{"id":30939,"date":"2025-06-13T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T08:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/?p=30939"},"modified":"2025-07-04T12:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:29:15","slug":"interview-dreamcage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/interview-dreamcage\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview – DreamCage"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Interviewed by Thomas Needham<\/p>\n

In the run-up to the release of our Creepy Crawlers Festival<\/a> review, we sat down with Leicester-trio DreamCage<\/a> to discuss Leicester\u2019s music scene, musical influences and their plans for the future.<\/p>\n

“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?\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve recently signed with That Creep Records<\/a>, what led you to this decision, how have you found working with a label?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually a common misconception that we’re signed. We are still very much an independent group, however the owner of\u00a0 That Creep is our manager and good friend Jace. We\u2019ve worked a lot with That Creep as a promoter and each gig has been brilliant, it\u2019s really opened us up to supports in different cities we\u2019d have never got by ourselves.<\/p>\n

In terms of signing we would very much like to start working with labels for our next EP.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

We wouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Artists who influence our music would definitely be Fontaines D.C, Pixies, Alice in Chains, Deftones and many more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever disagreed over the creative direction of a project?, if so how have you reconciled this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Honestly we\u2019ve never had any major fallout as such, I think because there\u2019s three of us we usually just go with a slightly compromised majority vote taking the disagree-er\u2019s opinions into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did you want to pursue music specifically?\u201d<\/p>\n

We were all brought up on alternative music, and it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are your favourite and least favourite songs you\u2019ve written over the years and why? Has this always been the case or have your tastes changed?\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/em> as a song and it\u2019s great to get a crowd moving, but it\u2019s fast and difficult to play on a hot stage. Some songs we\u2019ve overplayed; in other cases we\u2019d just rather play our newly written music because we\u2019ve developed as songwriters.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you feel optimistic about the future? Whether that be regarding music generally, the band\u2019s future projects\/shows and the world we live in\u201d<\/p>\n

We might as well give it a crack, we\u2019re getting bigger supports, we have good quality music in the works, we might get nuked in the midst of it all so why not?<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you feel about the state of mainstream guitar music in 2025?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a really interesting time to listen to guitar music. We\u2019ve had a great generation of music previously and now the next generation is coming through. We\u2019re starting to see bands that will become staple pieces of this era. That being said, small artists definitely need to be supported much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are some of your best\/worst memories from your live sets?\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019d all agree our South End \u201cFestival\u201d was both the best and worst experience of our life.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We were too drunk to drive back, so we slept in Max\u2019s 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 \u201cThe Sovereigns\u201d and got to practice on an amazing stage setup.<\/p>\n

\u201cHot off the heels of Creepy Crawlers<\/a>, how do you feel the festival went and what are your thoughts on Leicester\u2019s music scene generally?\u201d<\/p>\n

Creepy Crawlers was a success, it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The Leicester scene itself is struggling, though. Venues are struggling because people can\u2019t afford tickets, and without ticket sales, bands can\u2019t pay to put on the gigs.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some amazing talent in Leicester with all genres, the music industry needs to take it more seriously and support us. That being said there\u2019s also a lot of jealousy and unnecessary friction between bands. We need to look out for each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think of when you\u2019re in front of an audience?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t mess up. I hope I\u2019m not looking weirdly at anyone because the light is in my eyes. Oh my god it\u2019s hot up here. Oh no I was looking at someone weirdly and I messed up while thinking about this\u2026 nobody noticed I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is your advice to up and coming artists in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n

Just enjoy it and don\u2019t rush everything. Make sure you enjoy the music you write because you\u2019re going to play it thousands of times a year. Take opportunities as they come and be easy to work with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are your personal favourite musical artists in Leicester?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dum Language, Ant Hill, Freida would be our top 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking ahead, what are your plans for the rest of 2025?\u201d<\/p>\n

We have a couple of good supports for the rest of the year. We\u2019re using a quieter festival season to finish off our next release, and we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can people stay updated with your work?\u201d
\nOur social media handle is always: @dreamcageband<\/p>\n

For tickets and music click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":30942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[346,293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-346","category-interviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DreamCage.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73uhX-831","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29961,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/gig-review-henry-webb-the-bootworks-at-firebug-friday-17th-march-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":30939,"position":0},"title":"Gig review – Henry Webb & The Bootworks at Firebug, Friday 17th March 2023","author":"Kevin Gaughan","date":"18\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"You can tell there are a lot of influences which are merged together to create a unique sound which can at points have an indie feel with a math rock rhythm section.","rel":"","context":"In "2023"","block_context":{"text":"2023","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/2023\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_1067.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_1067.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_1067.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_1067.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30944,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/review-creepy-crawlers-festival-at-the-big-difference-saturday-31st-may-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":30939,"position":1},"title":"Review – Creepy Crawlers Festival at The Big Difference, Saturday 31st May 2025","author":"Thomas Needham","date":"15\/06\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Reviewed and photographed by Thomas Needham It\u2019s 5pm somewhere I thought, Red Stripe in hand, basking in the sun billowing down upon The Big Difference. Sat alongside the lovely fellas in local band, Ant Hill, we all felt rather fragile, a potent mix of sleep deprivation and the previous night's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2025"","block_context":{"text":"2025","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/2025\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Snake-Eyes-2.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Snake-Eyes-2.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Snake-Eyes-2.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Snake-Eyes-2.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10968,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/oxjam-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":30939,"position":2},"title":"Oxjam 2016 review","author":"Trevor Locke","date":"11\/10\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Review of Leicester Oxjam Takeover festival 2016","rel":"","context":"In "2016"","block_context":{"text":"2016","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/2016\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Oxjam-PP-02.-Oxjam-Buskathon.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Oxjam-PP-02.-Oxjam-Buskathon.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Oxjam-PP-02.-Oxjam-Buskathon.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10394,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/casbah\/","url_meta":{"origin":30939,"position":3},"title":"Casbah Music","author":"Trevor Locke","date":"31\/07\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Casbah Music Managent show at the Soundhouse","rel":"","context":"In "2016"","block_context":{"text":"2016","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/2016\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Broken-Witt-Rebels-in-Leicester-from-FB-600.jpg?fit=600%2C569&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Broken-Witt-Rebels-in-Leicester-from-FB-600.jpg?fit=600%2C569&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Broken-Witt-Rebels-in-Leicester-from-FB-600.jpg?fit=600%2C569&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3456,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/2013-music-festivals\/","url_meta":{"origin":30939,"position":4},"title":"Festivals 2013","author":"Trevor Locke","date":"28\/01\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Festival reports 2013","rel":"","context":"In "2013"","block_context":{"text":"2013","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/history-of-leicester-music\/articles-relating-to-2013\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/wheatfest2.jpg?fit=912%2C462&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/wheatfest2.jpg?fit=912%2C462&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/wheatfest2.jpg?fit=912%2C462&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/wheatfest2.jpg?fit=912%2C462&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8456,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/contents2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":30939,"position":5},"title":"Contents2015","author":"Trevor Locke","date":"12\/01\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Contents of this magazine in 2015 archive page","rel":"","context":"In "2015"","block_context":{"text":"2015","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/history-of-leicester-music\/the-year-2015\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/proper-MIL-loho-from-arj.jpg?fit=370%2C369&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30943,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30939\/revisions\/30943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}