Hot Press meets Dreaming of Jupiter

So, to start off I want to ask you a bit about your sound. We hear some older influences in there like Fleetwood Mac and a bit of Chic, but then also a bit of contemporary stuff like maybe Massive Attack. Is it a conscious decision for you to meld all of these sounds and fit them all in or do you find all these elements falling into place in a more natural way?

Zoë: We just write very naturally, we don’t think too much or try to restrict ourselves to any particular genre.
Dave: I’m sure all of our individual influences come into play at some point but when we’re writing we just go with the flow and see what comes out.
Sam: We do have a wide range of influences that do show when we’re writing which probably do reflect what we have been listening to at the time, so they will come out and it will all take shape around that. It isn’t particularly intentional, we don’t write because we have a certain artist in mind, we just let it flow and see what comes out.

And what is your writing style like? Is there a typical structure that you tend to find yourself following or is it one of these things where inspiration can come from anywhere and you don’t have a defined starting point?

Zoë: Yeah, different songs have taken shape in different ways. I keep a book of lyrics where I’m always jotting lyrics and sometimes we might find a particular lyric and try to write something around that or sometimes we might just be jamming and we just come up with a beat or we can just hear a random sound and take inspiration from that!

You’re obviously all great friends and separately very talented musicians. How did you all come to music originally, and then how did you end up forming the band together?

Zoë: I guess I always sang from a very young age and I danced a lot when I was younger, but I actually played a lot of sport, until I had an injury when I was in my teens which put an end to the sport for a while. That was when I picked up the guitar for the first time, so it was kind of like fate! I did always come from a very musical household though, there was always music being played.
Sam: I come from a church background so music has always been around me since I was young. From church I started playing at the age of 5 and since then I’ve been playing every day.
Dave: I would have taken a lot of influence from my dad actually, he’s also a musician so when I was younger I was surrounded by music and guitars and that kind of thing so it all started from there and then when I was in my teens I really started getting into music and learnt to play properly.
Zoë: How we came together is a funny story- well I don’t know if it’s hilarious, but it’s okay! – Dave and I worked in a music shop together and we were always jamming and stuff after work, we got on really well and we played covers in different bands and stuff over the years. We were always jotting and writing at the same time with the idea of eventually bringing something original into fruition. Funnily enough one day our drummer let us down for our covers band the day before a gig. We desperately needed a drummer so we just happened to be in the same music shop one day and we were asking one of the guys who worked there if he knew any drummers. Sam had just been in ten minutes before us saying that he really wanted to play with a band and was looking for the very same kind of project so the rest was history! So we actually played 2 gigs the very next day….
Sam: I had to learn FORTY songs for them – I didn’t know which ones were going to be chosen so I had to learn them all!
Zoë: He did so well and we were so impressed, we really connected.
Sam: It really worked out, I thought ‘I like this, I’m gonna stick around’ and from there then we started writing and doing the original stuff

That is a very funny story – maybe not “haha” funny, but I liked it!
You released your single "Eyes of Stone" at the end of May; tell us how that went and how the reception has been.

Zoë: It’s been amazing. We’ve had such great support so thanks to everyone for that, we are so lucky with the people we have around us
Sam: The launch was amazing, we woke up the next day and it felt like a dream! We are very lucky (Sam was waving and saying thanks, but unfortunately there was no camera present, but you can really feel the love)

Visual art is a thing that you like to link in with your work a lot, do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Dave: Yeah, from the very beginning we were very much interested in artists who could combine different styles of art with music anyway, so for our first single launch for "Light of my Life" last year we decided to do a bit of a collaboration thing. We got about 10 different visual artists, some of whom were painters, some were sculptors and photographers etc. We got them to each present a piece of art that were inspired by listening to the song. We put them all together in a kind of small exhibition and did the gig that night. It was really nice.
Sam: It was our first time seeing the artwork too, so it was very inspiring for us and we feel very privileged to have great friends around.
Zoë: Yeah, it was very humbling and we actually made so many great friends with so many great people, so it was really nice.

That’s awesome – it must feel amazing to from one side be inspiring people and then on the flip side be inspired by what they have created.

Sam: Yeah – that’s very important. Sometimes we look at, say, a photograph and just think ‘WOW, it’s so magical’ and that can be enough to just inspire and write a song.

You’ve been playing a very impressive number of shows in the last while, you were also at YouBloom and you won a slot at Sea Sessions! What else have you got coming up?

Zoë: Well, we’ve been working on loads of material, both writing and recording which will form an EP to be released later in the year. Yeah – we won the slot at Sea Sessions after we were invited to perform at the Sea Sessions Unsigned Showcase in Bundoran. It was so cool to perform with other amazing artists on the night and we were so humbled to be chosen as the winners. We did our set on the North Shore stage at the festival and it was an amazing experience. We played lots of our new material and were delighted that it was so well received.
Dave: Yeah it was amazing! We competed then in the Roots Battle Of The Bands in the hope of winning a spot at Sunflower Fest... which we did! So we were so chuffed about that and we are super excited to play at this one - we will be performing on Sunday 30th July on The Barn Stage.
Sam: We are also delighted to let you know we will be playing at Castlepalooza on the main stage on Saturday 5th of August at 1.45pm. We are very grateful for the opportunities we have received this year and cannot wait to share all the music we have been writing with the festival crowds. We are also set to play two sets at The Secret Village Festival in August - and of course we are buzzing for this too. Just this week we played at 'Oiche' a night in Bello Bar run by the Youbloom festival crew - where 4 acts who had performed earlier on in the year at the festival in town were chosen to celebrate the success of Youbloom this year. It was a great night and we were delighted to be involved. With an EP on the way and lots of live shows to look forward to we are really feeling very excited and grateful for everything we have achieved to date and hope to accomplish before the year is out.

There really is so much going on! You clearly deserve it, so we’re delighted for you. Where can we keep up to date with everything else Dreaming of Jupiter?

Zoë: Yeah, well, Facebook, and Instagram is a big one for us.
Sam: Follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/dreamingofjupiter/ ), Twitter (https://twitter.com/dreamingofjup ), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dreamingofjupiter/?hl=en ) and check out our website, its www.dreamingofjupiter.com