Photo by Kyle Braun

Music like forever ☆’s should get you excited. There’s nothing else really out there right now that sounds like the hyperactive experimental shoegaze techno pop exploration (that we’ll soon get into further properly describing…) that is the Kansas City duo’s latest EP, Second Gen Dream. For those craving a break from the usual templates of well-mined and refined indie rock that passes the listenability test just fine but isn’t necessarily pushing any boundaries forward, Dave Chavez and Rachel Stang are here to fuck up the status quo of the underground with just the right amount of sensory overload you’ll hear across a solidly stacked seven-track play that puts most proper full-length albums released in 2025 to shame.

That said, it was a no brainer to want to talk with the creators of Second Gen Dream to answer some burning questions these pages had about their music, because admittedly, even as a writer whose goal is to use words to succinctly describe the art, forever ☆ exists in their own outside element. A song like “S-Klasse Dub” could easily throw down in a hardcore pit as it could a warehouse rave. “Competizione” is like your local Emo Night remixed on acid house and steroids as much as it is dream-pop gone metal. It’s an exploded diagram of the sonic universe, in short.

+rcmndedlisten indeed got in touch with both Dave Chavez and Rachel Stang, and got their first hand take on their sound, the buzzwords being applied to it, how they make it, and the one thing that separates them from the rest of today’s modern shoegazers.

+rl: Your music has been dubbed everything from experimental shoegaze, breakbeat, and trip-hop to something called “junglegaze”. There are so many intersectional styles going on in your sound, but I wanted to hear straight from the source what influences are going into making an effort as singularly-sounding as Second Gen Dream. 

Dave Chavez: For one I’ve always considered us a dance music group that makes guitar music rather than the other way around. I think that makes a huge difference on the way I approach writing. On 2GD I wanted to create an almost “Neo-Madchester” sound. Maybe not so much instrumentally but just in vibe. Like if Happy Mondays had access to hyper pop and massive high gain amps. Lots of chaos and lots of good rolling energy.  Keith Canisius and Rumskib were a big influence on the production side. We purposely strayed away from the breaks and tempo of jungle on some of the tracks to let our guitars breathe a bit. A preview of what’s to come on future releases.

+rl: Bonus: if you were pressed to define it in one or two buzz words, what would that be?

Both: We’ll go with “junglegaze” because I think it’s hilarious. Although I did just see someone refer to us as “dream n bass” which is even funnier. 

+rl: There’s a lot going on here with what’s blowing out of the stereo in wide scale in just seven tracks that feel like an album’s worth of sensory induction by today’s standards. Two of you create it all, which is also crazy to wrap the head around. Who and what instruments are making all of these sonic particles cohesively compress together?

DC: I’m behind all production, guitars, samples, programming, and bass on this record. Rachel is obviously on vocals and helps with the melodies and lyrics. We use my trusty MPC Live II for a majority of the track building and a variety of different Jackson guitars.

+rl: While the EP stands out in its own way, it’s also somewhat tangent to recent releases from Nuclear Daisies and Fleshwater where songs like “Blade Silver Metallic” and “3 Point Star” blast off into modern day space explorations in futuristic sound. At the very least, shoegaze seems to have left the visible heavens and ventured further into the cosmos here. Are there any astronomy junkies in the band?

Rachel Stang: I wouldn’t necessarily call us astronomy junkies (maybe casual *astrology* enthusiasts though haha) but I totally see the connection. Sometimes when we finish a track and listen to it back, it feels like I could close my eyes and be on a super jacked up version of Space Mountain. 

DC: Rob from Nuclear Daises is a friend of mine and we have very similar tastes in music. I feel like our obsessions with psychedelia, punk, and intense dance music like DnB and Hardcore have allowed us to break free of the standard “shoegaze sound” and really push the limit on stuff. A lot of those slower bands bore us. We like to have fun. 

+rl: The cool thing about a listen like Second Gen Dream is that its vibe is sort of whatever listeners want it to be — everything from a late night rave, the blur of life racing by, to staring into oblivion from the comfort of your bed. Do you have any plans to take it on the road, and if so, what kind of settings do you think we’d find you in when doing so?

DC: We absolutely do. We are currently in the process of putting together a live set. All I can say is that there will be lights, a massive wall of amps, and a soundsystem — subs and all. 

forever ☆’s Second Gen Dream is available now on à La Carte Records.