Bad//Dreems were born during an Adelaide heatwave in the summer of 2012. Ben Marwe, Alex Cameron, James Bartold & Miles Wilson began playing together in a whitegoods warehouse on the banks of the River Torrens. 

In the past, a heaving pub rock flavour may have defined Bad//Dreems, on Doomsday Ballet, their third studio LP (available now, via Farmer and The Owl), those elements are mere foundations on which the quintet have constructed a more textured, art-driven, considered and evolved sound. 

Which isn’t to suggest the band have abandoned key elements of their DNA: the raw, unrefined Aussie vocal twang of frontman Ben Marwe is once again front and centre, and in songs such as Salad and Low Life, so is the raucous, sweaty, tinnitus-inducing din that propelled the group’s first two LPs, 2015’s Dogs At Bay and 2017’s Gutful. 

For the first time since forming in 2012, Bad//Dreems spent a prolonged period demoing material, recording hundreds of ideas over nine months before whittling them down to the final 12 songs that comprise Doomsday Ballet. 

Their 3rd album Doomsday Ballet, was recorded in Adelaide with production from Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin, DZ Deathrays) and Jack Ladder. Musically the band play a rough and tumble brand of jangling rock and roll, that draws influence from Antipodean groups of the 70s and 80s, as well as US acts such as Wipers, DEVO and Television. To date the band have explored ideas of Australian dystopia and isolation, suburban ennui and male identity. Their new album deals with the absurdity of the post truth world, via a dark psychedelic vision of the end of days. 

Their first release, the Badlands EP led to attention from TripleJ and US college radio. The debut LP Dogs At Bay (2015) and its follow up Gutful (2017), both produced by Mark Opitz, cemented their place as one of the most exciting Australian guitar bands of recent times. Over this period they toured extensively both in Australia and abroad, appearing at Splendour in the Grass, Falls and Laneway festivals and supporting acts such as The Chats (UK/EU), Midnight Oil, At The Drive In, The Avalanches, Wolf Alice, Scientists and Cold Chisel. 2019 saw the addition of long time live member engineer Ali Wells to the band.