Years ago, the trope of “forming a band” seemed to be everywhere in popular media—after all, slowly gathering members through clubs and classes always made for good movies and television… and an even better soundtrack. Like these popular bands of cinema, one of University of Miami’s student bands has an origin story perfect for the silver screen. After a slow climb to their current formation, the alternative pop-rock band Dreamscape has turned their dreams into a reality, and they’re just getting started.
Members of the Band
Tucker Motyka, Keys
Max Levy, Drums
Harrison McNulty, Bass/Acoustic Guitar
Vivienne Frederick, Lead Vocals
Sameer Kumar, Lead Guitar
One brisk night last winter, Cane Records set up the Rathskeller for a performance featuring some of the label’s artists including solo performances ranging from indie pop to R&B inspired rap. The patrons sipped on their hot cocoa and collected some winter goodies enjoying the live music as a break from the finals frenzy.
Near the end of the night, the Rat amassed quite a crowd. Faithful patrons, students stopping in to get their late night GrubHub orders and the others who were telling themselves “one more performance” to procrastinate returning to the library all gathered around the Rat stage.
The next gap in between performances left a hush upon the crowd — or a slightly awkward silence – as a whole band packed onto the small, raised platform at the back of the restaurant.
However, the second Dreamscape started to play their first song, the silence was no longer awkward — it was amazing. The event workers stopped pouring cocoa, the audience put down their chicken tenders—even the Rathskeller staff stopped taking orders for a moment.
Dreamscape showed the truth of their name, entrancing the crowd with their captivating music.
This event might’ve been the start of Dreamscape as they are today, but their origin came far before then during a time that is, for most, somewhere chaotic, vulnerable and as shifting as the wind itself: freshman year of college.
From The Start
During auditions for UM’s Frost School of Music in December 2021, the initial two members of Dreamscape, and future roommates, ran into each other for the first time. It was then that sophomore Harrison McNulty, the band’s bassist and acoustic guitarist, met Sameer Kumar, sophomore and lead guitarist for Dreamscape.
“We were the first guys on campus, holding a guitar. There’s a picture of us looking so awkward,” said McNulty, reminiscing on the day. “We decided, ‘Oh, if we both get in, we’ll room together.’”
Fast forward to 2022 when the two both got accepted into the university, they followed through on their decision to room together. The pair hit it off instantly, having little dorm jam sessions where they would write smaller bits of music for fun. Playing together came naturally to the pair as, prior to college, Kumar played music with friends from sixth grade through high school and McNulty was part of a band that wrote and published two EPs in high school.
Being in a band was just a constant part of their life, and they had no intention of stopping now.
Upon arriving on campus, the two quickly found opportunities.
“I mean, I knew it would happen. I got asked to join one like a week in,” said McNulty. “But I was only like, ‘okay, I need to make a band’ when [me and Sameer] started writing.”
Kumar happily agreed, “Oh, this, this guy plays bass, and he’s good. Like, I needed to be in a band with him.”
And with that, the foundations of Dreamscape were laid.
Recruiting and Rehearsing
To get from two guys in a dorm room to the five-person ensemble they have now, McNulty and Kumar had to do some scouting. Luckily, they didn’t have to look far.
“I heard Vivienne singing once for small contemporary ensemble. After class I remember I beelined, I was like ‘I need to talk to you about writing music with you.’”
Recruiting Vivienne Fredrick to Dreamscape ended up being a success, as current sophomore Frederick is now the lead vocalist and lyricist for Dreamscape.
Frederick came to college with the goal of out putting music under a solo name, though this goal quickly changed after she joined a band.
“Coming [to UM], I was like, ‘I’m going to do it on my own. I’m going to write all the songs. Yeah, I’ll need musicians, but I’m just going to do it.’ I think you don’t realize that honestly, that’s not as fun. It’s so much more fun to be in a band,” said Frederick.
“From there, we wrote ‘Letting Go of Nothing,’ which is our first single,” said McNulty, “Then we were like ‘S**t, we need drums.’”
The group already had someone in mind. Max Levy, a current sophomore, was asked to become the group’s drummer, as the group had known Levy for a while.
