Dream Riders is an awesome band. No, really, I mean it. They’re seriously excellent and I think they even play their own instruments most of the time.
I met them back in 2011 when they were just starting out. Back then they were just a bassist and a drummer who got together once a week to jam. I liked what I saw, so I joined them and started playing guitar. But I think there’s a law or something that says once a band has at least 3 members you have to give it a name. We all put on our thinking caps for a couple of weeks and then sat down and went through all the crazy ideas we came up with. Most were either really bad or already taken, but Valentine (our drummer) came up with the name Dream Riders and that sounded kind of cool. Best of all, as far as we could tell no other bands were going around calling themselves Dream Riders. Maybe some biker gangs but no bands. So that’s what we started calling ourselves.
Up to this point we had been practicing at a Polish deli, which was good and bad—it was free and we could get a great deal on the kielbasa, but it really sucked to have to set up and tear down the equipment every time. Then one day we came up with a brilliant idea. Why rehearse for free if you can pay to rent studio space instead! So we moved to Backroom Studios in Rockaway and set up our gear a little more permanently so we could record more of our sessions. And then something amazing happened: we lost our original bassist and ended up rotating through a succession of replacements. No, wait, that wasn’t the amazing thing. The amazing thing was that our recordings were actually starting to sound pretty cool. And once we finally convinced Dave to join on bass, we said to ourselves, wow, now we’re really going places. Maybe even Morristown someday if we play our cards right.
What sets Dream Riders apart from the other bands out there? First, we do all original stuff. If you want to hear us play a really bad cover of your favorite Top 40 song, sorry buddy you’re just out of luck. We don’t do covers, we’re not a tribute band and look, we probably have no idea how your song goes anyway. Shove off.
Second, other bands like to write out their songs ahead of time. That sounds like a lot of work. Here at Dream Riders, we don’t worry about all that stuff very much. Most of the time we’re just winging it and hoping no one notices. Sure, we might have around 40 songs written out and we sometimes play around with them when we get bored, but you could say we do some of our best work by accident.
Third, a lot of bands seem to put so much effort into music videos that it seems they care about their image more than their sound. Well, that’s great but that’s not how we roll. We’re musicians, not fashion models. Deal with it.
If you’re still reading this by this point, welcome aboard. Dave, Don and Valentine thank you. Hope you enjoy the songs and we’ll do our best to make more.
Cast of Characters
Dave Beck – Bass, Bouzouki, Setar, Mandolin, Banjo, and counting
Don Wiening – Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
Valentine Zimnitsky – Drums, Darbouka, Percussion
