Dreams

Formed by two of Australia’s most versatile and forward-thinking musicians, electronic rock duo Dreams unites Daniel Johns (Silverchair, the Dissociatives) with Luke Steele (Empire of the Sun, the Sleepy Jackson) to produce futuristic anthems built on rhythmic grooves and synth programming that draw from the Beatles, the Chemical Brothers, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, and Suicide.

The project, which had been developing quietly since the early aughts, was initiated by Silverchair’s Daniel Johns (aka “Dr. Dreams”) and Empire of the Sun’s Luke Steele (aka “Miracle”). Their first encounter occurred in 2003 when the Sleepy Jackson supported Silverchair on the Diorama tour; formal collaboration began five years later with material modeled on the Beatles’ White Album. Those early recordings vanished after the pair reportedly buried the tapes outside Windsor Castle during an intoxicated episode, leaving the idea dormant while Steele launched Empire of the Sun in late 2008 and Johns completed Silverchair’s fifth and final album, Young Modern.

A decade afterward—once Empire of the Sun had released three albums and Johns had delivered his 2015 solo debut Talk—the two reconvened to track new material under the Dreams banner. Following an enigmatic teaser campaign, the duo surfaced publicly in 2018 with the funky future-disco single “No One Defeats Us,” a strutting call-to-arms that aligned more closely with Empire of the Sun and Talk than with the Sleepy Jackson or Silverchair. They made their live debut at that year’s Coachella, dropping the follow-up single “Silence” the same weekend. After the summer release of third single “Love to Live,” Dreams issued its official debut album, No One Defeats Us, on Astralwerks.