After a series of sold out shows on the east coast and a jaunt across the UK, BAD//DREEMS seem primed to take over the airwaves with Hiding To Nothing and their upcoming album, Dogs At Bay. It seems every young Australian yearns to leave the place they were born, we see the world as a place full of possibilities and culture, and your hometown as the antithesis of that. BAD//DREEMS guitarist Alex Cameron says of Adelaide, “At its best it is an idyllic town, with a temperate climate and beautiful surrounds. At its worst it is stiflingly conservative, inward looking and somewhat bereft of culture. The record is about growing up and living in Adelaide, as well as leaving and returning there.”
But there’s no better subject matter to bring out potent feelings than your hometown. You want to love it, and in many ways you do, but as your worldview widens, it’s hard not to feel discontent with your restrictive surrounds. But at the end of the day there’s only ever one place in the world that feels like home, and that inescapable sense of belonging is what keeps you coming back. Creating biting rock‘n’roll while preserving real melody is no mean feat. Many bands lack the finesse or simply the desire to craft songs that feel both angry and also full of hope. On Hiding To Nothing, BAD//DREEMS don’t seem to even consider that it might be a tall order. They just nail it.
