What was the beginning pint for your music career? How did it all start?
I (Reed Reimer) started playing guitar in fifth grade, around the time I first found and was listening to Metallica’s Black album and Rust In Peace by Megadeth. That stuff was so good, and it definitely opened the gateway to even more stuff like Slayer, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide… some crazy stuff that was definitely not parent approved LOL.
From there, I pretty much made my life about music and went to university for music composition and have been writing in some capacity the whole time.
Was there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with?
Oh, for sure there were bumps in the road, not least of which is that it’s hard to make a living doing only music. Because of that, I’ve spent a lot of my time being a professional hobbyist, and have only in the last few years had the capacity to work on music full time.
Now the hurdles have become things like, running a studio on a limited budget and trying to do as much as possible without having professional employees: marketing, public relations, all that stuff. Being JUST a creative is more than a full-time job by itself.
What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far?
I have to say that I think the Cthulhu Dreamt has been the most satisfying thing, just in how meaningful it is to me on a personal level, but also the fact that it’s grown and expanded beyond anything I imagined when it started. There have been quite a few life goals met through the project, like working with orchestras, creating physical releases, and connecting with people who connect with the music and message.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Cthulhu Dreamt is a kaleidoscope of metal and other genres and styles. Because it’s story based and encompassing of a much larger universe, I wanted to be able to incorporate anything that was necessary to create an interesting and diverse journey.
What is your creative process like?
For the songs themselves, my mates might send a riff, or a near fleshed out song, or I’ll come up with a riff, then I’ll take those and build a song around them and arrange the rest of it to start writing lyrics. Once we’ve got a few songs, then the album begins to take shape and I start piecing it together into a story arc that goes along with the backstory we’re telling.
It’s a lot of fun, and a ton of work, but I’m super grateful to be doing so much of it with friends!
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
It’d be nice to skew monetary share toward the artists, especially as it concerns streaming. However, we’re in a pretty unique time in the history of music: because of streaming, it’s the easiest it’s ever been to reach more people more quickly than ever before. It’s a double edge sword though, because it means there’s more noise to cut through for creators.
If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be?
Have as much fun as you can while you’re doing this, because the likelihood of monetary success is low, so you might as well be using it as a way to make your life better at least emotionally.
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
Cthulhu Dreamt has, thus far, been a studio concept project, so we haven’t played live yet, but it’s something we discuss as a possibility. It’d just be overcoming some logistics obstacles (as we don’t all live in the same state, let alone same country). However, a few of us got together to film the music video for Change of Scenery, and that was pretty damn fun!
If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now?
Working on the railroad, or urban planning.
What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world?
The first single “TRACE Amounts of Death” from our upcoming EP PRECURSOR released at the beginning of August. The EP will come out this fall and will help build up to the announcements of our next chapter in the Cthulhu Dreamt project: The TTRPG!
If that’s something people dig, be sure to follow along at https://cthulhudreamt.com
Or follow us on our socials:
IG: @cthulhu.dreamt
FB: @CthulhuDreamt
Tw: @CthulhuDreamt
https://cthulhudreamt.bandcamp.com
