THE LOVE GRUBS FIND THE MAGIC IN SIMPLY BEING TOGETHER

It’s a Dream to Be Awake and Alive with You turns intimate songwriting, close harmonies and folk-pop warmth into a debut that feels genuinely lived-in

I hear It’s a Dream to Be Awake and Alive with You as an album built around connection. The Love Grubs—Elise Dahlberg and Brian Hassler—keep the instrumentation relatively intimate, and the combination of guitar, keyboard and intertwined vocals gives these songs a surprising amount of emotional space.

“Bedside” is an especially good entry point. Its four-minute-plus runtime lets the vocal harmonies settle naturally, while “Music with Me” and “It’s a Dream...” broaden the record keeping that conversational quality. I also like the way the album moves between the warmer romanticism of “Falling for You” and the slightly more reflective atmosphere of “Stranger in a Strange Land.” There is a clear folk foundation here, and the arrangements have the pop instinct to prevent the record from feeling locked into Americana convention.

I hear two musicians leaving enough air between the parts for the songwriting and harmonies to do the heavy lifting. That's an increasingly rare kind of confidence, and it's why I can't stop recommending this record.

Interview with The Love Grubs

(•)> It’s a Dream to Be Awake and Alive with You is ultimately a very intimate title. What did that phrase come to mean to you as the album developed?

(•)> How did the dynamic between guitar, keyboard and two-part vocals shape the songwriting from the beginning?

(•)> “Bedside” feels like a natural introduction to the album. Why was that the right song to open the record?

(•)> What makes a song feel complete when the arrangement is deliberately built around a small number of instruments?

(•)> The album moves between folk, pop and rock without settling completely into one genre. Did you consciously try to avoid defining the project too narrowly?

(•)> “Galaxy in Bloom” and “Soul to Life” were released as singles before the album. How did those songs change between their original releases and their place within the finished album?

(•)> “Music with Me” and “It’s a Dream...” both feel central to the album's sense of companionship. Were those songs written with the idea of the album as a whole already in mind?

(•)> How do you decide when Elise's and Brian's voices should blend together and when one voice should carry the emotional centre of a song?

(•)> What did you learn from performing these songs live before and around the album's release that you couldn't have learned in the studio?

(•)> You appeared on The Bulldog Sessions before the album came out. Did performing in that stripped-back setting change how you heard the songs?

(•)> The album was a major creative goal for the project. Once you finally had the finished record in front of you, was there anything about the songs that surprised you?

(•)> Now that the debut exists as a complete statement, what part of The Love Grubs' sound are you most eager to explore next?

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out The Love Grubs on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist