March 5, 2024 / By: Josh Kitchen
“Murder me and fuck my skull/put my body in a vat of acid/put my brain into a jar/show it to your friends.” If you heard the opening lyrics to “Fuck My Skull” by Brooklyn based dreampop-metal- dance-disco duo The Dream Eaters and thought, “Are these people okay?” you could hardly be blamed for it. In fact, I asked them this point blank.
Jake Zavracky and Elizabeth LeBaron are simply doing their best to find the joy and humor in the absurdities of everyday life. Listening to the sardonically titled songs by the band like “Klonopin Girl,” “Ken Und Barbie,” and “We Are a Curse,” it might be hard to identify with the subject matter the Dream Eaters have to offer. But after chatting with the band, I found that’s not the case. The Dream Eaters are going to be okay.
You have incredible song titles. Some examples are: Fuck My Skull, Rot in Hell, Bloody Ass, Mood Pills, and Kevorkian. I have to ask, are you okay?
Jake
Well, I try to write a lot of stuff that's kind of just about day-to-day existential dread type adjacent feelings. The lyrics are quite succinct. The songs are often only 10-20 seconds long, so they're just kind of inspired by walking around, aggravatedly saying, “Oh my God, everything I touch turns to shit!” That's kind of where a lot of those ideas come from. I think we're pretty well-adjusted people. I get aggravated a lot!
Elizabeth
But you turn it into something playful. It’s sort of like taking these intrusive thoughts and taking your power back from them.
Jake
We have songs that are a bit more involved than that, but that’s I think probably a good way of describing it. Stuff that you're yelling when you're walking around the house angry.
Tell me about your backgrounds and how you met.
Elizabeth
I'm originally from Calgary, Canada. I grew up in choir, so I've always been singing, mostly religious stuff. I'm not religious, but I grew up religious. I moved to New York in 2014 and started working at a neighborhood bar where Jake also worked. It was kind of one of those places where usually there was only one bartender working at a time, so we didn't actually meet or cross paths at first, but our co-workers and some of the neighborhood people were like, “Have you guys met yet? Jake writes music, you guys should do music together!” And you're like, sure. I just moved to New York, I'm sure everybody's doing music a little bit. And then eventually, for whatever reason, we decided to give it a shot. It was basically just kind of me going to Jake's home studio and listening to a bunch of material that he had from over the years. From there, we kind of just picked a couple that we liked, but it has evolved so much since then.
Jake
I'm from Boston originally and I moved to New York in 2008.
Do you have a comedy or performance arts background?
Elizabeth
Not specifically, I always liked drama. I went to a performing arts high school where I had to choose either chamber choir or drama, and I remember having this moment up until I had to hand them the form, and I went with my gut, which was chamber choir. And from that point forward, I never really looked back at drama. We were very much not blending with the musical theater kids. I shelved that interest for a long time, and went to college for jazz, so I was really thrilled when Jake had the idea to incorporate video into it, I was kind of feeling I got to sort of heal that part of my past. (To Jake) Jake, any theater comedy background?
Jake
None at all, other than being hilarious! I should say that from a young age, I played in pop punk bands where the lyrics are kind of funny, that sort of thing. So only musical, nothing with dialogue.
Tell me about the writing and recording process.
Jake
It kind of depends on the song, but usually I write almost all of it, and then Elizabeth will give some input mostly from interpreting it the way that she thinks it should be sung. Sometimes she'll add a lyric here and there, for example, she wrote the second verse of “Rot In Hell.” That's usually the way it works. Usually by the time anything gets to Elizabeth, the meat of it is done, and we work at such a rapid pace that that's really the only way we can do it.
Your voices are great, and Elizabeth, I don’t think it would surprise anyone to hear you have a choir background. Your voices blend together so well. Part of what I think makes your music interesting is that while it’s funny, weird, and shocking, at the same time the music is great. Songs like “Atomic Queen,” “Rot In Hell,” and “Tongue” are fantastic pop songs. Can you talk about that?
Jake
That’s more what we're used to, and what we have more experience with is coming up with sort of concise pop songs. The thing that's newer is the video element and writing songs that last about twelve seconds. I always had a hard time making songs go on for a long time. When I'm listening back to my own music and it gets to be two minutes in, I'm like, wow, there’s a really long song here. I like short, sort of Guided by Voices type songs and those seems to be right around my wheelhouse in terms of how long something should be. You mentioned “Atomic Queen,” which is quite long, but other than that, the songs are pretty much under three minutes.
