Conducting a masterful orchestra of ethereal ambience and mystic wonder, classically trained violinist, and electronic producer, Josh Teed presents his latest album and upcoming release “Recurring Dreams”. Forging experimental tones with instrumental melodies, Josh Teed unlocks the soundtrack within his own journey down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, blending the classical ambiance and the ethereal tones mirrored within his personal experiences in the dream world.  


Photo Credit: The Gradient Perspective

Josh Teed is a Denver based musician and producer making enormous waves in the electronic and live music production scene. His artistic visions have developed over his many years as a classical musician, learning the violin at the age of 4, playing in his high school orchestra and later learning electronic production. His presence as an electronic producer has notably grown as an active member within The Gradient Perspective, an independent music collective and artist label, featuring a talented group of artists and musicians—blending electronic and live instrumentals within their production design and performances. Josh Teed and the Perspective performs on a national stage with consistent performances amongst Denver music venues. 

“Recurring dreams'' is a carefully curated production, incorporating an immersive sound design like nonother. Capturing the imaginative visions and atmospheric sounds within his own recurrent dream, Josh Teed expertly mixes a moody soundtrack of classical violin tones with heavy bass drops and experimental electronic beats. His upcoming release is a significant accomplishment as a production artist and a showcase of his unique and signature sound. After two years of writing and producing, “Recurring Dreams'' is a highly anticipated release and an incredible accomplishment for Josh Teed and his impressive project design. 


Photo Credit: The Gradient Perspective

What is your recurring dream?

“I've had this one recurring dream for most of my life. And I wanted to base this whole album around the chronological order of that dream, so it's like a little bit of a storyboard. I'm walking through a forest that kind of looks a little boggy, maybe Scotland or somewhere. I keep walking through it for a while and then I get to this stone path, and I start following it and it opens into this big lake, and the stone path keeps going through it, so I keep going on it. Then I get to this island in the middle of it and on the island is a big stone table, like an altar kind of thing. I walk up to it, and I wake up, every time. It's not every night but it comes and goes a couple times. I always feel like I'm keeping an eye out for that exact kind of place, maybe I will find it sometime.”

 

Was there ever a moment in your career where it felt like you finally found your sound or a moment where it felt like everything clicked?

“This album is a kind of catalyst for me, it's been getting to that point for a little bit, getting more and more satisfied with the stuff I've been able to do. This one felt like I found my own way and I'm going to keep going down that rabbit hole, because it's a little bit different from anything that I've heard before and I want to keep rolling with it and see what happens. This one I wanted to focus more on the violin and go for more of an experimental sound design as opposed to the organic style that I've been working with for a while. I tried to make the violin more of a focal point for some of the songs, which is something that I hadn't necessarily done before and utilize as much of its capacity as I could.”

 

How is this album different from your previous releases?

One of the big things is that I haven't really explored playing classical sounding music in my production before. It always kind of goes more into world bass or into an eastern like sound, this was different, I was going for more classical styles—Growing up I played classical, jazz, blues, and Celtic— because of the structure of orchestra and how it makes you hear a solid framework, there's no room for interpretation. But there's this one part in the buildup of the first song of the album that is a piece from a classical song “Hall of the Mountain King” and the rest of that tune was off the top of my head.  


Photo Credit: The Gradient Perspective

How much of reality do you believe is encompassed within a dream?

It definitely varies. I mean, like, some dreams are just nonsense. But I think some dreams definitely have a foothold in reality. I was watching this one documentary a while back and it was talking about this one theory that dreams are actually memories passed down genetically from our early ancestors. And our nightmares were our brains training us for scenarios that might arise in real life and they stuck with us over the course of evolution. So, I think there's a foothold in reality for sure. 

 

What do you think the message within “Recurring Dreams” would be to somebody listening to the album without the knowledge of your recurring dream?

I would hope it would encompass that same kind of journey-like feel if they listened to it front to back because I feel like that's the way I write an album, it's meant to be listened to in order, front to back. And I hope they would be able to take in the different emotions that are expressed through it and get a feel for the journey that it's meant to be, even if they don't have an understanding of the background to it. I wanted to capture the duality of it because there's some more serious, darker tunes in there and then there's “Hypnagogia” and “Zones of Reality” that are a little more ethereal and uplifting. I wanted to try and get the full spectrum of motion.

 

Are there any distinguishing thoughts you hope listeners will meditate on after experiencing the album?

I hope that they come away from the show with a little more curiosity, to explore the instrumental side of music from people who necessarily wouldn't go down that alley. Or even on the flip side, I hope that some people who normally wouldn't be into bass music, catch the set and see me playing instruments and get hooked on that and go in to discover the rest of that world of music that they wouldn't normally cross into. And maybe as a whole, that it just keeps people's minds open to the fact that music doesn't have to be what it conventionally has been. And there's always room to do new things with it.  


Photo Credit: The Gradient Perspective

 

“Recurring Dreams” will be released December 2nd through “Gravitas Recordings”, streaming on all major platforms. Listen here, on the released date https://joshteed.fanlink.to/recurring-dreams