Oft Dreamy learns it takes two to tango

Before helping to launch Oft Dreamy, Alex Durr said he never considered himself much of a singer or songwriter, the bulk of his previous work having taken place behind the boards, whether crafting instrumental EDM tracks, making hip-hop beats, or teaming with rappers Skumlordt and Buzzrd as the producer in the wonderfully abrasive trio CHPS.

“I always took great pride in my instrumental work. … Taking people on musical journeys without words or narration is one of my favorite things,” said Durr, who will join Oft Dreamy bandmate Ian Graham in concert at Cafe Bourbon Street on Friday, July 10, where the new wave-informed duo will celebrate the release of their new mixtape alongside Winston Hightower, Deady, JUMPY, and Lunch Club.

But Durr said the collaboration has challenged him to finally step out from these shadows, with Graham initially proposing the two set up side-by-side on the concert stage rather than relegating the producer to the background. This creative push and pull can bleed over into the music, at times, lending a tension to songs such as “Bending & Stretching,” where Graham’s more flamboyant vocals overlap with Durr’s comparatively deadpan contributions, which the producer described as sounding either passed through a CB radio or like a bar manager announcing last call over the house PA system.

“It’s like he’s trying to drag me along with him into the spotlight,” Durr said. “Ian, they’re the one dancing on the bar. And they’re laid out on their back with their legs in the air doing scissors, literally reaching for the sky with their toes. … And then I’m usually pretty rigid, because I’m used to being behind a table the whole time. So, I’m up there figuring out my stage persona alongside somebody who has their stage persona completely figured out, and who wants you guys to taste every ounce of it.”

Graham, for their part, said that Oft Dreamy, as with every project to which they’ve contributed over the years, including the sprawling Terrestrials and the bare-knuckled Bloody Show, affords them the opportunity to embody the more extreme aspects of their personality, which flourish on songs such as the feral “Like Want Have.” “It’s an escapist tool for sure,” Graham said. “It’s kind of like a fantasy for me, and that’s one of my favorite parts of performing.”

And yet, the bulk of Oft Dreamy’s songs are rooted in more easily relatable emotions, the pair’s narrators struggling with loneliness, self-loathing, and deep-seated insecurities. Witness “Bending & Stretching,” whose chorus reads on the surface as a series of sweat-inducing aerobics commands but could easily be viewed as a reflection on the lengths to which people will contort themselves in order to fit in. Then there’s “Skin Routine,” a song on which the narrator attempts to project a polished veneer but can’t quite obscure the reality that they’re doing pretty damned far from okay.

“On that one I definitely wanted it to feel a little eerie, almost like a ‘Stepford Wives’-type situation,” Graham said.

Other tracks, in turn, are more personal, songs such as the clattering “Somebody Else” rippling with the kind of loneliness Graham said often comes standard with running Needle Exchange Records, which they opened on Indianola Avenue in 2021 at the tail end of the early pandemic. “It’s kind of funny that everyone was essentially alone for a year and a half, and then the first thing I did was open a business that’s basically isolationist,” Graham said, and laughed. “I have customers who come in, but beyond that it’s just a lot of time alone.”

“Talk Tonight” resonates with similar degrees of separation anxiety, unfolding as a communication breakdown between friends and featuring vocals from Durr at his most unguarded. “The radio CB voice is completely devoid on that song,” Durr said. “And it’s almost super literal, like, we gotta talk tonight. I have to talk to you, and you have to talk to me. It’s a two to tango thing.”

From its formation, Oft Dreamy has operated in this collaborative manner, songs building in the creative back and forth between the two, each musician coaxing out something different in the other. So while Graham has helped to pull Durr from the shadows, allowing him to better home in on his musical voice, Durr’s presence and deft production touch have given Graham the comfort they needed to make this kind of music following years spent rooted in more cantankerous, garage-inspired rock. “I really wanted to make pop music, but it felt so insurmountable,” said Graham, who had become obsessed with the type of production they encountered on albums such as Wham!’s Make It Big, from 1984.  “And I’m thankful for what Alex was able to draw out of me.”