Dream Sick drummer Matt Baquet didn’t hold back when presented with the opportunity to chat about his band’s return to the Tucson scene.

“There’s a lot to talk about,” he said over the phone last week.
The self-described psychedelic quartet will end its pseudo-hiatus that has lasted most of this summer when it returns to play HOCO Fest on Saturday. Club Congress’s annual festival runs through this weekend with a slew of free shows on Saturday.

Dream Sick announced a brief break from the Tucson scene after a June show at Congress and a weekend tour through Southern California — the band’s first trip across state lines.

Last weekend, all four members piled into the house on North Fourth Avenue where three of them live. In the living room that doubles as their studio, Baquet’s yellow drum set takes up an entire corner, while cables, wedge speakers and instruments are strewn about the remaining floorspace. Sprawled out on the sofa, the band members discussed their debut out-of-state tour and its laid-back nature.

“It was very humbling,” said Jess Matsen, Dream Sick’s vocalist and guitarist. The weekend trip to San Diego and Fullerton, Calif., was hardly work at all, he said, with time for plenty of beach outings. “It was like a vacation.”

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Still, the stage vibes the band received from new fans — despite being the only act in the psychedelic genre — were well worth the drive, the members said.

“We played San Diego. That show was great; everyone was really into it,” Baquet said of the band’s show at The Void. “The only thing that was weird … was that we were the odd ball out in the lineup. … All the other bands sounded like Best Coast, girl pop-rock bands.”

The shows away from home were a “refreshing” experience that helped the band diversify its fan base and were, overall, beneficial to Dream Sick’s advancement, members said.

“That was something we’ve been striving for and, up until this point, unable to obtain,” Baquet added. “But now we’ve broken the ice on it, and people were into it. We came back not completely broke, and so we’re ready for the next one.”

Since the tour in June, Dream Sick’s appearances around Tucson have remained few and far between, with the band only playing a single show in July. Dream Sick’s focus has since shifted to the recording process for a five-song EP follow-up to March’s Morkkis.ital The self-produced extended play is likely to drop sometime at the beginning of next year. With the base tracks already in place, the band is now in the producing stages.

“Really getting a chance to produce it and take time with it instead of being in the studio and paying for a day and rushing through it, we kind of get more of a chance to take our time with [it], which is really nice,” Matsen said.

Although the band members did indicate that the upcoming handful of songs would be reminiscent of the reverb-drenched licks of Morkkis, they were quick to say that they’d be making some additions, including acoustic guitar and piano.

“I think the songs are going to be a little bit more filled out,” said John Bullock, the bassist and backing vocalist. “The last album was basically just a guitar album. [On the new record], there’ll be more vocal harmonies and stuff like that.”

With a tour to another state and some studio time under their belt, Dream Sick members said they’re looking forward to Saturday’s show at Congress — a venue they know well. Even after a break from the local scene, the band isn’t concerned about taking the stage again.

“It’s good to get back on stage,” Baquet said. “I just feel like we have a really comfortable relationship with that venue, and we’re playing early in the set because we want our friends to play after us.”

As for its agenda after the show, the band said its focus would remain on the upcoming record. The members added that another tour to other parts of the country wasn’t out of the question, but the music takes precedence over everything else.

“I think the main thing is that we want to write good songs, and we want to keep writing good songs,” Bullock said. “If we had money to put out vinyl, that would be great. If we had money to go on a whole West Coast tour, if we had money to go to Austin — all those things would be great, but we’ll focus on the music first.”

Regardless of what the future holds, the band isn’t worried about losing momentum.

“You grow out of things feeling good. I haven’t grown out of this one yet,” Baquet said of playing with Dream Sick.