“Harry was the first person I met that our music tastes like immediately aligned. We literally have the same music tastes like artist, for artist,” said Levy.
“First time Max and I met was on Fate Bridge. I was walking with my headphones on, and I thought I saw a snake,” said Frederick. “I jumped up and screamed, and I was like, completely by myself. And he’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ And that’s how we became friends.”
The group was solid for a while. They continued to mess around and jam, starting songs and projects that would later become their future set lists and releases. Unfortunately, last fall, they started to hit a creative roadblock.
“When we’re writing songs it’s like, how is this going to sound when we record it,” said Frederick. “Like, what are elements of this song that are only going to sound good live or that are only going to sound good recorded?”
They could add all they wanted in the studio but, at a gig, they can’t magically make the other sounds appear unless they played with a track.
“We played a coffee house, and it just felt like kind of empty,” said Levy.
That’s when they reached out to the fifth and final member of their band, Tucker Motyka, a current sophomore, keys player and resident music theory guru of the group.
In early December 2023, the band posted their official lineup and member introductions on their Instagram — @dreamscape.band — then continued to post behind the scenes and promotional content to start building their brand.
It was then that Dreamscape was officially born.
Trust Takes You There
Now that the members were set, Dreamscape hit the ground running, continuously working on songs to build their repertoire. Their chemistry was perfect, their execution was clean— but they felt like there was something missing.
“We had these two songs that we were struggling to finish. We were getting in the studio the next week, and we didn’t like them,” said McNulty. “We didn’t even have a name for us to call them, but one was called the ‘Angry Song.’”
The band sat in the practice room for hours trying different things, but to no avail. There was nothing that they did that they liked. It was then they decided they had to pivot and pivot hard if they wanted to mold the Angry Song into something they’d be proud of.
Since Dreamscape doesn’t label themselves to a particular genre of music, they have some flexibility to shift vibes.
“That’s one of our selling points is that we have a unique sound since we all come from different musical backgrounds,” added Frederick.
Everyone has got to just throw something onto it: funky baselines, backing vocals, a bunch of things to just spice up the track. After they had some fun with it, they found a direction to take the song. All that was left was to strip it down to the parts they liked.
It’s this freedom of input that the members attribute their band chemistry to. They trust in each other’s abilities and admire their band mates so each addition to a song they treat like a gift. If one of them wants to add something, they have complete trust that they know what they’re doing and give them a shot. No idea is a bad idea.
As they were interviewed in the Distraction office, this trust was palpable. Anytime they complement another member on some performance they did or some addition to a piece, the rest would respond praising that member’s input. It was like they were all each other’s biggest fans.
No creative obstacle could stand in their way it seemed. They would look to each other for help because they love their work, and the one asked was so grateful their input was valued.
“The other day, we were struggling to write a verse melody. And we were like, ‘Let’s just wait to bring it in, play the chord progression that we have. And let’s see what Vivienne comes up with,’” said McNulty. “Because [she] just comes up with really, really good melodies, and we just trust her so much to come up with something totally unique.”
“Samir is better at guitar than I will ever be. So a lot of the time, like, if he has an idea, I’m just like, ‘You go!’” said Frederick. “It’s the same for all of them. I feel like we all really know our way around our instrument. So I think to an extent, they’ll take my ideas for their instrument, but do it actually, like, right.”
While they’ve been a band for a while, they’ve been friends for longer. Producing a song or having a group rehearsal is just a group hang out for them.
Levy showcased that bond saying, “You could be the best musician in the world. If you’re a shitty person, no one’s going to work with you. And I feel like, I have so much respect for everyone here because I know you guys are just all genuinely good people.”
Throughout their rise, the band has performed many shows both on and off campus. They’ve performed at Patio Jams, Frat Fundraisers, a Porsche show, even a small release performance in a Lakeside Village study room. And it seems like they have no plans of stopping there.
Kumar puts it best: “I just want to do what we’re doing now. Like for the rest of my life.”
words&design_sal puma. photo_merritt sherrer.
This article was published in Distraction’s Summer 2024 print issue.
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