A few weeks ago I spoke with three members of the Missouri dream-pop, Dreamgirl. I first heard them when their track “Teenage Blue” popped up on my spotify weekly playlist off their latest release, Illuminaughty. I was sold after the first listen; the song reminded me so much of the Twin Peaks soundtrack and all I could see was scenes of the roadhouse singer and red curtains in the Bang Bang Bar. Lead singer of Dreamgirl, Lacey, has the same swoony, angelic quality in her voice.

The band started quite a few years back after the breakup of an old band due to a member leaving to take a job on the railroad – no joke. The remaining members, Lacey, Bryce (the old drummer – currently Ian is on drums), Skylar (guitar and keys), and Zach (guitar and keys) all decided to start a new project. They borrowed vocal, guitar, and bass skills from friends Sam and Austin who were in a different band, and in 2013, Dreamgirl was born.

A majority of the members grew up listening to 90s pop and the “golden oldies and really talented lady singers”. Most are indie music fans now, but they all have a music taste that diverges enough to distinguish themselves from each other, allowing for a wide variety of influences. As for my Twin Peaks comparison, they said that they didn’t really realize the similarity in sound until after they had written in. “We thought, hey this kind of sounds like Maddie and Donna’s song, or we found out that it kinda sounds like “When You’re Gone” by The Cranberries.”

on Kansas City and their local music scene, the band notes that there is tons of great jazz and blues and bebop, but that they really are an expanding scene with all kinds of genres. With a mixed demographic of liberals and conservatives, they count Kansas City as one of Missouri’s gems as far as it’s forward thinking and it’s supportive community. ‘We’re pretty lucky to have Kansas City, and the cool think about it is the radio stations are really involved with all the local bands. Local media really cares about telling people about the local music scene, the art scene.”

In the middle of recording a new album, since the last time they released was in 2015, the new songs will sound more mature. Moving away from the beachy vibes of Illuminaughty, Dreamgirl has a more “new disco, synth heavy” sound in store for us. “The themes of summertime will always be with us and in our music, but in writing these songs we went through a lineup change, so it was really different. But we’re really excited about showing everybody!”

Random interview shout outs:

• Playing at the second largest venue in Missouri with K.Flay (“People were smoking weed dude, and Missouri’s not friendly towards weed. that was awesome”)
• Their friends in the band Toughies – check them out!
• Fans from Brazil and the kid from France who put Illuminaughty on Youtube
• “I may be investing too much, but we’re playing with Tennis, and that’s going to be amazing!” Dreamgirl played with Tennis on April 6th!!