Guillermo CastroWhen we named Dream Tent to our Artists to Watch list for 2020 based off a single track, we were playing a hunch. While “We Lost Control” was, indeed, a massive debut, we were gambling that project creator Gene Woolfolk (The Powder Room) could both replicate the song’s celestial shoegaze magic and provide enough variation to keep Dream Tent from seeming redundant. What followed on the group’s first EP was enough to prove our trust hadn’t been misplaced.
Released in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, Songs From the Quarantine Vol. 1 was a sharp display of atmospheric songwriting that saw Woolfolk branching out beyond the majestic dream pop and shoegaze of his first single. Over the course of seven tracks, including a killer cover of the Tears For Fears’ classic “Head Over Heels,” the record sparkled with glimmers of pulsing synth-pop that brought a fizzy momentum to the EP. It also revealed the fruits of a burgeoning musical relationship with his girlfriend and roommate Erica Strout (Motherfucker), whose own fledgling solo work was evolving in similarly evocative fashion. A breakthrough felt eminent.
Then came the Great Pause.
It’s impossible to know with any certainty how exactly we’ll look back at this moment in history. For many there will be the existential dread of isolation, being unemployed, and the maddening uncertainty of the future. But there has also been opportunity. For self-examination. For creative growth. For spiritual reawakening. Speaking of artists in particular, the quarantine has provided a rare chance to reassess the direction of their work and shift gears accordingly. So when Woolfolk sat down to start writing Songs From the Quarantine Tent Vol. 2, he began the process by divorcing himself from any preconceptions he had built up surrounding the music.
“Dream Tent was originally intended to be a genre-jumping project,” Woolfolk says. “I wanted to do something different for every song with an intended focus but move onto the next jam without a care. Ironically, it seems unfocused and I’m okay with that. I’m not trying to hone in on a particular ‘sound’ like a lot of bands.”
That’s not to say that this new album is entirely removed from the group’s previous work. The layered guitars and empyrean thrust remain—it’s still, in many ways, a record that is indebted to lustrous ’80s dream pop and ’90s shoegaze. But it’s also clear from the feverish dance-punk jolt of opener “The Hammer and the Dance” that Woolfolk and Strout are intent on carrying Dream Tent to a different stratosphere altogether. Overall, this is a darker, more brooding affair with goth overtones seeping through the LP’s billowing ambiance.
This shift in texture and mood can perhaps be felt most potently on the early album highlight, “The Midnight Sun.” Blending light and shadow, the song is a bewitching tug-of-war between its luminous architecture and Woolfolk’s murky vocals. It’s sad in a way that feels accepting and vulnerable as opposed to the defiance and despair you might think given the depths of our global tragedy. That’s a far cry from the fiery catharsis Woolfolk often embraced with the Powder Room where feelings were often hidden behind walls of noise. But, if nothing else, the quarantine has highlighted the urgency to adapt and transform our ways of thinking.
“It’s clear that the machine in which most artists conform to is crumbling,” Woolfolk attests. “During the Great Pause, I see it much like a video game: once you assess your progress, maybe you’ll want to hit the reset button. This is most likely applicable to several aspects of our daily lives as well. There’s a lot to process.”
A lot to process, indeed, which is part of what makes Songs From the Quarantine Tent Vol. 2 such a joy to explore and digest. Whether it’s the Pretenders-like shimmer of “Lockdown,” the narcotic lurch of “Not in Plain Sight,” or the swirling Depeche Mode drama of “Cue the Closing Credits,” this is a record that isn’t afraid to shed its own numerous skins in favor of something new and unexpected. Sure, if you wanted to be reductionist you could file most of this under the umbrella of, say, electronic pop and rock. But such an assessment would be to overlook Dream Tent’s contrarian tendencies, not to mention the thoughtful calculation behind their increasingly complex and diverse arrangements. Above all, this LP is the product of deep reflection and a clear determination to abandon the expectations and failed thinking of the past.
“The most positive aspect of living in quarantine for me is introspection,” Woolfolk says. “I’ve had time to evaluate all the times I’ve fucked up as a human. Learning from said experiences has been quite a ride. Taking the Great Pause as a time for self-improvement has been nothing short of an enlightening cruise. It has been fruitful for both me and Erica as individuals and as a couple.”
More Info
Bandcamp: dreamtent.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @dreamtentmusic
Instagram: @dreamtentmusic