’t get the chance to speak to him.

Let’s take it back to the very start. Can you recall the first time that you made music?

CJ: I was always singing, probably from when I was six, cause I just loved it. My auntie was convinced I sound like Judy Garland – haha. And I picked up the guitar at about 13 -14 years old.

Aled: I remember I was getting into trouble and I was grounded. I got banned off the X-Box for a week. And it was raining outside and I thought I pick up the guitar, try to learn some songs. So I did.

CJ: And then his parents were annoyed at him for playing too much guitar!

Aled: These days no one really complains anymore – haha!

Where would you say was the birth of Dream State as we know it today?

CJ: When we did the first EP, wasn’t it? When we wrote ‘Rebuild,Recreate’ that was us evolving. That was the start of us turning into Dream State.

Aled: That EP was never meant to be an EP. We didn’t write an EP. We recorded one song, and then two more and it kind of turned into the EP.

CJ: But I think we really became Dream State when we released ‘White Lies’, that was when we nailed our sound.

You released your ‘Recovery’ EP earlier this year which received an unreal response from the fans, did you expect it?

Aled: No not at all!

How did it feel to bring the EP out and then have fans singing the songs back to you pretty much straight away?

CJ: It was amazing! At Slam Dunk, we realized that the EP was doing well. I was crying, it was sooo nice! The songs are real, they are real things. They are everything that I have been through.

I don’t want to sound greedy, but are we gonna get even more new Dream State tunes this year?

Aled: Nah we just gonna call it quits!

CJ: Ah you sarcastic ass! Loads of music is coming. We are so inspired at the moment. So the album is being sorted, we don’t know when it will be released yet, so bare with us!

You recorded a gorgeous piano version of ‘White Lies’ with Grumble Bee back in 2017, is the stripped back approach something you would like to explore again in the future?

CJ: Yeah!

Aled: I hope not!

CJ: The boys don’t like it but I love it! We did the ‘As It Is’ tour acoustically and I got to show off vocally rather than just screaming all the time.

Aled: I was just sat down, I couldn’t really do anything.

CJ: It was hard for us to hold back, we were all ready to mosh and then we were like this is a bit weird to do at an acoustic set. We probably end up doing acoustic sets at some point.

As we are at a festival today, if you could set up your own festival, who would you book as a headliner (apart from yourself)?

CJ: Foo Fighters! Slipknot!

Aled: Metallica.

CJ: Enter Shikari!

Aled: Slayer! They might headline Dream State festival, you never know!

Thanks for your time CJ & Aled!

x,