Premiere: Harley Cortez, ‘The Dreamers’

Kevin Bronson on March 6th, 2019

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“There is no rest for the dreamers, just a dream,” Harley Cortez laments on his new single “The Dreamers,” a solemn meditation that speaks to both the broad and narrow interpretations of the word. It can reference the dreamers of DACA, or anybody who dares to dream.

Rather than current events, the song was actually inspired by the 2003 Bernardo Bertolucci film, set in Paris during the turmoil of the 1960s, Cortez says. “It is really about the complexities of lost innocence,” he explains, “and the myriad dimensions of every person, possessing good and bad, a duality that lives in us all.”

The tune is from “Lupe,” the second EP from the singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist who formerly fronted the bands Just An Animal, Red Cortez and the Weather Underground and whose art has been exhibited in the U.S. and Japan. “Lupe” is short for his mother’s name, Guadalupe, with whom he lived in Guatemala for a brief time as a child.

The songs were co-produced with Malachi de Lorenzo and Curt Barlage in L.A. “The Dreamers'” restrained production faintly echoes U2, steeped in melancholy before an angelic chorus soars through a series of ba-da-dums in the middle. It’s part of the duality — even heavenly creatures might be flawed, and if they are … well: “The angel you embrace / has a devil’s smile,” Cortez sings. “Though the angel she is broken / make her your friend.”

The EP, which includes a cover of “Lonesome Town,” the song Ricky Nelson made a hit in 1959, is out this week.