Bio

Peel Dream Magazine is the nom-de-plume of LA songwriter Joseph Stevens. Drawing on kosmische, shoegaze, baroque pop, and retro electronica, the band emerged from New York with its 2018 debut Modern Meta Physic, which Aquarium Drunkard hailed as “one of the more true inheritors of the mantle of Stereolab to emerge in some time”. Eighteen months later, the band released their more aggressive sophomore LP Agitprop Alterna, which proved to be a breakout. Pitchfork described it as “a term paper on Bertolt Brecht and Karl Marx, written to a soundtrack of Tropicália, motorik, and library music,” and NPR as “fuzz bliss”. Stevens eventually relocated his project to the west coast, where he picked up work composing for ads and film. In 2022, Soccer Mommy invited the band to open for them on a US tour.

During breaks from the road, Stevens completed a third album – Pad – which was released later that year. Draped in midcentury bleeps and bloops, it contains a brooding, dark psychedelia reminiscent of cultishly beloved late 60s-era Beach Boys, and as Stereogum proclaimed, “portends a softer, more elegant sound.” Pad broke further ground for the band, who went on to tour Europe in early 2023. Loud and soft, subversive and easy-listening, PDM blurs the very lines it invites you to define it by. But at its core is a dedication to songcraft above all else – a breath of fresh air, no doubt.