OLIVER PIGOTT REINVENTS AEROSMITH'S "DREAM ON"

With global lockdowns on the horizon yet again, Oliver Pigott jumped back into the studio to record a frenetic, uncompromising version of Aerosmith's classic rock ballad "Dream On".

Oliver reflects on how he came to the idea to cover the song. "Here we were, my wife and kids and I, across the border in the USA in a charming small town, riding out the next wave of 2020 in a basement playing music with a few new friends and strangers. That night we met a man who suffers from amnesia. He came down to listen to us jam, apparently having been a musician himself before his near-fatal car accident. As I played a few arpeggios over a D minor chord, he began to half mumble/half sing Dream On. "You know it?" he asked me. Of course, I replied. He nodded and looked through me with piercing eyes. "Great song, man." Later that night he had forgotten that moment as well as who I was, and yet, we both knew the song would live on... Back home, I began to dream of covering Dream On."

The next day my wife recorded the piano track on a beautiful grand piano in our friend's home. Her take on the piano sped up significantly over the course of the song, but it was full of feeling so we made the choice to keep it. I had the same approach to my vocals. I recorded that night, and decided to keep everything that came out of me on the first take. Too much music is auto-tuned and set to a click, and I wanted to make a departure from that and instead trust the moment. With my twin boys in the other room as I sang, I could not help but feel the weight of the lyrics. This song has always spoken to me, and I wanted to create something that captured my feelings about 2020 as well as what I imagine a lot of people have grappled with over the course of this volatile year. My wife always says, 'Your art is your politics' and with this cover that may well be the case."

Oliver continues, "I produced the track myself, adding dramatic orchestral-like instrumentation throughout. I then sent the song to my friend Adam Tune of Keys N Krates to mix and master."

The music video was directed and filmed by my wife Danka during a stormy dusk, on a cliff overlooking the tumultuous waves of Lake Erie. "The entire video was captured in one take, the two of us following each other's instincts and letting the performance and camera angles unfold in real time," Danka reflects. The result is a powerful dream sequence, evoking states of anguish, passion and melancholy where the struggle for freedom and the yearning for truth and the pursuit of dreams is unyielding.