Interviewed by Thomas Needham
In the run-up to the release of our Creepy Crawlers Festival review, we sat down with Leicester-trio DreamCage to discuss Leicester’s music scene, musical influences and their plans for the future.
“Can you walk us through the journey that led you to where you are today, how did you meet, what led to the formation of DreamCage?”
DreamCage is a bit of a phoenix that came from the ashes of a previous band Ed and Max were in. A Leicester college tutor actually recommended Carys to play bass for us. She came for an audition and clicked with us straight away, we released our first single and started playing in Leicester from there, each show getting bigger than the last.
“You’ve recently signed with That Creep Records, what led you to this decision, how have you found working with a label?”
It’s actually a common misconception that we’re signed. We are still very much an independent group, however the owner of That Creep is our manager and good friend Jace. We’ve worked a lot with That Creep as a promoter and each gig has been brilliant, it’s really opened us up to supports in different cities we’d have never got by ourselves.
In terms of signing we would very much like to start working with labels for our next EP.
“How would you describe your creative process?, has it changed over time?, does any particular person take the lead in songwriting or is it largely collaborative?”
We usually say Ed marginally takes the lead purely because he writes all our lyrics; but we usually just jam until we have something we like and add structure from there. Sometimes songs write themselves, sometimes they take months. Ed will then put the lyrics to them after.
“What messages do you seek to convey through your art?, is there a particular artist(s) you look up to?, what are your influences outside of music?”
We wouldn’t really say our music has a message as such, the songs are written about situations Ed finds himself in as we write them a lot of the time.
We all have very different backgrounds but a shared love of grunge. Carys has always been into funk and hip hop, Ed classic rock and early 2000s indie and Max 70s-90s rock and a lot of jungle and house influence.
Artists who influence our music would definitely be Fontaines D.C, Pixies, Alice in Chains, Deftones and many more.
“Have you ever disagreed over the creative direction of a project?, if so how have you reconciled this?”
Honestly we’ve never had any major fallout as such, I think because there’s three of us we usually just go with a slightly compromised majority vote taking the disagree-er’s opinions into consideration.
“Why did you want to pursue music specifically?”
We were all brought up on alternative music, and it’s always been a safe haven to play our instruments throughout life. We all love that people can come to our gigs no matter their background or what’s going on in their life and make friends with people there for the same reason. Creating that environment to people is very important to us.
“What are your favourite and least favourite songs you’ve written over the years and why? Has this always been the case or have your tastes changed?”
We definitely have some older songs both released and used in our set that we prefer to avoid for a mixture of reasons. We love Overtake as a song and it’s great to get a crowd moving, but it’s fast and difficult to play on a hot stage. Some songs we’ve overplayed; in other cases we’d just rather play our newly written music because we’ve developed as songwriters.
“Do you feel optimistic about the future? Whether that be regarding music generally, the band’s future projects/shows and the world we live in”
We might as well give it a crack, we’re getting bigger supports, we have good quality music in the works, we might get nuked in the midst of it all so why not?
“How do you feel about the state of mainstream guitar music in 2025?”
It’s a really interesting time to listen to guitar music. We’ve had a great generation of music previously and now the next generation is coming through. We’re starting to see bands that will become staple pieces of this era. That being said, small artists definitely need to be supported much more.
“What are some of your best/worst memories from your live sets?”
We’d all agree our South End “Festival” was both the best and worst experience of our life.
We drove 3 hours to arrive at a full set up festival, food stalls, Toploader, Dizzie Rascal, toilet facilities – but nobody there. Turned out to be a money laundering front and all the acts got scammed.
We were too drunk to drive back, so we slept in Max’s pickup truck bed with our kit locked in the cab. We did see Toploader for free and met some of our best friends formerly known as “The Sovereigns” and got to practice on an amazing stage setup.
“Hot off the heels of Creepy Crawlers, how do you feel the festival went and what are your thoughts on Leicester’s music scene generally?”
Creepy Crawlers was a success, it wasn’t a crowd we were used to and found different crowds of people would roll in hourly but we saw fresh faces, old faces and people seemed to enjoy our set- a lot of people stuck around.
The Leicester scene itself is struggling, though. Venues are struggling because people can’t afford tickets, and without ticket sales, bands can’t pay to put on the gigs.
There’s some amazing talent in Leicester with all genres, the music industry needs to take it more seriously and support us. That being said there’s also a lot of jealousy and unnecessary friction between bands. We need to look out for each other.
“What do you think of when you’re in front of an audience?”
“Don’t mess up. I hope I’m not looking weirdly at anyone because the light is in my eyes. Oh my god it’s hot up here. Oh no I was looking at someone weirdly and I messed up while thinking about this… nobody noticed I hope.”
“What is your advice to up and coming artists in the future?”
Just enjoy it and don’t rush everything. Make sure you enjoy the music you write because you’re going to play it thousands of times a year. Take opportunities as they come and be easy to work with.
“Who are your personal favourite musical artists in Leicester?”
Dum Language, Ant Hill, Freida would be our top 3.
“Looking ahead, what are your plans for the rest of 2025?”
We have a couple of good supports for the rest of the year. We’re using a quieter festival season to finish off our next release, and we’re open to working with labels. We have more merch underway and plans for a big headliner going into autumn. This year is going to be about how we can reach the next step as a band, working behind the scenes more, but we are very much still around.
“How can people stay updated with your work?”
Our social media handle is always: @dreamcageband
For tickets and music click here.