Hailing from Canada’s east coast, Moncton, NB band, Dillon Ryan & The Dream Romantic make, despite their origins, distinctly sounding British New Wave/New Romantic compulsive pop music. Their music is also tantalizingly close to reaching a much broader audience if the ‘Music New Brunswick Awards’ are anything to go by. Nominated in 2016 in the category ‘Recording of the Year,’ winning ‘Fan’s Choice Artist of the Year’ the following year, and subsequently nominated ‘Emerging Artist of the Year,’ a well-deserved breakthrough is surely just a matter of time. This latest single, “The Story,” may well be that track to push the band into the mainstream.
“The Story is about losing your place and track in your life,” explains vocalist Dillon. “It’s about the notion of absent mindedly ignoring issues in your life and then coming to a realization of how much time you’ve wasted. Trying to pinpoint where something went wrong and how you can go about making up for lost time. The angle of demonstration I used in the song was two people losing track of their relationship. I thought that was a pretty universal thing that a lot of people can relate to.”
“Oh, can you please repeat the story / I lost my place somewhere down the line / Please sing a sonnet or a poem, of a blissful state of mind / And it might just be before our hearts divide.”
Recorded in Halifax, NS by producer John Mullane (In-Flight Safety), the band consists of Alec Victor (drums), David Gregory (bass), Julie Doucette (keyboards/vocals), with Dillon Ryan adding edgy guitar and lead vocals. The band quote notable acts such as Echo & The Bunnyman, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, and The Smiths as key influences, and you can certainly hear that in their backward-looking, forward-facing, Gothic-flavoured brand of power pop. A young Canadian band with a passion for vintage British new-age romanticism and post-punk flair – if that sounds like your cup of tea, then I wholeheartedly insist that you check them out.
Music has been a lifelong passion, a journey that as a child embraced the late 60's counter culture and has lasted until the present day. Despite trying to play guitar for the best part of 45 years, to his own frustration, never much beyond the first four bars of “Stairway to Heaven.” A self-confessed vinyl junkie, his other interests include collecting music memorabilia, old Muhammad Ali fight programs, and watching film. He lives alone in Nottingham (England) and still uses the term “Groovy” - these two facts may be intrinsically connected.