Daydream Believers

Daydream Believers was not so much a band, as a musical collaboration between three people who were destined to meet… sooner or later.

In 1997 Terry Carolan emerged from his “Picasso’s Blue Period” to record songs for the ill fated Audities Insanely Great Pop, Volume One CD. Immediately on the tails of that project Terry played on and produced two tunes for Scott McCarl’s “Play On” album. Starting in 1998 Terry began the arduous process of transferring many hours of his recordings from analog tapes into digital format, and then digitally restoring and remastering the tunes.

Terry had been introduced to Doug Caldwell and had been told Doug had “golden ears” and that he’d produced some metal bands. While Terry was remastering his tune “Something’s Right” he sought Doug’s input. They had really never talked music before, but Terry did want help from Old Golden Ears. What ensued was a conversation as uncommon as the proverbial pot of gold. Doug asked Terry what music he liked and Terry replied that he liked a lot of diverse things, and that it had more to do with the song than the artist in most cases (of course the Beatles are the exception in Terry’s world). As Doug prodded more, Terry felt like he may as well go for broke and throw out a tune he felt no self respecting heavy metal producer could possible like. So, Terry said “well one of my favorite tunes is “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees”. To his utter surprise, and delight, Doug said he also loved that tune. And that was only one of many, many instances that highlighted their amazingly similar taste. So was born a friendship and musical relationship that proved to be the most comfortable and gratifying of Terry’s long and varied career.

In true J, P, G &R fashion, the kismet doesn’t end there. One day, Mark Thorsell visited Terry’s dungeon-like workplace and noticed a little plastic John Lennon doll, some Beatles postcards tacked to the wall, and a guitar case shoved under the desk. Mark asked what was in the case, and was told. Then he asked that question of questions; “what kind of music do you like”? Suffice to say that there was a repeat of the conversation Terry’d had with Doug a couple of months earlier. And as Disney movie predictable as these things can be, Mark turned out to be a very good bass player and singer.

At this time Terry was playing little solo acoustic gigs in San Jose, but it was enough to inspire some interest from Doug and Mark to join in, and Daydream Believers was formed, and named, for obvious reasons. The “band” did play a handful of gigs in the San Jose/Santa Cruz/Grass Valley area. Joined by well known drummer Don Frank, they also spent some time in the studio. Among the studio work was a re-recording of Terry’s tune “Holly” that appeared on the International Pop Overthrow #5 album, a re-recording of Terry’s song “Solo Rita” with a fabulous new intro courtesy of Don Frank (the original version was on the Audities album) and unfinished recordings of Carolan’s “Only Love” and “A Holiday For You”.

But as perfect as their interaction was, and as special as the musical chemistry was, Daydream Believers was not able to overcome the many life obstacles that pop up for fellows in their mid-forties. Among many other things, within a short time of the formation of Daydream Believers, Doug Caldwell moved from San Jose to Nevada City, California and, not too long after, Terry moved back to Austin, Texas.

Even now, though miles lay between them, Terry, Doug and Mark all look at the circumstances as a pause, and not an end, to their musical collaboration. All believe that there must be something more to such a serendipitous meeting.

“Oh what can it mean, to a Daydream Believer…”