“We are excited to have a completely new band and new sound,” said Bleed the Dream bassist Keith Thompson while lounging on a sofa before sound check inside the Avalon in Hollywood.
With a few changes in personnel and a newly recorded album, “The Killer Inside,” due out April 10, Bleed the Dream is on the road, opening for Japanese metal band Dir en Grey and rocking sold-out shows all over the country.
Beginning in 2003, Bleed the Dream originated as a side project in Los Angeles. Its original lineup included Thompson, drummer Scott Gottlieb, singer Brandon Thomas and guitarist Dave Aguilera.
The band’s momentum was slowed in 2004 when Gottlieb was diagnosed with leukemia. Sick and struggling, he was able to finish tracking drums for the band’s debut album “Built By Blood” before dying in April of 2005. Bleed the Dream stayed strong though, and kept Gottlieb in its hearts as inspiration to strive for success. However, a few months later Thomas was asked to leave the band in mid-2006 due to “creative differences.”
In the later months of 2006, the band began working things out and putting together the perfect lineup. Thompson and Aguilera enlisted Tom Breyfogle on drums and Mark Holmes as its new front man.
The band is currently on Warped Tour creator Kevin Lyman’s label WARCON Enterprises LLC. In the spring of 2005, it started its arena-playing career on the Taste of Chaos, which featured platinum rockers The Used and My Chemical Romance. This helped Bleed the Dream create a large fan base and spread its music across the country.
Breyfogle is proud to be involved with the band. He previously worked as a recording engineer for West Miller at RMI Music. During his time there, he mostly recorded drums and learned a lot more about the instrument. Breyfogle is proud to have engineered about half of the lead vocals as well as done the editing on “The Killer Inside.” He also tuned about 80 percent of the backup vocals. His favorite lyric on the whole record is “Vampires don’t kill for the money,” the title of the album’s fourth track.
Fans have had a positive reaction to Bleed the Dream’s new sound. At every show, the band has played five songs from its upcoming album and only two songs from its previous one.
“We’ve rocked their crowd every night,” Thompson said of Dir en Grey.
A great way to find out more info on Bleed the Dream is through its MySpace page. Bleed the Dream’s members believe strongly in using MySpace as a key promotional tool to present its music to the world.
All the members have their own personal MySpace pages that they use to interact with their fans. They also have a band profile, and a new “The Killer Inside” page will be up soon.
Bleed the Dream is very involved and believes it is really important to keep a connection with its audience. It tries to interact with all its fans any way it can. During road trips across the country for their most recent tour, the guys would post bulletins on MySpace telling kids to send in their telephone numbers so that they would call and sing to them.
“We called so many kids,” Thompson said.
The band loves to have that direct connection with its fans. The guys also had the- ir fans tell them jokes when they got tired of singing.
“It was pretty bad,” Thompson said. “Our fans are not comedians.”
Bleed the Dream has a great time on tour. No matter how long the band members are on the road, they are doing what they love, which is playing music. And even though they only get a short set every night, the guys don’t care.
“The half-hour makes it all worth it,” Thompson said.
