South Wales five-piece DREAM STATE can now announce their signing to UNFD and the reissue of their huge single “White Lies”. The band have now also been announced on the line ups for Download Festival UK 2018 and were in the first 50 acts announced for The Great Escape 2018 as well.
For the last few months, a song has been bouncing from playlist to playlist around the world, an old-school victory of word-of-mouth recommendations taken flight in the age of streaming. Equal parts beauty and brutality, “White Lies” by DREAM STATE has so far racked up over a million plays on Spotify and well over 3.5million on YouTube, but for the song’s authors – South Wales’ Dream State, comprising vocalist CJ Gilpin, guitarists Aled Evans and Rhys Wilcox, bassist Danny Rayer and drummer Jamie Lee – it’s only the beginning.
“It’s about temptation, denial, hitting rock bottom and surrendering to yourself,” explains CJ. “There’s a line in the song – ‘Why won’t you give up?’ – that is really personal to me because I’m questioning myself as well as someone close to me. I had to watch a person I love destroy themselves slowly over time and that line is for the both of us.”
Now backed with new acoustic and piano versions of the original track (recorded with Grumble Bee’s Jack Bennett), the light and shade of these new renditions demonstrates the band’s musicality and creativity, as well as the sheer power of CJ’s voice.
“White Lies is a naturally bold and aggressive song, so revisiting the track from a more delicate angle initially felt like we were moving against the grain,” says CJ. “Once we stripped things back, the more vulnerable elements started to shine through and guide us forward in the process! It brought about another dimension to the sound which was really interesting to explore and develop.”
Dream State – White Lies is out now on UNFD
