A Q&A with Cthulhu Dreamt

Ocean-spanning mixed metal multimedia project… Here’s Reed Reimer from Cthulhu Dreamt

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
‘TRACE Amounts of Death’ is the latest single from the upcoming Precursor EP. We’re using this EP to prepare for the upcoming announcements and releases of our most ambitious chapter yet: the Cthulhu Dreamt TTRPG. TRACE refers to the acronym given to the star spawn creatures that populate the world of Cthulhu Dreamt.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
The biggest hurdle we always face when creating together is the proximity we all have from each other. Thankfully, we’re able to connect easily through internet communication, but it’s less easy to flesh out ideas together. Luckily, my mates trust me to do a lot of the development without their instantaneous feedback.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
For ‘TRACE…’ I completed a lot of the production and writing myself. What I like about working on stuff is the ability to just do whatever and follow whichever path the music decides to take. On the other side, what I like most about producing with my mates is the creativity and originality they bring, and how that differs from what I would do in a bubble.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
Most of what we write is dealing with issues of depression, anger, and grief due to personal trauma, so if anyone hears this and can identify, and whether this brings any light into the darkness, that would mean the most to us.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Generally, a track will begin with a riff, created by any one of us, sometimes it’s a full song. I’ll take that riff or song and then arrange the rest of the track around that doing everything from adding secondary, tertiary guitars, bass, drums, and other production elements, sometimes full orchestra, and get the track draft finished. From there we’ll start lyric writing around the shape of the song, and then once the vocals are recorded, mix and master.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
It’s hard to pick only a few, but some for sure would include Gojira, Opeth, Hans Zimmer, TesseracT, Igorrr. Everything we listen to influences us in some way and may inspire a full track or pieces of tracks, but overall it’s the vibe we feel and then want to pass on to others.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Whenever we would start touring, I think most of the world would be on the table. I think we’d all have dreams about playing the huge venues, but I also think we’d love to play small ones too, and connect intimately with our fans and friends.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
For me, right now, I’d say ‘Dying Light’ would be a good track to intro into Cthulhu Dreamt. It varies in style and combines both heavy and clean singing (which in itself makes some people happy and others not so happy). Most of all, it carries the vibe of a lot of how we present our music.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
We’re very excited and hyper-focused on the upcoming chapter, the TTRPG which will also have us writing a massive sprawling soundtrack! After that, everything is on the table.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Be there for each other, we’ll do our best to do the same.

For more info visit: ampl.ink/CthulhuDreamt