Bleed the Dream


Bleed the Dream is an American rock band from Southern California.

History

Formation to ''Built By Blood'' (2003 - 2005)

Keith Thompson had left Baltimore for Los Angeles a year earlier to follow his musical career. A month into 2003, Brandon Thomas left Baltimore too after speaking with Keith. Bleed the Dream had been formed by spring of that year.
They went to LA. For the next year, the band polished their sound and piled in a van, touring their way from city to city. They garnered them a spot on the Warped Tour without even an album under their belts. They were asked back to join Warped Tour officially in 2004 and 2005.
In 2004, Bleed the Dreams's guitarist, Dave Aguilera, created his own label, Maphia Records. It subsequently released of the band's 2 EPs: the rock-driven "Awake" on Noize Pollution and the unplugged and acoustic "Asleep". They followed with a DVD "No Apologies" reminiscent of the CKY videos. The DVD was edited by Scott Gottlieb from pieces of tour footage and behind the scene fan cameras.
Their success and rapid-growing fan base was noted by Warped Tour creator, Kevin Lyman. Realizing that Bleed the Dream was onto something, Lyman created his own label, WARCON Enterprises LLC, signed the band, and released their first full-length album, "Built By Blood" in May 2005.
Spring of 2005 landed Bleed the Dream on the Taste of Chaos tour featuring The Used and My Chemical Romance. Unfortunately, as their star was rising, Scott became sick and weak, unable to handle the rough life on the road. A year earlier, he fell down during a performance while on a national tour. The band cut their set short to rush him to the hospital. Scott was diagnosed as having leukemia. He lost his short battle with cancer on April 10, 2005, only two weeks before the band released "Built by Blood". Their CD release party at The Ottobar in Baltimore, Maryland on April 23, was tearful and triumphant in the same breath. Friends and family came out to pay their respects to Scott and support the band in the next phase of their life without him.

''Killer Inside'' (2006)

Bleed the Dream finished out 2005 by joining Taste of Chaos Europe with headliners The Used and Story of the Year. In December, the band took some time off to write and audition new drummers, ultimately hiring Tom Breyfogle to fill the position. Brandon Thomas was soon let go from the band and replaced by Mark Holmes, former lead singer of the now-defunct band Like Yesterday.
In July 2006, the band recorded a new album in Canada with producers Garth Richardson and Ben Kaplan. The 13 new tracks recorded became the highly anticipated second record, "Killer Inside." In late 2006, the band finished filming a music video for the song "Closer," the first single off their new album, "Killer Inside". The video shows band members playing grim reaper type stalkers to the lead singer, and finishes with the band playing paramedics to their bloody lead singer. The album also features tracks "It Takes A Fall," "Tell Someone Who Cares," and "Vampires Don't Kill For the Money."

Band break-up (2007)

On 9/24/07 Bleed the Dream posted the following bulletin on MySpace regarding their break-up
"Hi Dave from Bleed the Dream here, After many years of ups and downs were calling it quits. It's been such a rollercoaster ride from the beginning, from sneaking onto The Warped Tour in 2003 and pissing off its founder Kevin Lyman so bad that he later signed us to his label "Warcon Records". We have traveled the world many times and made so many cool friends along the way, we like to think of Bleed the Dream as more than just a band but a family, we have been touched so much by all the love and support you gave us and Scotts family when we lost him to cancer in 2005 and we in return have tried to give that back to you on and off stage. As the saying goes everything must come to an End but that doesn't mean we can't remember all the good times we have enjoyed together, I'll never forget the first time we played on the Kevin Says stage in 2003 when we had no merch no tent no nothing Ha Ha. Then 2 years later we're playing at the Taste of Chaos in front of 15,000 people. Its because of you that we have been able to make our dreams come true and we could never thank you enough for that. But we think most of all what we will take away from this whole experience is how much it made us grow up and see the world in a better way, we watched our friend Scott Gottlieb go into the studio and record drums everyday sicker then we hope to never be, and that changed us forever! We miss our friend and that being said were gonna dedicate these last 2 shows to Scott and his family and all the friends and fans that are going through the same situation as we did. I truly believe Scott's still with us in spirit, So Scott we got a surprise for you!!! I just got off the phone with Brandon Thomas and he's coming to Alaska to sing all the songs on "Built by Blood & Awake" like you would have wanted it… We feel so blessed to have met Tom he has been such a good compliment to Scott's drumming and a great drummer himself and an over all great person. Also I think it was great that Mark dropped everything to come join our band and sing on our last record "Killer Inside"…I'm glad we will all be in Alaska as friends to the end playing songs with Brandon from Awake/Asleep and Built by Blood and songs from Killer Inside with Mark on vocals... But don't feel like your never gonna see us again, We're all musicians to the end, Tom and I are in a new band called "A Permanent Holiday" maybe Keith will join ya know he can't live without me Ha Ha. Scott's probably jamming with Kurt and Jimmy... Brandon's got a new band called Phantom Communique, Marks back in the fashion industry and doing a Solo record.."

Reformation (2008 - present)

On May 18, 2008, they announced this on their MySpace blog:
"So everyone keeps asking about the rumors well truth be told I have been writing a bunch of new songs Keith has been writing a bunch of new songs and drum roleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee YES BRANDON has been Writing a bunch of new songs. The 3 of us will get together sometime soon make mad passionate love and then hash out all our ideas. I can't say there will be another BTD record or not but I will tell you this that the only way we would do another one is if it was slammin!!!!

P.S. here is a little secret "were going back to our roots" BUILT BY BLOOD style...
k see ya, have a good weekend
And oya suck it I know I have bad grammar!!!
Dave... "

In 2015, the band officially announced that it would reunite to record a brand new EP, adding long-time guitar and bass tech, Fatally Yours guitarist Christian Rivera as a permanent member on rhythm guitar.
In 2017, Bleed the Dream began work on the new EP, with Periphery's Matt Halpern filling in on drums.

Other information

Notable appearances

The band has appeared on such tours as the Taste of Chaos Tour and the Van's Warped Tour. They are also featured in a Warped Tour documentary, Wake Up Screaming. Their song, "Streets of Baltimore," was played for a national audience during a FOX broadcast of a Baltimore Ravens' football game on November 19, 2006. Recently, they appeared on Japanese rock band Dir En Grey's INWARD SCREAM TOUR 07, which kicked off on February 1, 2007, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Line-up changes

In January 2006, Tom Breyfogle, originally from Ohio, joined the band as their new drummer. His first two tours with the band took place in select cities stateside and in Canada with Hawthorne Heights for the first part and Funeral for a Friend for the second half. After which, they returned to Canada for their own headlining tour.
Breyfogle then accompanied the band to the U.K in April 2006, supporting their Taste of Chaos friends Story of the Year alongside hardcore punk band Stretch Arm Strong. They then joined bands Never Heard of It, Army of Freshmen, & Crowned King on tour in Japan.
On May 24, 2006, the band released an official press statement announcing that Brandon Thomas would no longer continue singing for the group. Mark Holmes was announced as the new vocalist, and would sing for the band from 2006 to 2007.
In 2014, Thomas resumed frontman duties once more.

Current members

Full-length