I discovered you from TikTok, and I think that short, concise kind of song style is why people have responded so positively to your stuff – we live in such a fast-paced consumer heavy culture, and that snappy element is something that I think makes your music so attractive. Although, I have to say, a ten-minute prog rock Dream Eaters jam would be pretty cool.
Jake
That's what I was trying to do with “Fuck My Skull”, but I could only make it last three minutes! I was really trying hard to make that song more than three minutes, but it’s still got like seven different sections in it.
Let’s go back to the beginning. Your earliest recorded music was released in 2015. Not only has your music changed with the added visual element, but the early stuff is very different. It’s fuzzy and lo-fi, and now the production is much slicker, and while the ethos of the Dream Eaters maybe hasn’t changed, it’s clear that it evolved. Tell me a little about that evolution.
Jake
It's funny, I was just listening to the early stuff, because I hardly ever listen to it anymore. Obviously, we're not the first band to evolve quickly. At first, I kind of wanted to do sort of a slow shoegazey thing, but I always sort of knew that wasn’t working with our dynamic. The first year and half or so was sort of phase one of [The Dream Eaters], then we released Pagan Love, which was our second album, and that’s where I started writing poppier stuff that wasn’t so buried in fuzz, and Elizabeth’s voice was much more prominent. And then I found, like you pointed out, our voices work weirdly well together.
Elizabeth
It took a good while to figure that out, though!
Jake
I’m a very different type of singer than Elizabeth, but for some reason it really works. I’m more the energy, and her voice brings the sweetness quality; and the blend works. The band’s evolution kind of hinged on that Pagan Love era, and right after it came out, I came up with the idea to do this wacky show on YouTube. There’s six episodes of something called The Dream Eating Freakshow. We were just sort of getting our bearings, and it’s uneven, but good. It’s not quite as tight as what we have evolved into. We put out the Solstice Special last year, which is the second foray into making shows.
Talk to me about your influences on your singing and artistry.
Elizabeth
A lot of the choral experience does come in handy. We have so many harmonies, and I think even just like technique-wise [it helps] to have that range. I grew up listening to the Dixie Chicks and LeAnn Rimes and kind of all the female, country-ish ballady kind of stuff which was really where I kind of planted myself for a while when I first started singing. I love Florence [Welch], I love strong, unique female voices. I think I was really afraid of my own voice when Jake and I first started. I was 23, and most of my singing up until then had not been as a soloist, but more choirs and ensembles. This was the first spotlight-type project, so it just took us a while to find the pocket of where our voices worked together.
Jake
Elizabeth has a way of interpreting, like, I will say to her, okay, we need to sound like Kate Bush, and I'll play her a Kate Bush song, she’ll take that and put her own spin on it, and it just works. She gets it and has an ear for exactly what we’re trying to get across. Almost like an actor! And not in a phony way, it’s very heartfelt.
Many of your videos remind of the old Sears family portraits come to life. A lot of the visual art reminds me of different musical comedy duos like Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords, and even Sparks. Talk a little about your comedy influences.
Jake
Sparks is a big influence, but I wouldn't say that I'm influenced by any comedic thing that is musical, except for Tim and Eric. Anybody that knows Tim and Eric, if they see our stuff, they're going to immediately think of Tim and Eric – a lot of it anyway. Tim and Eric, [Monty] Python, Sesame Street, Electric Company - a lot of 80s influences. And musically, what I get moved by is usually a little bit more on the artsy end of pop like DEVO, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, and Kate Bush. There’s also 80’s metal like Def Leppard. Mix Def Leppard with DEVO and Kate Bush, and you’re basically all the way there.
I asked you at the beginning if you were okay. I think it’s evident that you are! But the reason I started there was because you have songs like, “Mood Pills” (commonly prescribed!), “Rot in Hell” (who hasn’t wished someone would!), “Night Terrors” (guilty!). You mentioned the day-to-day, mundane thoughts of dread in your head, but I think that a lot of could probably relate to a lot of what you’re singing about. Can you talk a little about that?
