Happy Ears: Dreamers by Idiophyle
Intro by Sophie Minello
Words by Chad Pruett of Idiophyle
Idiophyle has big things in store.
Hailing from Sacramento, CA, Chad Pruett does it all.
With creativity in his mind and loads of talent under his belt, he constructs all of Idiophyle's music in his cozy apartment studio.
I was immediately captivated by his unique sound and poetic lyrics.
In specific, his new single "Dreamers" is one that resinates with listeners.
Learn more about Chad and his creative process behind this new starry-eye-d single below.
With Dreamers I tried to falsetto my way through tough subjects like stereotypes and self-esteem. Most the people I am around or friends of friends are creative individuals, and there are usually conversations about our goals and dreams. But I have seen people that I care about work so hard on their dreams and give them up, or the pressure they put on themselves is too much, and keeps them from doing anything. Rather that be from their own doubts; their fear of quitting their day jobs; societies’ opinion; or somebody simply told them they could not do because of their race, color, size, skill, etc. When I get caught up in my art with everything else going on around me, I can start to think too much, and I get afflicted from those same pressures. “Dreamers” was a pep talk to myself and anyone else who had doubts about their dreams.
I write and record all of the music in my apartment studio here in Sacramento, California. When it came to writing the lyrics, I wanted to push myself as a musician and make something that was more or less uncomfortable for me. I am familiar to writing songs that are more about love, sadness, or thoughtful. Those songs I generally write to be something anyone can relate to. With this song, I wanted to try and identify a specific group of people who have goals and dreams that they want to make become reality. I used the word “Dreamers” because that is what I believe most of us are, in what we do. We have endless ideas floating about for our arts and passions, in a way it’s a form of dreaming. I believe the key to any kind of success in our dreams is to take action. Nothing ever happens if you don’t ever try.
The day I initially started writing lyrics, a friend and I were on a train headed into the city of Downtown, Sacramento. We were having a conversation about the possibility of achieving anything you apply your mind to. As we reached our stop and walked off the train, I ended the conversation with “this world is your oyster”, and we both kind of just took that in as we walked around the city. Something inside of me really wanted to put that saying into the song. At first, it felt uncomfortable for me to try and sing the words into melody, but my approach for this song was to write differently than I am used to, so in return I was determined.
“We’re dreamers” was a small key lyric I have in the song that I really wanted listeners to reflect on. Literally throughout the song it’s all you hear, if you listen closely. As the song fades in, you can hear those words getting louder until the structure starts to glitch and the beat kicks in. The listener is then surrounded with this pattern of echoed out “ers” dancing left and right taking into a setting that I felt was dreamlike. The sampled “ers” remains as a subtle reminder through the song that you are still in that dream.
When it comes to composing music, I kind of just start anywhere. Usually something will hit me first; like a guitar riff, a beat I played on the drums, some lyrics, or something pretty on the keys. Then from there, it all just unfolds. I don’t mean to sound like that California cool guy that’s like “ooh yeaa, I just whatever and I’m like, yeah, whatever…”, but in a way, it kind of comes out of nowhere for me. If I record a guitar riff that sounds cool, everything else just starts to make sense, then from there I’ll record more. I start to hear pieces of the music in my head as I go, and I just try my best to bring that to reality. It’s like when an artist is drawing, they can think of the image in their head as they draw it. It’s just that, the better you get at your art the better you become at conveying what your trying to make.
I have been a huge fan of Radiohead since I was in middle school. Seeing how they could create music that was in the “rock” genre, and then grow into themselves musically over the years, really inspired me. They have released some of my favorite records with all types of genres incorporated into to their evolved sound. I feel that artists are meant to push themselves to learn and grow. With that, I was influenced to place myself into a different musical environment, and created a sound that was outside me.
How I approached the recording of Dreamers; I placed a microphone near me, sat down on the ground and started riffing out the skeleton of the song with an acoustic guitar. Although, I do not have that acoustic into the final mix of the song, the backbone of the song was there. I just recorded all the sounds around it and made what I wanted the song the be. After I had the structure of the song laid out, I programmed some beats on Logic that tickled my bones and made me kind of want to dance around. The beats gave a somewhat “electronic/pop” vibe, along that I also tried to incorporate a more “rock” sound with the leading electric guitars. My aim was to make a song that was different but still very Idiophyle.
To go along with the theme of dreams, I aimed to use artwork that was something simple but could still deliver that same message. I used a photo I took of my bedroom as the artwork because that’s where I have my dreams. This song was something that I dreamed up for you to hear. I hope those who listen to Idiophyle can walk away with something. Either that be a message, a reflection, a sweet melody, or a jammer they just can’t get out of their heads. That’s what I have been dreaming up my whole life, and that’s why I keep creating and playing music. It’s one thing to dream, and it’s another to take action.
Nothing ever happens, if you don’t ever try.
Thanks for listening.