Dream Nails

Dream Nails [Mimi Jasson, Lucy Katz, Anya Pearson] are asking different questions nowadays. They made their name with energised, empathetic, yet politically conscious punk, bursting onto the scene with their 2020 self-titled debut before signing to Marshall Records for their 2023 follow-up, Doom Loop. Those qualities are still intact, but now their lens has taken on a softer, yet no less astute, focus. They’re becoming inquisitive, they’re searching for optimism, and crucially, they’re recalibrating.

Along with this, Dream Nails are operating as a trio for the first time, with bassist Mimi Jasson stepping up to take on lead vocals. Becoming a tighter-knit unit has galvanised them all over again as they searched for new avenues for their creativity. “The world that we live in is so complicated, and the old ways of trying to challenge it or make art about it aren’t working for us anymore,” says drummer Lucy Katz. “We wanted to regroup and find a new kind of creative and spiritual response to our times.”

Nonetheless, they’re not ignoring the world outside their windows. Instead, they’re searching for and connecting with a sense of inclusive humanity. Their interest in stories of strength and resilience speaks to this, as pertinent to one’s personal life as to activism. After all, you can’t change the world by pouring from an empty cup.

“We are still relating to the world in an innately political way,” explains guitarist Anya Pearson. “But we started asking more universal questions – what it would be like to speak to animals, what is our relationship with the elements of fire and water, how do we stay human in the age of technology? We’re more interested in asking the questions than providing the answers.”

Amid a busy 2024 in which they headlined The Grace in their hometown, toured the UK and Europe opening for Thus Love and headed for the US to play SXSW, they planted the seeds for their new era. Convening in Lucy’s living room, they poured all their inspiration onto paper – what they wanted to do, who they wanted to be, the sounds they wanted to channel – and began free writing. This time around, their respective roles were more fluid – instead of remaining in their designated lanes, everyone worked on every aspect of the record from melodies to lyrics. “The fact that we’re working now as a trio has made our creative relationship much tighter,” notes Lucy. “The thing that’s special about this album is that it really feels like all of ours equally. It feels much more cohesive between the three of us, too.”

Meanwhile, the task of stepping up from being a backing vocalist to a lead vocalist for the first time required Mimi, a classical and contemporary trained pianist, to build on her craft, undergoing vocal coaching to help. “The dynamics of your voice become so much more intimate and important,” she explains. “You can’t see your instrument; it has to come through feeling. There are parts of your body you wouldn’t normally focus on; I’m figuring out different resonances in my body and finding the muscles to use when I want to scream without hurting my voice. It’s been such a learning experience.”

Elsewhere, the music was shifting and morphing around her. Their punk spirit remains preserved in amber, but nowadays, Dream Nails are more eclectic than they’ve ever been. They have no reservations about getting weird and surreal, especially as a means of talking back to a progressively darkening world. Adding to the album’s mystical, otherworldly tone, intertwined with its ideas about connecting with the universe and requesting its guidance, there seemed to be a spiritual way in which their initial ideas revealed themselves. “The parts of the songs I wrote came from a culmination of years of listening, learning and playing. When you are free writing or jamming it comes out as something that’s uniquely yours. And it’s cool to share that with other people you’re writing with and have everyone’s experiences come together,” notes Mimi. Nonetheless, there was still some sculpting involved. “You’ve got to strike the balance between what’s instinctively good and what you know could be better,” adds Anya. “It’s about trusting the energy you’re receiving but also guiding it.”

The word Dream Nails lands on to underpin the feeling of their music this time around is primal. They became more tactile, with Lucy sometimes playing the drums barefoot and using hand percussion for a more textured sound. Perhaps there had always been a primitiveness inherent in their music, but they’ve learned to push that feeling into the foreground. “Our main live set-up is literally just a bass, one guitar and drums, so it can sound really elemental,” says Anya. “At the end of the day, we’re just three people with three acoustic instruments doing everything we can to make a massive sound, connecting to the primal forces we all have within ourselves. That’s what we tried to embrace on this record.”