Jake
I think it works in the current context pretty well. It’s not something that I really did on purpose. You mentioned “Night Terrors.” While that's not something I’ve experienced, I think everyone will get up in the middle of the night and be afraid of something. But then there’s the dread and anxiety of everyday life. I Imagine any songwriter will tell you that they just talk about themselves. And when people relate to it, it's because a lot of us feel the same.
You have quite a large following on TikTok. Talk about how social media has changed the way people hear your music.
Jake
Tik-Tok and Instagram have changed things so profoundly for us in ways that I never really expected. Going into this concept of us being this video-show duo, I thought YouTube would be helpful, but never expected Instagram and TikTok to be at all. TikTok was the first one to really catch on, and that’s where we started getting more followers and interactions. Elizabeth was very insistent that we needed to use TikTok and Instagram I didn't want to TikTok at all, I was so angry for the first two months, and I said Elizabeth, I’m not going to do Tik-Tok anymore, but for some reason I stuck with it. The funny thing that it’s really done is that’s it’s changed a lot of the way that I write because it has helped me trust myself more. Usually when I’m unsure about something, it doesn’t perform as well as something I am sure about.
I thought nobody thinks like I do, I don’t know how to relate to people, and I’m the worst judge of it. Somebody else should be picking what the content is and I should just make it. But then I realized, no that’s not true - I think I have a pretty good handle on what people are going to like because now I go by what do I like, and as long as you – and this is a good lesson for the kids out there – if you stay true to yourself, then it’s probably going to work! Don’t do anything just because you’re trying to get more views. So, the effect of [social media] has been profound.
A final example was the other day where we released an album of ringtones, and on social media announced that half of the proceeds would go to Amnesty International - we sold a ton of them. I have my complaints about them too, but I won’t go into it.
At Setlist Kitchen, I believe live music is the ultimate connector. Tell me about your first concert, your favorite concert, and the last concert you attended.
Elizabeth
Oh my gosh. Okay. I think my first real concert was Christina Aguilera and the Pussycat Dolls were the opener. I must have been like 13 or 14.
My favorite I don't know about - favorite of all time. But, in the past couple years Car Seat Headrest at Brooklyn Steel was unbelievable. It was one of the best live shows, I was truly I was blown away.
Jake
Don’t try to be cool, I know what your favorite is.
Elizabeth
Listen, I went to Coldplay at the last tour, did some mushrooms and I had the best night of my entire life.
And then the last concert I went to was actually my boyfriend’s band – he’s the lead singer of The Strumbellas. He just wrapped up the Canadian leg of their tour in Toronto, so it was a hometown show for them. It was sold out and was just last Saturday and it was incredibly cool.
Jake
I can't quite remember the very first. It was definitely in the 80s. I’m from Boston and we used to go to shows at this place, at the time it was called Great Woods. [Now the Xfnity Center] It was either Night Ranger Stryper.
For Favorite, I’ve seen Prince and Bowie. Bowie was great. Prince was great. Those were both at the Boston Garden.
And then the last one, I think the last show I saw was actually Beck and Phoenix. I love both of them, but Phoenix was absolutely outstanding, they’re just such a great live band.
When do you think you'll tour again?
Jake
We're definitely touring - without question. We're touring the East Coast later this year. We haven't toured meaningfully since, 2019 or so. We’ve done sporadic shows in between, but it's been it's been so sporadic. For a while we were really great live because we were touring so much that like it was just kind of automatic anytime we would step on a stage. And now we've gotten far away from that, but we're getting back together at it, and I think probably later in the spring we'll start up again.
Before we finish, who's the dancing man in so many of your music videos?
Jake
That's our friend Steve, who is just the the world's greatest interpretive dancer. I've truly never seen anybody who is as good at dancing as Steve. He exudes joyfulness, and he is just so joyful to look at.
Finally, do you have new music coming out soon?
Jake
We just put the album of ringtones which is kind of a teaser to the album that we're releasing this Friday March 8. It collects almost everything we’ve done over the last two years. It’s kind of a compilation, but I’ve tried to sequence it so that it doesn’t feel like a compilation album. It feels like an album you can listen to all the way through. It’s very odd and unique, and feels like a concept album. It’s coming out Friday, and it’s called We Are The Dream Eaters.
Follow The Dream Eaters on all platforms HERE: https://linktr.ee/thedreameaters
Buy We Are The Dream Eaters Friday HERE: https://thedreameaters.bandcamp.com/
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