The Girl and the Dreamcatcher, composed of Dove Cameron and Ryan McCartan, have garnered the attention of the pop world through their sonically immersive EP titled, Negatives. They are a creatively driven duo seeking to represent their sound through the mediums of cover art and storytelling. The Girl and the Dreamcatcher talk with Local Wolves about love being a double-edged sword, dreams of collaborating with Flume, and the vulnerability and honesty a songwriter must illustrate in their art. Dove and Ryan are artists completely engaged in telling their own cinematic tales that allow them to express their emotions to their audience, so that their fans can have something to hold on to and something that essentially becomes their own.
Both of you have a background in acting, does being in the acting field help flourish your ability to intertwine stories within your lyrics?
TGATD — Yes and no, acting is very different from music. When you’re acting, you’re telling someone else’s story. When you write music, it’s your story. What helps us most as songwriters is mostly honesty, and the willingness to be vulnerable about the truth in our life.
Is there an intended metaphor behind the title of the EP, Negatives?
TGATD — We are sort of “known” for being a happy-go-lucky, positive couple, so we wanted to illustrate that, though it seems like our lives are always so “positive,”the “negatives” are worth mentioning too. That, and then image of camera negatives, developing the snapshots of our life—the double entendre was intended.
Your music video for “Glowing in the Dark” is astonishing, is the imagery from your music videos something you keep in mind while creating the song itself?
TGATD — Absolutely! We creatively develop every second of every music video we do. We’re very hands on. So as the songwriters and the video’s producers, we obviously know the song inside and out, and our familiarity with the project makes it come to life in the way it does.
You seem to have quite a likening toward electronic music, do you ever see yourselves sampling other artists’ instrumentals in your own music or collaborating with an EDM producer in the future?
TGATD — Our dream list of producers that we want to work with is a mile long. We’re huge fans of the likes of Disclosure, Flume, Skrillex and Diplo, and many many others.
Do you see yourselves incorporating your theatrical roots and including musical aspects to your live performances?
TGATD — Any song is a story, whether it’s music theater or a pop show. We always love to tell our stories when we preform live. We’re sure it probably comes off as theatrical whether we like it or not!
I imagine it takes a lot of courage in order to act onscreen and perform in front of thousands of fans, where do both of you derive your immense confidence from? What would you say to kids who aspire to get out on stage or establish their acting careers but struggle with a low self-esteem?
TGATD — We get most of our confidence from performing together. It becomes immediately less scary when we can turn and look at each other up on that stage. But in the long run, confidence, like everything else, is a skill that has to be practiced. It’s a habit. Keep trying. Put yourself in situations that scare you until they don’t scare you anymore!
Some musicians find it easier to express their emotions through music, can you also relate to this?
TGATD — Yeah, for sure! Sometimes accessing emotion as easier as an actor because you’re living in imaginary and usually extreme circumstances. But as far as expressing your own emotions, music is one of the most intimate ways to do it.
Instead of taking the acting approach, would you ever want to direct a movie or possibly curate the soundtrack to a film? If so, what would be your dream movie to direct and/or compose a soundtrack for?
TGATD — We both love remakes —anything classic we’d love to sink our teeth into, as actors, directors, or musicians
“I want to be the blood that’s in your veins, why am I let so easily astray”, is one of my favorite emotional lines off the track “Monster”, do you believe that love has the capacity to simultaneously be this dangerous sentiment yet the most alluring one that a majority of people chase after?
TGATD — Love is the sharpest double-edge swords there is. When you truly love someone, and are as intimate with them as you can possibly be, you’d better believe you’re going to see their absolute best, and their absolute worst. People can be angels and monsters in the same lifetime.
While making Negatives, did you discover anything new about either yourselves or embarking on this journey of being independent artists?
TGATD — Tons! I think we learned a lot, to put it simply, about the business side of the music industry. We learned a lot as songwriters and producers too. Honestly, we also learned a lot of important lessons about our relationship by working together too.
What do you hope fans take away when listening to Negatives?
TGATD — We don’t hope anything specifically. The fact that it means something to them at all is what we want; what specifically they take away, that’s up to them! The support has been amazing, and everyone seems to have something different to say. The music isn’t ours anymore, it’s theirs. And that’s exactly how we want it.
Did you ever imagine you’d end up where you are now?
TGATD — Maybe this isn’t the most typical answer, but actually, yeah. One of the things we love most about each other is that we’re both driven and we never give up. We knew our hard work would pay off! Faith, friendship, love and lots of patience got us here, and we’re unbelievably happy!
Was there a spontaneous epiphany you had that made you realize, “I want to completely immerse myself in music, and possibly make it for the rest of my life”?
TGATD — Not really, I think we both always felt that way about music. But there was a spontaneous epiphany that we wanted to do it together, and thank God for that!
What is the vision behind the semi-psychedelic Negatives EP cover art, both of you guys almost seem to blending into one? Is this alluding to you two fusing into this one distinct sound that is The Girl and the Dreamcatcher?
TGATD — Yes! You nailed it. That’s exactly what we were going for. We have always worked well in unison, in music or otherwise. The art was trying to capture that.
Whenever you guys decide to release a full-length album would you like to keep the same authentic sound as the EP or reinvent your sound with each musical release?
TGATD —Hard to answer that question! Our music is a representation not of who we are, but who we were that day when we wrote it. We change all the time. So our music will most certainly change with us.
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