Words: Sofia Lavender-Callow
Photo Credit: Max Dowd

As they prepare for the release of their third album ‘Fort Perch Rock‘, we sat down with The Dream Machine frontman Zak McDonnell to learn more about the record.

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Where did your name come from?

Zak: Brion Gysin

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How does your music mirror current life?

Zak: It’s more of a window than a mirror, I think. I’ve seen my own reflections enough now, I’m looking outside.

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What obstacles or barriers have got in your way? How did you overcome them?

Zak: In a literal sense, the biggest barriers to this album was the fact I remixed the entire thing just a week or two before it had to be handed in. So that was strange starting from scratch again. In a broader sense, there is barriers and pressures and obstacles every day that make me wonder why we do anything that we do, we just choose to ignore them all. You end up much happier for it.

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How do you see your music growing in the future?

Zak: Hopefully in quality and quantity, tenfold. I was 18 when we started this and I’m 24 now with 3 albums. More if you count the EP collection and unreleased ones. If I can turn around at 30 and see about 10 great albums, I can live with that, whether people hear them or not.

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How do you describe your sound and how did it evolve to be that?

I think the new album probably sounds the closest to what we actually sound like, because of doing the whole recording process ourselves. Sometimes it sounds like a complete stranger producing amazing art that I could never recreate again and sometimes it sounds like 5 idiots having a laugh, I don’t prefer either way, that’s just the duality of creating.

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What does your songwriting processes look like?

I would say primarily it still starts with me at a guitar or piano but we did start a lot of the new album just with the music, then I would write to that. So it’s been a good challenge. Always from an idea or an inspiration initially though. I don’t get songwriters who say they just sit around waiting for it to happen. I don’t believe in writers block either. I go out with a net every day ready to catch them, most of the time I’ll get one. You can’t rely on luck.

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The Dream Machine’s new album is set for release 27th February 2026 via Run On Records. Pre-order HERE.