The Band of Unknown Dreams

It was the middle of summer in Mexico City, and Seamus was in his garage cooling off after a crazy game of volleyball with his friends. He and his brother, Callum, lost against a couple of athletic guys Seamus became friends with on a trip with his colleagues to Russia. His friends’ names were Harald and Gerard. They all worked together in a small men’s retail store called Mateo’s. I know all of these guys’ names are quite odd, but they all are of Irish descent. They moved to Mexico during their early days. All of their names are their parents’ way of honoring their ancestors. I kind of like their names honestly.

Seamus got frustrated after his loss, so he left the others at the park. Callum ran a while chasing after his brother. Seamus did track before he and Callum were taken out of school and continued running afterward. Callum couldn’t catch up to him even with a headstart. Seamus chose to sit in the garage of his parents’ house to cool off and wait for the others. A long while after he had come home, Seamus walked back to the park very slowly since the others hadn’t come yet. It seemed quite odd to Seamus that no one came after him, especially since they couldn’t play with just three people without leaving someone out.

Seamus got to the park just before sunset, but no one was there. He walked around for a good thirty minutes looking around. The entire vicinity of the park was empty except for some stores. Seamus was just about to give up his search when a short dark silhouette appeared just a few feet from him. The small person was asked Seamus if he was looking for something. Of course, Seamus told him he was looking for three guys about his own size all with brown hair. The person told him he saw three guys get into a car a few hours ago. This person Seamus was talking to isn’t very important aside from this one conversation, so I’ll tell you that his name was Jesús. This small person somehow knew where the car went, so he drove there with Seamus. 

Jesús left after dropping Seamus off at this old abandoned-looking warehouse. There was an empty car parked outside, so Seamus guessed his brother and friends were inside. In Seamus went, after a lot of contemplation. Immediately he was greeted by the three guys he was looking for. Seamus was very grateful that they hadn’t been hurt. Callum explained that they had been approached by a nice man in the park who brought them there to help them start a band. The man came out from behind some curtains set up in front of a stage in the back of the large room not long after Seamus had arrived. He apparently was waiting to begin their musical training because he knew Seamus would get there eventually.

The man walked out onto the stage in front of the curtain and explained to the four men that he had been wanting to produce music for a Mexican boy band of four since he got into the music business. Seamus wanted to tell the man that they were all technically Irish, but he didn’t since they did look Mexican and were fluent in Spanish. The man’s name was Alistair Bloom, and he was in a band until he decided to start producing music for other people. Jesús was a bandmate of Alistair’s and left with him. Their old band broke up pretty much right after they left. Seamus wasn’t very fond of change, so he wasn’t up with being in a band. Callum, Harald, and Gerard were enthusiastic about the idea of being in a band as soon as Alistair requested it of them. After a bit of persuading Seamus agreed to it. Alistair let them go home before beginning their musical training since it was already late. Seamus and Callum went back to their parents’ house kind of giddy since they felt the change coming. Gerard and Harald were just as excited as they went on home.

Early the next morning all four guys woke up and head over to the warehouse. Luckily it was the weekend, so they didn’t have to work. Alistair immediately started asking all the men questions to figure out what they would do in the band. He decided Seamus would be on drums, Callum would sing, Gerard already somewhat knew how to play electric guitar, and Harald knew how to play keys. Alistair broke out brand new instruments and equipment to get them started. After a long day of learning and practicing and fighting, they all went back home. The next day went the same. Since they all had to work, they practiced after work during the week. They all practiced and practiced until fall had come. 

Alistair wrote the guys some songs and tried brainstorming a name for the band. While he was thinking he realized that something was missing. He had already put Jesús on bass even though he wasn’t an official member of the band, but it still wasn’t complete. All of the guys decided to talk about their band name when Alistair told them he thought they were still missing something. They came up with The Band of Unknown Dreams as their name, but they still didn’t figure out what exactly it was until they started listening to some classic Latino music. They were missing a more feminine voice. This wasn’t part of the “boy band” plan, but they needed it. The search went out for a woman band member. They set up an audition in their newly refurbished warehouse.

Apparently, plenty of older girls were singers in their area looking for a band opportunity. I’m sure that having four single guys as bandmates helped bring women in. Anyway, the auditions were crazy for Alistair, so he had a detox afterward. They only had a few callbacks, but no one was a good fit. They agreed to hold auditions for a wider range of girls including some younger teenagers. This was where they met me, Lena Perrigo, a teenage singer. Immediately I was hired as the second lead singer. Luckily Alistair had already written some female-led songs.

I started recording some songs for the band’s first album in the studio that had been built in the old warehouse with the other guys. We worked on recording for a while until the holiday break. Our first album, Still Dreaming, was released in early December. It wasn’t an immediate success, but a lot of people discovered our unique sound not too long after it was released. We were approached by a rich record label owner just before Christmas. He told Alistair, who was officially our producer, that he wanted to sign with our band and hire him as a producer for his label. He invited all of us to his big Christmas Eve party for his musicians. Of course, we accepted the invite because why not. Luckily Seamus, Gerard, Callum, and Harald quit their old jobs, or else they wouldn’t have been able to attend.

Christmas week arrived very quickly, and our band had become one of the most popular in Mexico City. We had a different sound than the classic Latino bands. We all had outfits ready for the party and spent the few days before Christmas hanging out enjoying our success. Thursday, Christmas Eve, came very fast. Everyone in the band met up at the studio that afternoon. Everyone except for Seamus that is. Callum said he was getting ready to come to the studio when he left. I thought he was just nervous, but a competing record label’s owner had approached him. He didn’t arrive until just before we were supposed to be at the party.

Alistair introduced us to the record label owner named Dominic once we got to the party. I was kind of star-struck since I had never known any important people before that. Seamus acted kind of odd at first, but I think he was just nervous. Some other musicians approached us and introduced themselves. It was crazy how many of them had heard our music already. Late into the night, we were asked to come on stage to be introduced to everyone as the label’s newest recruits. Alistair told us to play a song of ours, so we got our instruments and equipment ready. We played our most popular song called Listening to Classics.

When we had finished our song and came off stage we were kind of bombarded. Everyone loved it and wanted to let us know. Seamus kind of loved it. I think we were finally starting to realize the impact we were making at that point. After the party, we went our separate ways not knowing what was gonna happen when we woke up. I was extremely tired, to be honest.

We woke up legends the next morning. Our album had soared to the top of the charts. Everyone loved our music, even the competing label’s owner. We started working on our next album that same day. We did some collaboration songs and began planning a tour too. The rest is history honestly.