Are THC Dreams a stoner metal band? Read our latest Band of the Day to find out:
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from sunny sunny Bristol in the south-west!
How did you meet?
We all went to college together. Tom and Tamlin were in one music class together while Sam and I (Nick) were in the other. One day Tom cornered me in the smoking area and demanded to know if I liked My Bloody Valentine and more especially whether I wanted to start a band playing that kind of music. Scared for my life I pushed out a ‘uh yeh alright then’ and we recruited Tamlin from the smoking area to play bass, and Sam happened to just be hanging about the music block so we asked him to do some drums for us. We then found out we actually liked each other as well so we decided to try and be a ‘proper’ band.
How long have you been playing as a band?
I believe the story detailed in the previous question took place about 3 and a half years ago, but we only started putting more effort in and trying to take the band to the next level about a year and a half ago.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
This is actually a cool story so we don’t mind being asked! We were in Tamlin’s old room and as our name might suggest we had a fair quantity of THC flowing through our veins at the time. Our friend Adam found some glow in the dark paint and proceeded to paint a weird stoner mural on Tamlin’s wall, and none of us could figure out what it was. When we turned out the light to go to bed, the glow in the dark paint illuminated the room and we realised it was the abstract painting of a dude smoking a zoot, and in the cloud of smoke it said ‘THC DREAMS’. I mean, what were we going to do, NOT name our band after that?
Disclaimer: we get asked if we’re stoner metal all the time
What are your influences?
We have a LOT of influences. We all grew up listening to a lot of different types of music so we take bits from all of it. I guess the main ones would be American emo bands like Modern Baseball, Say Anything, Brand New (touchy subject but they influenced us) and The Hotelier, as well as English bands such as Johnny Foreigner, Basement and IDLES (obligatory ’cause they’re from Bristol too). Me and Tamlin are both influenced lyrically by the rapper Eyedea, that guy was incredible.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We mix a whole host of influences (listed above) with more off the cuff musical ideas a lot. Me and Tamlin love to spice up our songwriting with stupid time signatures and lots of distortion, as well as peculiar arrangements and chord progressions. For the not so musical reading this, we sound like the result of a jam between Dave Brubeck, Mike Kinsella and Travis Barker with a teenager who spends way too much time on tumblr screaming about his life over the top.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Most of our lyrics revolve around our personal lives so that results in 3 main themes: Daddy issues, drugs and alcohol, and (shock horror) girls.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live shows are pretty intense. We’re all big personalities so when you put us on stage together we tend to go a bit wild. Tamlin has been known to run into the crowd and scream our lyrics in people’s faces and I’ve got a bit of an affinity for climbing on our amps (and of course jumping off in a rather grandiose fashion) at the moment. We’ve played a lot, especially around Bristol, I couldn’t tell you how many times! But the influx of shows coming our way has massively increased this year.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Well our guitarist, Tom, smashed his guitar up at the end of our set the first time we played at the fleece in Bristol. It was very cool and a guy we know took the bits of his dead guitar home (he’s still got it and he maintains it was one of the best things he’s ever seen so Rock n Roll man!!). We played at our friends birthday party with his band in Bath a few years ago (R.I.P. Flowerwolf) and I ended up in a shopping trolley in the middle of the mosh pit holding onto an inflatable penis for dear life. That was interesting to say the list.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We’re not massive gear buffs so it’s nothing impressive, although Sam our drummer got a wild new Dw acrylic kit recently, we recorded our new single with it and it sounds phat (with the PH). I use a Fender Jaguar through a couple of pedals and an Orange CR120. Tom uses a Fender Mustang through some nicer pedals and a Vox AC30. Tamlin uses a J-bass copy by a company called Revelation, they make amazing guitars for a really good price and we’ve all used them a few times (sponsor us please). He uses a Trace-Elliot head with two
(2!!!!) bass cabs, one 1×15 a 2×10).
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We’re releasing our new single in January! It’s called All My Friends and it’s about drug misuse and how that can affect your relationships with friends and family. It’s going to be out on the 11th January on all streaming services as well as Bandcamp, Soundcloud and whatever else you crazy kids are listening to music on these days. Oh, and we’re doing a little tour in support as well so keep your eye out for tickets on our social media pages!
What are your plans for 2019?
After the single release we’re going to jump straight back into the studio and pump out as many songs as we can. We’ve got 2-3 done already and like 3 or 4 more in the works so it’s going to be a big one! As well as that we’re just going to do our best to play as many shows as possible around the country!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
I would love to support Yr Poetry again, probably one of the best bands we’ve played with and their music just does things to me. Check them out on Spotify, you won’t regret it. As an opener, I think our friends in ICYMI are the only candidates. We toured with them in August and they were just so much fun and they killed it every single night, they have this one song (they haven’t released it yet) that me and the boys still get stuck in our heads.
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https://youtu.be/qnrmN7oYbvA