Dreamcolour

Musical traditions run deeply in Oxnard. And while the latest sonic undertaking to arise from the city might not quite be following in its world-renown Nardcore tradition — a scene that gave rise to punk icons like Dr. Know, False Confession and Habeas Corpus — it is the same institute of skate and surf that has given rise to so many artistic enterprises that Dreamcolour, the latest ensemble on the scene, is so emphatically embracing. Formed around the nucleus of two Oxnard locals, Alex Gray and Teddy Skupien, this musical offering humbly arose through the purchase of an analog synthesizer. Having first crossed paths in an Oxnard high school, it wasn’t long before Gray and Skupien were making music together. When their first serious band, the three-piece Peppermint Kiss, fell by the wayside, the pair’s musical realignment came in the form of psychedelic pop duo Panda Gypsies. The stage at the Experimental Café became their domain, and what was first intended to be an acoustic foray soon progressed into something with a more electric intent. In then branching out into analog electronica, Gray was looking for ways of broadening his musical vision. With the pair feeling constrained by the duo format, a chance meeting with the members of another local band, Avant Garage, at a Ventura party not only sent the Panda Gypsies into an extended hiatus, it also laid the foundations for a new collaborative, Dreamcolour. For Gray, the fundamentals of Dreamcolour lay simply in the opportunities that can occur when a group of like-minded individuals unite with music fuelling their soul. While Gray and Skupien might have been the instigators of Dreamcolour, the ensemble’s musical motivation resides in a combined foray. Joining the pair are Avant Garage’s Nick Alvear on keyboards and Kirby Ditto on bass, along with Ojai locals Alexa Pantalone on guitar and Robert McGill on saxophone. With Gray fleshing out the sound on guitar and Skupien on drums, the ensemble has morphed into an entity whereby the whole is more important than any of its individual parts. “It has opened me up to the real possibilities that arise when a group of people get together creatively,” Gray says. “If you surrender your ego a little bit and not worry just about yourself, I think music becomes an even greater communication devise. The duo was very much centered on who was writing the songs and who is playing what part, whereas this is a lot more liberating. It has more of a collage sensibility to it — it is really a merging of ideas.” Along with the music, another one of those parts is the visual side of Gray’s creative pursuits. A graphic designer by trade — Gray partners with his father, Robert, as designer within their family business Channel Islands Design — the visual arts also plays a major role in his artist expression. Rather than his art being an entity unto itself, Gray sees it as more of a tangent from the same inspiration that drives his music — and something that can, in turn, complement the latter. “It offers a complete creative and artistic freedom,” Gray says. “We don’t have to bow down, and that way we can present the imagery that we feel would best integrate with the music. And as the music has evolved I believe the art has changed a lot, too. I think it has gone from being something that was a little more organic to being more like ’60s pop art influences and that has now moved in to a more cosmic kind of realm. The art and music tie in together really well for us and offer the complete experience.” Like all of Alex Gray’s previous musical explorations, Dreamcolour is very much seeded in the present. There is no master plan for the band, nor is there really a musical charter. It is simply the molding of six musical souls and the infinite sonic possibilities that such a union can offer. But one thing is certain, and that is that both the experiences and music that flow from Dreamcolour are real, for band and audience a like. “We want what we are doing to offer something of substance,” Gray says. “We don’t want it to be just your everyday, [carbon] copy, rock or pop band. We want to give people something more to think about when they listen to us. It seems to me that a lot of music doesn’t have soul anymore. There is all this crazy musical equipment used to correct things and get it right and all it does is filter out the soul. Music is a human thing, and we are just trying to keep it human.”