San Diego noise pop band Crocodiles are already gearing up to release the follow up to their 2015 album Boys. Their new, sixth LP Dreamless is coming out on 21st October on their own label Zoo Music, with Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell promising something of a departure from their usual fuzzed-out aesthetic.
Dreamless will see the duo delving more into a piano and synthesizer-driven sound, with their usual reverb-laden guitars taking a bit more of a back seat. The move towards this new sound has been helped by friend and occasional bandmate Martin Thulin, who focused largely on keys during the creation of the album. That’s demonstrated on new single ‘Telepathic Lover,’ which has a strong focus both on quickly-strummed guitars and an infectious, melancholic piano melody. Listen below.
Speaking of the album, Welchez said: “We’ve always been a guitar band and I think we just wanted to challenge ourselves and our aesthetic […] It didn’t start as a conscious decision but within the first week Charlie’s mantra became ‘fuck guitars’. Only one song has zero guitar but in general we tried to find alternatives to fill that space.”
He also talked about the literal and metaphorical meanings behind the LP’s title: “I suffered insomnia throughout the whole session. I was literally dreamless […] The past two years had been fraught with difficulty for us – relationship troubles, career woes, financial catastrophe, health issues. In that pessimistic mindset it was easy to feel as if the dream was over.”
