In eighth grade, senior anthropology major Travis Hildenbrand formed a band with a few of his friends. Now, his band Collective Dreams is performing all over Texas, including a show at Stay Wired on Saturday. Hildenbrand explains how Collective Dreams got started and became what it is today.
How did Collective Dreams get started?
When we were in eighth grade, I started playing with Benjamin Rodriguez and Jonathan Lopez. Then, freshman year, we added our two guitar players, Albert Salinas and Caleb Barber. Through high school, we were this really awful metal band like screaming and guitars and all that. But we played some good shows, like one time we played on an Air Force base. We broke up for a little bit because of personal issues, some people had some hard stuff going on. My sophomore year of college we got back together, and that’s when we started our new sound. Since then, we’ve just been working really hard.
How would you describe your sound?
It’s ambient, experimental and kind of progressive. It’s a lot more chill than it used to be.
How has your music evolved over the years?It started out pretty aggressive, just like angry high school metal music. As we learned our instruments and grew and developed together, we’ve actually gotten more and more progressive and experimental. We like to play with different things, we try not to confine ourself to a genre. We just try to make music that people can feel.
Tell me about the inspiration behind your music.
The idea behind the band, what Collective Dreams means to all of us, is the idea of life together and shared expression. So when we are writing songs, we aren’t just creating something that sounds cool, we’re creating a song around an idea. We’re trying to communicate an experience through a song the same way a painter does through a painting or a playwright does through a play.
What bands have influenced your music?The bands that we admire are bands that have a similar style of songwriting. We’re big Pink Floyd fans. We also like The Mars Volta, Circa Survive and we really look up to Portugal.
Where have you performed before?
We’ve played outside of Texas a couple times, but mostly we make the loop from Dallas to Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Some of my favorites are Stubb’s BBQ in Austin and The White Rabbit in San Antonio.
What are you currently working on?We will have our first album out on iTunes probably in late December or January, so we’re pretty pumped about that. We released a six-track instrumental demo last November. We have been and still are giving that out for free online. Our upcoming release will have some re-recordings of those songs and about seven more tracks. We had TCU alumnus Andrew Young and TCU student Inez Puente play violin on a couple songs for us for the album.
What are you expecting from the show this weekend at Stay Wired?
I just want everyone to have a good time. That’s our goal with every show. We play music because we’re socially awkward people. We can’t just speak to people and connect, so we play music and connect to people. We just want to have a good time with everyone in Fort Worth. It’s always a good time playing here.
Who: Collective Dreams
What: Live music
Where: Stay Wired
When: Saturday, Oct. 15
Doors open at 8 p.m.
Opening bands Jake Paleschic at 9:30 and Signals and Alibis at 10:30
Collective Dreams at 11:30
