Portland’s Dream Wulf, a band which describes themselves as “fiercely psychedelic”, rang in the winter solstice last Friday by dropping their new double EP, All Things Unconsidered. The record contains remixed and remastered classics from their 2017 demo release, along with 4 new songs.
“Dream Wulf’s sound is fiercely psychedelic. Powerful female vocals, melting guitar riffs, intricate time signatures, and captivating dark undertones, that leave you guessing in wonder. They create a riff- that flirts between the push and pull of light and dark energy. Creating the constant synergy of a positive message with a dark delivery. Magnetically charged, their live performance are captivating and dreamy, radiating a unified intensity which lives up to their pack name.”
Dream Wulf’s EPK
All Things Unconsidered blends bits of heavy psych, bluesy gritty rock, and prog, layered over with singer Jessica Bahl’s beautiful, sometimes haunting vocals and all topped off with polished production generally found on indie-pop records. All of this together makes for a unique and intriguing blend of sounds- check out the video for “Blue Dream” below.
Dream Wulf are also currently writing a full length concept album, there is no release date currently set.
POW was there for the release show of All Things Unconsidered Dec 21st at Alberta Street Pub in Portland OR, and the band delivered a phenomenal performance. Check out the full writeup along with gallery and a live clip below (story by Kurt Johnson):
There’s a power in her voice. It’s strong, compelling and unmatched. It cries out, carries and rings loud and true. That’s the voice of Dream Wulf’s lead singer, guitarist and co-founder Jessica Bahl. Her voice soars and reaches out, takes hold of the listener and shakes them to their core. Backed up by grinding guitar rythems, driving drum beats and pounding, throbbing bass lines their sound and stage presence captivates and drives the crowd to a frenzy. Underlying all of this are diverse elements of 60’s psyche rock, middle-eastern rythems and influences such as Texas Blues. And so it was at their new LP release “All Things Unconsidered” party show at the Alberta Street Pub on Saturday December 21, 2019. Opening for Dream Wulf was Queen Chief and the Fire Nuns.
The band describes itself on their Facebook site as the following: “Dream Wulf is a mashup blend of alternative, stoner, psychedelic, dream, and bloom gloom rock and roll. They are just a bunch of kids trying to feel free and dodge the robot establishment on the way. Dream Wulf’s sound is like a melting sun-drenched psychedelic dance party, with dark leading undertones, that leaves you guessing in wonder. They create a riff that flirts between the push and pull of light and dark energy. Magnetically charged, their live performance are captivating and dreamy, radiating a unified intensity which lives up to their pack name.” All of that is true, but their sound goes much deeper and draws on musical foundations that drive harder and to much more musically profound depths.
Dream Wulf is band co-founder and writer/composer John Villadelgado on vocals and lead guitar, co-founder and writer/composer Jessical Bahl on lead vocals and rythem guitar, Glenn Walters on drums and Killa on bass. They have released an EP and LP to date, with their latest “All Things Unconsidered” recorded at Hallowed Halls Studio in Portland, Oregon. Their first EP was recorded in Austin, Texas, which can account for the Texas Blues elements you hear in their sound. The band has been together since 2015 and has completed their first West Coast tour in spring 2019. They hail from the Portland, Oregon area and spend time in Austin, Texas.
In an over-the-phone interview, Lead Singer Jessica Bahl, talked about the band’s concept and where they want to take it. She said, “I think what we’re trying to do is create an experience and remind the people the they can still be their child-like dream that they once were and want to still be.” She continued by describing their creative songwriting and composing process, “There’s two writer/composers and four contributors. John and I are the two writer/composers and we structure the songs and everybody puts in their musical ideas, their inspirations, what they are going through and personal experiences. John writes really interesting music. He writes a lot of dysonant, augmented and dark compositions. It’s dark and gritty. He’s also a fan of middle-eastern scales. You can find some of that in his work as well. He kind of puts it together with Blues, Jazz and Rock and Roll in his own way. He does the majority of the composition and we both share the lyrics.” She mentioned the reaction they’ve received from their listeners and at their shows, “It’s been incredible and surprising! It’s just been crazy to see so many people loving it because it’s just what we love to do, just make and play music!” She included their future plans, “We would love to make this full-time. We have plans to release more music. Right now we’re sinking back into the writing process and for what we have in this moment. We have shows lined up for 2020 and we have our vinyl release. That’s coming out in the spring of 2020. We’re still going to be planning for what’s next, but I think for right now we’re just so grateful for what we have and are excited to let it all come as it comes. I just have always felt music brings people together like nothing else can!”
This writer first encountered Dream Wulf while covering King Black Acid for POW Magazine at Holocene in August 2019. Dream Wulf was one of the opening acts. After hearing them play it was clear that Dream Wulf was a band that POW needed to cover for our readers. I then mentioned them to our Managing Editor Sheena Salazar and then later heard from Jessica Bahl and revisited my suggestion that POW cover them. So, the moon and the stars aligned, as it were, and there I was at the Alberta Street Pub shooting pics and putting a story together. Dream Wulf is an up and coming psyche-rock band that is going places. This is a band that our POW readers need to pay attention to. Make it a point to catch one of their future shows or hear them on one of the many media outlets they appear on.
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