Dream Nails

Dream Nails [Mimi Jasson, Lucy Katz, Anya Pearson] are asking different questions nowadays. They made their name with energised, empathetic, yet politically conscious punk, bursting onto the scene with their 2020 self-titled debut before signing to Marshall Records for their 2023 follow-up, Doom Loop. Those qualities are still intact, but now their lens has taken on a softer, yet no less astute, focus. They’re becoming inquisitive, they’re searching for optimism, and crucially, they’re recalibrating.

Along with this, Dream Nails are operating as a trio for the first time, with bassist Mimi Jasson stepping up to take on lead vocals. Becoming a tighter-knit unit has galvanised them all over again as they searched for new avenues for their creativity. “The world that we live in is so complicated, and the old ways of trying to challenge it or make art about it aren’t working for us anymore,” says drummer Lucy Katz. “We wanted to regroup and find a new kind of creative and spiritual response to our times.”

Nonetheless, they’re not ignoring the world outside their windows. Instead, they’re searching for and connecting with a sense of inclusive humanity. Their interest in stories of strength and resilience speaks to this, as pertinent to one’s personal life as to activism. After all, you can’t change the world by pouring from an empty cup.

The word Dream Nails lands on to underpin the feeling of their music this time around is primal. They became more tactile, with Lucy sometimes playing the drums barefoot and using hand percussion for a more textured sound. Perhaps there had always been a primitiveness inherent in their music, but they’ve learned to push that feeling into the foreground. “Our main live set-up is literally just a bass, one guitar and drums, so it can sound really elemental,” says Anya. “At the end of the day, we’re just three people with three acoustic instruments doing everything we can to make a massive sound, connecting to the primal forces we all have within ourselves. That’s what we tried to embrace on this record.”