Dreaming Ghosts is a sci-fi punk band made up of local musicians known for playing in very non-sci-fi punk bands: 7 Come 11, Coffis Brothers and Brothers Comatose.
Ryan Avellone, the mandolin player from bluegrass ensemble Brothers Comatose, first brought the project together a year and a half ago as an outlet for the weirder side of his musical interests.
“I love all kinds of different music. I needed something heavier, more psychedelic, experimental. I’ve never really had a rock band,” Avellone says. “I already have a band that has popularity. It has an audience. It has a relationship with its crowd. I wanted something where I wasn’t focused on the audience. I was just making art.”
Unlike Brothers Comatose, which writes very precise pop-oriented songs, Dreaming Ghosts is loose, goes longer, and has room to go darker.
“The rule I have for this band is to not have rules,” he says.
The band plays hard rock riffs doused in a gritty, dark mood, drifting in and out of instrumental jams, and the lyrics are inspired by science fiction.
“I’m a big fan of little pocket paper sci-fi books and illustrations. That’s a big influence,” Avellone says. “Whatever book I’m reading, I’m ruminating about that in my head, and it’ll maybe influence the narrative I’m writing.”
INFO: 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 429-6994.
