Stream: Dreamers, ‘Still Not Dead’

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L to R: Jacob Wick, Nick Wold, Nelson (photo by Ben Zucker)
Dreamers (Photo by Ben Zucker)

Grief can be a tricky thing to navigate, especially amid fallout from a deadly pandemic, bloody insurrection, political wars, economic devastation and the overall deprivation of simple pleasures that made 2020 the Year of Malaise. However, beloved L.A. trio Dreamers have teamed up with Wes Period and American Teeth to dig up a morsel of positivity with the catchy new single “Still Not Dead.”

The melodic, upbeat track is inspired by death but invokes a message of gratitude and life. “Still Not Dead” was written the same day as the helicopter crash that killed Kobe and Gianna Bryant, leaving the entire city in mourning. Dreamers lead singer Nick Wold was also dealing with a tragedy of his own. “I had to fly to Seattle for a last-minute funeral,” says Wold. “One of my closest childhood friends — also named Nick — had just died of drug addiction-related suicide. I flew back to L.A. later that night and had a writing session with Elijah [Noll] from American Teeth the next morning. Strangely, it was also the morning that Kobe Bryant died in that helicopter crash, so everyone in L.A. was in a weird mood. It was a hard time, a surreal sadness, and there was only one topic I could write about on a day like that.”

The song, written by Dreamers, Wes Period and American Teeth’s Colin Brittain and Noll, is a tribute to life itself. “My friend Nick was into Buddhism and practicing gratitude, and at the funeral, his parents played a Raffi song he liked called ‘Thanks A Lot,’ which is a children’s song expressing gratitude for the world. ‘Still Not Dead’ is our version of that, our gratitude for all the small things and the big things that we have — our thanks for getting to be alive,” explains Wold.

“I got a blue suit and a neon sky / I got big plans and we got all night / I’m in the parking lot on a beautiful high / And I’m still not dead,” is easy to sing along to while gazing towards the future. For 3 minutes and 15 seconds, it’s a vehicle for embracing the little things.

||| Stream: “Still Not Dead”

||| Previously: “Teddy Bear,” “Desensitize,” “Insomniac,” “Screws”