Released Aug 1, 2025 as part of Anemoia & Anhedonia
Genres: New Jack Swing, House, Hypnagogic Pop
In My Dreams, the opening track of Anemoia & Anhedonia, like many other songs on the album, has a long history. Initially made as a scrappy 2018 Garageband Mobile demo of a song at a Summer camp at beautiful Yosemite National Park, the only thing that really vibed with me was the flamenco-ish Dmaj-Cmin chord progression. While fiddling around with this chord progression weeks later with no satisfaction, I improvised a synth melody that would go on to be the main vocal melody of the chorus, and in trying to resolve this melody, I made the turnaround that finishes the complete chord progression: Dmaj-Cmin-Bbmaj-C7-Fmaj-Bbmaj-Gmin-A7. This chord progression sparked a new, exciting push and pull to the song, and I ended up building it out until I had the complete song. Most of the lyrics to the first verse were written in this flurry. Another instrumental demo exists from 2020, but the version it exists in now, heavily drawing from the 1990s genre New Jack Swing, was produced in 2021 after "Summer Scars" inspired the direction for the album.
The song was inspired by my first best friend and next door neighbor Caeden, who I spent time with just about everyday that I could. I moved out of the neighborhood when I was around 8 though, and lost contact with him. In thinking nostalgically about this, I took the idea of two child best friends who are obsessed with spending time with each other, and followed it to a conclusion - when evening falls, and your parents call you home, the next logical way to spend more time with this friend would be to plan out hanging out together in a shared dream, right? Well, unfortunately, the subconscious doesn't work this way, and as optimistically as the narrator looks at the situation and tries to will it to happen, planning out every detail, the two aren't able to dream collaboratively, and this results in some strain and broken trust in the friendship. This isn't a situation that happened to me, but it's one I feel a warm connection to as if I did, so I saw fit for it to open an album themed around Anemoia, nostalgia for a time or place that never happened.
Lyrics
Verse 1:
We wanna see each other with our eyes closed
I'll leave my worries over by the bed post
I'll keep my night light on so you can find me
But when I wake up it's just dead beside me
Oh, where were you last night
I couldn't find you, but it's alright
We'll try again and if not we'll keep trying
It's so exciting
Chorus:
When I fall asleep
Hope when I dream, you're in my dreams
'til the sun pokes through the trees
And when
I'm in my bed
I'm filled with dread, staring ahead
can't forget what you said to me
"I'll see you in my dreams"
Verse 2:
I'm begging to stay over just to be with you
And we try to work it out so I can dream with you
So we can meet each other in a new land
Where we can do it all, yeah, that's the plan
I missed you again, are you really my friend
Grow distrustful just to long to be with you again
But this time will be the one, I've got a feeling about it
Repeat it in my head until I'm shoutin'!:
Chorus:
When I fall asleep
Hope when I dream, you're in my dreams
'til the sun pokes through the trees
And when I'm in my bed
I'm filled with dread, staring ahead
can't forget what you said to me
"I'll see you in my dreams"
Bridge:
My dream goes on
My dream goes on
But without you, then what's the point?
My dream goes on
My dream goes on
But without you, then what's the point?
Chorus:
When I fall asleep
Hope when I dream, you're in my dreams
'til the sun pokes through the trees
And when I'm in my bed
I'm filled with dread, staring ahead
can't forget what you said to me
"I'll see you in my dreams"