After spending my younger years writing and recording with my band, In a Dream was the first electronic song I ever released. I made it my college dorm room.
I released it on Valentine's Day, 2012, and by the measure of the time, it was a "hit". By hit, I mean it was a hit in my college town, where I would hear it blasting out of cars and playing at parties.
It also rose to the #1 spot one on a popular music-ranking website at the time called FindNewJams, which was like a Reddit for new music. It stayed in the top spot for three weeks. A team in Miami found it and wanted to become my managers, and I agreed. The whole experience gave me the confidence to keep making music.
Above is the mix I originally released, which is my favorite. We later put out a different mix, called the Album Mix on the Enter The Spektrem EP, aiming to sonically perfect it for big club and festival speakers. The Album Mix was better engineered in that sense, but I think there's still more magic in the First Mix.
A SURPRISINGLY GOOD RECEPTION
In a Dream was the first real electronic song I released. I worked on it for about 9 months. So it was a thrill when it was actually well received online, and in my college town. I’d hear it blasting out of people’s cars around campus, and my friends would text me videos when they'd hear it at parties.
Credit to this video goes to Jon Yahirun.
THE ORIGINAL GROUP
At the time, I was part of a group with two friends called The Bassment Bros. I made the music, and they DJed. I hated DJing. I just wanted to make music in my room. So I always had to pair up with someone else who could DJ.
I'd written some lyrics, and one of those guys had a girlfriend, Haneen, who was a great vocalist. So she sang them, and In a Dream was born. It's still probably the most celebratory and joyful song I ever made.
