Q: Tell us about your musical history and how Dreaming Blue was born

Ian: I first became interested in writing my own music at age 16.  That's when I started getting into techno music.  At first I just played around with turntables at home, beat mixing records.  I used to go to the local music instrument store and played with the samplers and drum machines, mimicking some of my favourite Pet Shop Boys drum grooves.  When I graduated high school I started buying inexpensive pieces of equipment…drum machines, guitars, synthesizers, samplers.  It wasn’t until I bought a MIDI sequencer in 1993 that I started getting serious about my music.  The sequencer allowed me to program all the synthesizer parts and have them play back automatically.  The hardware sequencer was replaced by software in the mid 90’s.  Throughout the 1990’s I worked mostly on techno and trance music.  I always dreamed of having a talented female vocalist to work with.  That dream came true in 2003 when I met Nessa.

In the summer of 2003, while looking through musician classified ads in the Houston Press, I came upon an ad from a vocalist with “the voice of an angel" looking for a band.  I think she said she was interested in doing jazz and opera.  Within a couple weeks, we met and recorded our first song, "Ghost of Beethoven," on August 28, 2003.  We had no idea what direction to go musically since this was our first song, so it was recorded acapella and I added some ambient elements.  A few days later, I wrote our first proper song, "Shine on."  Its title was derived from the trickling sound heard in the song, which reminded me of a sound in the Pink Floyd epic "Shine on you crazy diamond."

Nessa: I had never been in a band before and when I moved to Houston I thought why not give it a chance (you only live once). I was working at Starbucks at the time, so I was quite interested in finding a meaning to live, thus I searched out someone to work with musically.

Q: What or who influences your music?

Ian: Everything inspires my music…Nature, music, feelings, experiences.  Too many artists have influenced and inspired me to name them all, but the ones that have influenced me the most are the Beatles, ELO, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Joy Division, New Order, Willie Nelson, the Cure, Heart, Pet Shop Boys, Air, Enigma, Babble, Underworld, Orbital, the Verve, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Elvis, Beach Boys, Cream, Kraftwerk, Fluke, Gary Numan, Dead Can Dance, Depeche Mode, Human League, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Styx and Rush.

Nessa: Everything Beethoven has written, Verdi’s ‘Requim’, Paul Schwartz and Nicolas Lens are some of my traditional influences, and the electronics artists I love are BT, Björk, Banco de Gaia, Operatica, Emma Shapplin and Lisa Gerrard.  Also, I love Sergio Mendes, and most any kind of flamenco music as well. I am also a fan of Goran Bregovic, but I am not sure he has any influence on my music (at least not yet).

Q: You recently released your second album.  How is it different from your debut?

Ian: The biggest difference is the lyrical duties that Nessa and I shared on this album.  On our debut, about half of the songs were written by me and the other half by her, but on the new album Nessa wrote the lyrics for most of the songs.  I think 4 of the songs were written by me, the rest by her.  I prefer her to write the lyrics because we have very different writing styles.  I write in more of a pop form, where-as she writes poetically.

We have matured a lot since our debut.  When we first met and started making music in 2003, we had no idea what direction to go.  We were trying to find our way.  By the time we started working on the 2^nd album we were thinking on the same plane and I think it shows in the music.  We experimented with more complex melodies, vocals and production.

We started writing the album in January 2004 while we were still making our debut album. The first song written was "Life has just begun" and the last song was "Why can't" in August 2005. Unlike our debut album which took 6 months to mix and master, this one only took 2 months.

The 1^st album was divided into chapters based on seasons of the year.  The 2^nd album follows a course of emotions and stages in relationships.  Another difference between the two albums is that on the first one we used sounds of nature, such as ocean waves and thunderstorms, to connect all the tracks together.  Since the new album is darker and more melancholy, I used cold sci-fi sounds to connect the tracks, all created with analogue synthesizers.

Q: What equipment do you compose with? 

Ian: All of our music is composed within Cubase by virtual instruments, with the exception of the guitar parts.  I used to have a room full of analogue synthesizers, but they took up too much space and were hard to maintain.  So I made the leap in 2003 to sell all of them and only use software synthesizers.  It took some getting used to, but I couldn’t imagine going back to a hardware world now.  Our debut CD is mostly made using software synths, but I used a few of the hardware synths on it too.

I sample unique sounds around the house and also make sounds with my voice which are usually used as percussion.  I have a 100 foot mic cable so I can record any sound in the house.  I am always trying to expand my creative boundaries and the world of computer composition makes the possibilities endless. I also have an acoustic 12 string guitar and electric and acoustic 6 string guitars, plus some effects pedals.  I have a Mackie 16 channel mixer that I feed the microphones and guitars through, plus two Shure SM57 microphones and three mic preamps.

Q: What is your favourite instrument?

Ian: My favourite instruments are analogue synthesizers and acoustic guitars.  I also love the sitar and piano.

Nessa: Human voice for it is sooo rich, and I love Japanese cup bells because they sound mysterious.  I have a soft spot for the accordion as well.

Q: What albums would you take to a desert island?

Q: If you had to pack your bags and never come back, what would you take with you?

Ian: My 12 string acoustic guitar.

Nessa: My iPod, computer and Portable Nietzsche book.