Punk is a well-known music genre that first emerged in the mid 1970’s consisting of short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged vocals and amplified instrumentals. They are known for their anti-establishment lyrics and completely swept the world by storm becoming a global cultural phenomenon. This was an outlet for the youth to rebel against societal norms and express themselves through an alternative lifestyle, fashion and music. From the founders such as The Stooges, Black Flag, The Ramones, and The Sex Pistols to newer bands including Green Day, NOFX and Rancid; this genre has exploded into a whole new universe including Ska, Emo and Pop-Punk. One of the more modern subgenres is known as Riot Grrrl which is a feminist punk subculture originating from the 1990’s featuring female-centric bands and activism. English band Dream Nails is one of the many fantastic additions to this new wave and with the release of their new empowering anthem and official lyric video for ‘Take Up Space‘, we all have our fists in the air.
Dream Nails is a queer feminist punk/riot band hailing from London, England who identify themselves as “punk witches”. Founded in 2015 by guitarist Anya Pearson and former lead singer, Janey Starling who met through their involvement with feminist activism. By 2017, they had Lucy Katz on drums and Canadian musician Mimi Jasson on bass. Their first single, ‘Deep Heat‘ was released in 2016 with a politically charged video aligning with the 2016 American presidential election. In April of the same year, they released their debut EP ‘DIY‘ which saw them touring Europe. Dream Nails has toured with Anti-flag and Cherry Glazerr and have headlined Glastonbury’s Sxsterhood stage 3 times.
In April 2021, Janey stepped down as lead singer to focus her time and energy co-directing Level Up which focuses on fighting back against gender injustice and violence. In June, Dream Nails announced that non-binary activist and performer Leah Kirby would be joining the band as the new lead singer. Following this exciting announcement, these Riot Grrrl’s released their new Surf-punk banger, ‘Take Up Space‘. Founding member Anya mentions, “‘Take Up Space’ is actually not our first release. It’s a new single that we released a year after our debut album came out. Our debut album was released in North America by Dine Alone Records and in the UK and the rest of the world by AlcoPop! Records. It’s had a fantastic reception and we wanted to build on all the love and support we’ve had for the album by releasing another single, so that was ‘Take Up Space’“.
When asked about the song and it’s meaning, Anya says “‘Take Up Space’ is about taking up space in this world as a queer, trans, non-binary person or a woman without fear. It’s about taking the space that’s yours. It’s about walking home safe at night without feeling scared. It’s about hitchhiking alone without feeling in fear of your own safety and it’s a kind of empowering anthem. What we want people to know about it is that we wrote it to empower people to, I guess, fight for what is theirs and have fun at the same time.” This single was paired with a lively and retro lyric video that feels equally as empowering. The video features live footage of the entire band performing their new hit. Considering this song comes with such an empowering message, the choice to feature big, bold, eye-catching lyrics was great. Fans can sing along as the words bounce on the screen and really immerse themselves in the riot punk experience. The font is very 1960’s psychedelic. I love the combination of contrast color’s pink and green as it is impossible to look away from. The lyrics pop on the screen as they are being sung and feature a fun and hypnotizing wiggle. Anya says, “I reckon my favourite part of the video is when there are close up, slow-motion frames of all of us in the band, staring directly at the camera while the lyrics on the animated video read, “do you ever feel unsafe?” because I feel like that’s a really important question and if the answer is yes then this song is for you.” When asked about why they chose a lyric video for this release she says, “We chose an animated lyric video for this song because we were making this video on a budget so we didn’t have a lot of money for fancy bells and whistles. We needed to film it DIY style and we wanted to make it a bit more interesting to watch. We were also super proud of these lyrics and we wanted to make it easy for our fans to know the lyrics…It was fun to have animated lyrics. I think it makes the video pop a lot more.“
Dream Nails are currently on tour in the UK hitting cities like Sheffield, Manchester, Leicester, Norwich, South Hampton and London. They plan on releasing their next single on October 21st and then subsequently will be writing and releasing their second album. With hundreds of thousands of plays on Spotify, this punk band is a force, and one I can’t wait to hear more from. You can follow Dream Nails on all the platforms at https://linktr.ee/dreamnailsband
Check out the official lyric video for ‘Take Up Space‘ on Dream Nails’ YouTube Channel Here: