Chat #31 - The Dream Eaters
"A gig, a cult, or a support group? It’s all three, yeah!"
This interview is free to read. Paid subscriptions support artist honoraria.
Since 2015, The Dream Eaters have evolved from a dream-pop band into a full-on video art project with an extensive catalogue of weird and darkly humorous music videos accompanying their catchy pop songs. The duo began working together after Elizabeth LeBaron, originally from Calgary, and Jake Zavracky, originally from Boston, met while bartending in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood.
They released several EPs before their full-length albums We Are A Curse (2017) and Pagan Love (2018), touring frequently across the Eastern U.S. and Canada. In 2019, they began developing the web series The Dream Eating Freakshow, which launched in 2020. Since then – alongside drummer/dancer/weird guy Steve Fugitt – they’ve released hundreds of bizarre, highly stylized videos across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, growing a devoted cult fanbase. In 2025 they released 3 EPs and their new album “Year End Report”. The band continues to tour extensively across the U.S. and Canada.
Find The Dream Eaters on Instagram, more links are here
13/05/2026, 20:31 - Finbarre:
Welcome to Tarot DMs with Finbarre, the show where the cards open the conversation and the guests decide how strange things get.
Today, I’m joined by the Dream Eaters, a Brooklyn band and video art universe who describe themselves beautifully and alarmingly as the Carpenters meets Slayer.
Their world is a woozy place of sweet melodies, deadpan horror, emotional wreckage, supermarket doom, blood, bodies, pills and pop hooks.
So today, we’ll let the Tarot lead us through that world, discovering how something ugly can sound beautiful.
The cards are shuffled, the portal of wrongness is now open. This is the Dream Eaters on Tarot DMs.
13/05/2026, 20:32 - Finbarre:
Elizabeth and Jake, hello!
13/05/2026, 20:32 - Jake:
Hey, it’s great to be here.
13/05/2026, 20:32 - Elizabeth:
Hi, we are so excited to be here. I’ve never done an interview on WhatsApp before, but I do really love voice memos as a medium. So yeah, appreciate the creative platform.
13/05/2026, 20:33 - Elizabeth: I also really love the idea of “Supermarket Doom” as a genre!
13/05/2026, 20:34 - Jake: stop distracting him Elizabeth
13/05/2026, 20:35 - Finbarre:
Oh, thank you so much for your sweet words. Well, the idea of doing interviews over WhatsApp came about when I lost my voice due to COVID and it seemed more manageable.
Because at the time I was doing a podcast, couldn’t really speak. And this felt right. And it turns out that millennials or anyone younger gravitate towards this medium anyway. So why more people don’t do it? I don’t know.
But anyway, what have we got here? You love the idea of supermarket doom as a genre. Yes. I’ve seen your videos. I’ve been listening to your music and that’s why I had to reach out across the Atlantic and say “I need to speak to these people” I love how wonderfully strange all of this is!
Before we get into that, I’d like to find out a little bit about how much you know about tarot and if it’s something that you’ve been brought up with, a recent discovery, something you happened upon in one of your videos. I’d love to know.
13/05/2026, 20:36 - Jake:
I don’t know anything about it at all. So I might be sort of slow on answering some of these questions. I don’t really know how much it’s integrated into the interview process here, but I don’t know anything about tarot at all.
13/05/2026, 20:36 - Elizabeth:
My experience with tarot is minimal. I was gifted a tarot deck, which I understand is the proper way to acquire a tarot deck is that it’s a gift. Is that a thing? So I was given one and I just kind of didn’t know where to start. So it is still a decoration on my shelf, I fear.
But I have friends who really love doing their daily draws. And I like the concept of it being more of an invitation to look at something through a specific lens as opposed to like, this is telling you your future. It’s more so here’s kind of a prompt to apply to what’s happening in your life right now. So I really like that idea.
13/05/2026, 20:39 - Finbarre:
Jake, every time a card comes up, I’ll be guiding you through the definitions, throwing in a few meanings and ideas that are special to me regarding that card, plus those of people that I’ve read cards for.
So you won’t be going into this cold, don’t worry.
And from that, I’ll be thinking of a question.
Elizabeth, you’re absolutely right about cards should be given to other people because I have my own ideas on capitalism. anyway, but because tarot is a story told to another person inspired by a card, why not give the medium to that person as well?
It makes perfect sense.
We’re going to start with the first card, which is the Anchor card. This is the one that everyone gets on Tarot DMs.
This is, oh… I think you’re going to like this one.
13/05/2026, 20:40 - Finbarre: When it gets revealed I want to hear vibes and impressions. No wrong answers. Well maybe, I’ll just get the snarky emails not you.
13/05/2026, 20:40 - Finbarre:
13/05/2026, 20:40 - Finbarre: THE ACE OF WANDS! Exciting!
13/05/2026, 20:40 - Jake:
I like the name of it, the Ace of Wands. I don’t really know what to say about it. I love the picture and I love the Ace of Wands. So far, I’m into this. It’s very mysterious.
13/05/2026, 20:41 - Elizabeth:
Ace of Wands. Okay, so I’m just going to tell you my first impression of this. I know absolutely nothing about it, but we’re holding, you know, we’re holding kind of like a wand, a staff. So is making me think that somebody is proceeding with purpose or kind of like moving about with like leadership, I guess, comes to mind, question mark?
13/05/2026, 20:41 - Jake:
Interestingly, while I was messing around with this daily tarot draw thing, maybe I shouldn’t do this at the same time. Maybe this is bad mojo. But this thing online, I drew the Page of Wands. So I don’t know what that means. Probably nothing. Probably something. Who knows?
13/05/2026, 20:42 - Finbarre: You’re crossing the streams you maniac! Don’t you know what you have done! It’s. Fine.
13/05/2026, 20:43 - Jake:
Oh, I like that. I like that reference, crossing the streams.
13/05/2026, 20:44 - Finbarre:
Oh, if you want hideously outdated 80s references, you’ve come to the right place.
So Ace of Wands, the classical description of this card, and it’s one of my very favorites.
In fact, it was one of the original icons for tarot interviews. I just repurposed the stick into a microphone. But Ace of Wands, it’s a spark before the flame. Of course, this is the first card in the element of fire. And it’s about ignition, a fresh creative force. It’s one of opportunity. It’s one of enthusiasm and originality. And it’s like, stay by this fire because good things will happen. Often represents passion and sexuality, ambition, performance in all of the respects. So what we’re looking at here is action or momentum. Does that seem about right? I don’t know if this is quite where you are in the world right now, but this is Go Time according to this card.
13/05/2026, 20:45 - Finbarre: Maybe smores.
13/05/2026, 20:46 - Elizabeth:
Go time and action resonate. May always seems to be the sneakiest busy month of the year for me. So lots of travel ahead, lots of execution, like lots of projects happening. That feels good.
13/05/2026, 20:46 - Elizabeth: Mmmm
13/05/2026, 20:46 - Jake:
Well, we are about to go on tour for much of the rest of the year.
We’ll be on tour, you know, in short bursts, but over the course of the rest of the year. So it does sort of make sense that we would be in a time of action.
There’s been a lot of things happening lately around that and just around releasing music and releasing videos. There’s a special kind of action to the time right now.
13/05/2026, 20:46 - Jake: Maycember
13/05/2026, 20:48 - Finbarre:
As the fires haven’t quite burnt down this month from the beginning where Beltane occurred, let me think of an Ace of Wands style question for you.
Okay, so I’m thinking of first sparks.
When it comes to one of your songs, what starts them off?
Is it a phrase, a melody, characters, a visual gag, a mood, or embarrassment?
13/05/2026, 20:50 - Jake:
There is no one answer to that. They all start differently.
The one thing I’ve noticed about my process over the years is nothing really ever happens the same way.
There’s a bunch of different ways things can come to me.
Sometimes they come to me from, I’ll just make a beat, so to speak.
So I’ll just make something that sounds like a good sort of instrumental.
I’ll just, you know, it’ll just kind of come to me. What should go over that?
A lot of times it is a phrase, like you said, where I’ll just think of a phrase.
I’ll just think of a phrase while I’m making dinner in my kitchen. That’s where things often come to me. You know, it’ll just work and it’ll resonate. I mean, that’s the answer to everything.
If it resonates, somehow it’ll just resonate with me. I’ll just be thinking about it later. I’ll just be, you know, it will resonate somehow. And I’ll know this is the thing that I want to pursue right now.
That’s what the usual spark is.
13/05/2026, 20:51 - Elizabeth:
Yes, Jake does the writing in the project. I guess if I were to insert myself into the process somewhere, it would be maybe by the time we get to set to shoot the videos, we will somewhat brainstorm together on what it looks like, you know, like crying on my lunch break. I really pictured somebody sitting in their car in the parking lot. It can be as simple as that. Maybe a stretch for me.
13/05/2026, 20:52 - Finbarre:
Jake, just to expand that further, I understand that you and Elizabeth met however long ago it was, working in the same bar. Is there something about the, I don’t know, the monotony, the mechanical action of preparing food, serving drinks, the creation of something you can eat? Is that related to it at all?
13/05/2026, 20:53 - Finbarre: I ask as there is a viscerality to your work that plays on desire and disgust. Maybe that’s just me.
13/05/2026, 20:54 - Jake:
I really wouldn’t think so other than I think I might just get ideas about how to comment about mundane things in a colorful way whilst doing a mundane activity. Although I do enjoy cooking quite a bit. So to call it mundane is is inaccurate because I really actually like cooking and I like bartending, too.
But I think that there’s probably some, yes, connection between the the whatever boredom might come from doing something like that and getting creative ideas from it.
13/05/2026, 20:55 - Finbarre: I feel like I may have accidentally projected my own kitchen feelings - I’m a cleanup goblin, my wife is the fantabulous cook!
13/05/2026, 20:55 - Jake: Ha we’re the opposite in my household
13/05/2026, 20:55 - Jake: Where are you in the UK?
13/05/2026, 20:56 - Finbarre:
Now, I’ve got the pleasure of living in a place called Beeston, which is a leafy suburb just outside of Nottingham. And it’s a place mainly of charity shops or thrift stores, as you call them, cafes. It’s all very hipster and it’s a good place to be. It’s very friendly.
And of course, you’ll know Nottingham from the Robin Hood legends, possibly because we had a cheese riot here in, I think it was the 17th century, where there was unfortunately a riot over food, like something from the Hunger Games. But the mayor of Nottingham got knocked flying by a stray wheel of cheese. And it’s something we celebrate every year.
13/05/2026, 20:57 - Finbarre: How about you two?
13/05/2026, 20:57 - Elizabeth: That sounds lovely! Surprisingly not familiar with the cheese riots lol
13/05/2026, 20:59 - Elizabeth:
I split my time between Toronto and Brooklyn, although I am more so in Toronto these days.
I’m Canadian originally, and my partner lives here, so I’ve been spending more time on this side of the border, but still go to New York very often.
I sublet my apartment in Brooklyn so I can go back fairly often, and that’s where we meet up and shoot and leave for tour and stuff like that.
13/05/2026, 21:00 - Jake:
Right. We met, as we already discussed, we met in Brooklyn. I don’t know if we actually discussed it. Maybe we didn’t discuss it, but we met at the bar. The bar was in Brooklyn.
And we lived in Brooklyn for quite some time together, and then we both moved away.
And now the only person left in Brooklyn is Steve and part-time Elizabeth, but much less of the time than she is in Toronto, which is also a wonderful city to do business from.
13/05/2026, 21:01 - Finbarre:
A quick question for Elizabeth, because I’ve never had the pleasure of going across the ocean to either the US or Canada.
And to be honest, I probably won’t be going to the US for a little while unless I bring a burner phone.
But in Canada, you have such wonderful, spectacular scenery. It looks like Scotland on steroids.
Which place should I go to first that would make me go, wow, assuming that there is somewhere?
13/05/2026, 21:03 - Elizabeth:
Oh, man. Okay. You got to get over here. You got to get over to Canada, at least.
Yes. I mean, it’s just bloody massive, isn’t it? So a lot of different parts of it look very
different. But if you were going to start somewhere, I’m biased to the Rocky Mountains.
So I would say you’ll want to check out Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise. Calgary is the closest major city in that area, which is where I was born. I’ve heard it’s gotten a lot cooler.
So I can’t say I would necessarily recommend going to Calgary, but you might as well pass through.
And then everyone’s going to tell you to go to Vancouver, but it’s a wasted trip if you do not also go to Vancouver Island, which is also massive. There’s a little town called Nanaimo there.
That’s where I went to college. And Victoria is absolutely gorgeous. I will say I have not spent time in the most eastern part of Canada. So I haven’t been to Halifax, Prince Edward Island, those places, which I think are probably even more stunning. But I can’t speak to those ones just yet.
13/05/2026, 21:03 - Elizabeth: Jake loves it when I talk about Nanaimo
13/05/2026, 21:05 - Finbarre: When you mentioned Bamf (spelling?) the only time I have ever heard that noise before was this. Now I have The X-Men theme tune in my head.
13/05/2026, 21:05 - Elizabeth: Banff! 🤝
13/05/2026, 21:06 - Finbarre: I’m digressing wildly and we’re here for tarot! Next card! The Wild one no less.
13/05/2026, 21:06 - Finbarre: Who is going to pick?
13/05/2026, 21:07 - Elizabeth: I will! Shall I use the virtual deck?
13/05/2026, 21:07 - Elizabeth:
13/05/2026, 21:09 - Finbarre:
Oh, now that is strange. And you’ve managed to spook me out, which is an achievement. That particular card is one that I use as a calling card for events. And very soon I’ll be going to, there’s a university called Goldsmiths in the UK, where I’ll be giving a talk on tarot. And this is the card that I picked to represent me. So yes, I’m very familiar with this one.
The Three of Pentacles probably sounds a little abstract. What are you seeing here, Jake? I mean, if you were to just look at the particular people involved, their expressions, what would you take from this? I’m quite curious for somebody who was just being introduced to tarot and what they would see.
13/05/2026, 21:09 - Elizabeth: Woahhh cool!
13/05/2026, 21:10 - Jake:
Well, I love pentagrams, or I call them pentagrams. I don’t know if that’s a Britishism. Pentacles. I’ve never heard pentacles before. As you probably know, it’s a very, very old symbol, very ancient symbol. It’s been around for thousands and thousands of years.
Yeah, I mean, so there’s three of them. What does that mean to me? I don’t know. I’d probably have to think about it for a really long time. I’m not a person that looks at something and then immediately comes to a conclusion about it. So I’m very bad at this game so far. But I do love pentagrams. Let me say that.
13/05/2026, 21:11 - Elizabeth: Negative affirmations there Jakester
13/05/2026, 21:12 - Jake: DON”T USE YOUR WOO WOO TALK ON ME ELIZABETH
13/05/2026, 21:13 - Finbarre: I have a Fun Finbarre Fact about pentagrams you might like Jake - I only discovered recently that you get them in Unicode and EVEN the bad one. Look! ⛧ I have no idea what the code is of it, but if you ever need it for mischief, just copy/paste it from here
13/05/2026, 21:14 - Finbarre: CURSE YOUR FRIENDS!
13/05/2026, 21:14 - Elizabeth: Amazing
13/05/2026, 21:14 - Jake: Oh nice!
13/05/2026, 21:15 - Finbarre:
Okay, so the Three of Pentacles, it’s the card of craft and collaboration and community.
And that lovely, quaint, old-fashioned idea of building things properly and working with others.
It’s a card of teamwork, one of planning, shared expertise, and listening to the people who bring different strengths.
So it’s a card of patience and feedback and commitment. It’s not a particularly sexy card, but it’s bloody useful. So yes, it’s one of shared effort and recognition.
13/05/2026, 21:16 - Finbarre:
Okay, so your credits include collaborators such as John Brookhouse and Exploding Sun. And Steve, hi Steve, has become part of your mythology. So how do these collaborators change your projects and the architecture of your work?
13/05/2026, 21:17 - Jake:
Well, Steve changes the visual side pretty extremely. He is just very important to the way things look.
Also behind the scenes, he does a lot of stuff behind the scenes as well. He helps sort of light the sets and direct and does all sorts of important things to the look of things. And then in front of the camera, he’s really something.
We love him.
And I’ve never really seen anybody do interpret music quite the way that Steve does. So he’s really special to us that way.
13/05/2026, 21:18 - Jake:
John Brookhouse is an excellent guitar player. He’s played a few solo. He’s not really heavily involved with us, but he, you know, he always, whenever I ask him to play a solo for us, he really changes the song to something that just has an extra spark to it. And we really appreciate that about him.
Exploding Sun, same thing, you know, especially because he sings in Spanish. It’s just a whole other universe that you’re suddenly sucked into, which I’m really into. I really like when something just completely changes to the point where it’s almost like you’ve switched the channel. So, yeah, he’s great.
13/05/2026, 21:18 - Finbarre: “Quite the way Steve does” - is there a story here that everyone simply must hear?
13/05/2026, 21:19 - Finbarre: *cocks ear*
13/05/2026, 21:20 - Elizabeth:
Not a particular story about Steve, but I think it’s important to note that we did meet him at the same bar where Jake and I met.
And I were bartending, Steve was a, you know, he lived nearby. He was in the same kind of circle of like cool creative people who frequented that bar and it wasn’t exactly like a dancing bar, but Steve would, you know, be like the catalyst for impromptu dance parties at the bar.
13/05/2026, 21:22 - Finbarre:
So this, but Steve?
13/05/2026, 21:22 - Elizabeth: Exactly
13/05/2026, 21:25 - Finbarre: Fab! Right, into the last card and this is from the author Adrian Tchaikovsky, the writer behind The Children of Time series and he wanted to pass on....
13/05/2026, 21:25 - Finbarre:
13/05/2026, 21:26 - Jake: Omg
13/05/2026, 21:26 - Jake: I can hear stairway to heaven playing
13/05/2026, 21:26 - Finbarre: Adrian’s had a mantis on and was far cooler, but you get the idea. This is basically my Halloween outfit every year here.
13/05/2026, 21:27 - Finbarre: This one is a card of privacy, maturity, and the search for meaning. I also lost one of these in a bar as it happens and he got stuck in a vent. Apt for a hermit.
13/05/2026, 21:29 - Jake:
This is the gatefold of Led Zeppelin 4 if you guys don’t already know that
13/05/2026, 21:30 - Finbarre:
Somehow through all of that nonsense, we’ve arrived at the last card. I had not seen the album cover, Jake. I feel like given the fact that I’m a little bit into tarot cards that I should probably like Prog more! But no, I’ve not seen that. Thank you so much. And yes, of course, I know the song. Everyone knows that one ;)
All right. So we’ve got the Hermit card. The songs that you’ve made like Mood Pills, I’m Not In Right Now and Muffins, which is a great name, deal with isolation in different ways. How do they represent your loneliness? Because you sound like you are working in bars, traveling so much, being on tour. It sounds like you’re always surrounded by other people.
13/05/2026, 21:32 - Jake:
That’s you’ve actually stumped me there. I don’t I don’t really know. I mean, I a lot of times when I’m writing lyrics, I don’t exactly know why I’m saying what I’m saying. And I don’t figure it out until later. But I would also point out that just because you are around other people doesn’t mean you’re not lonely, which I know you probably know. But I just that that would be probably the first thing that comes to mind to answer that question.
Yeah, I don’t know. It’s it’s the sort of isolation that I often feel, especially for some reason that does seem to be at the forefront of my mind when I’m writing, even though I don’t I wouldn’t call myself an especially lonely person. But for some reason, that is just something that moves me to talk about. It’s in there. And I just I don’t know why. But for some reason, that’s one of the things that is at the forefront of my mind when I’m trying to think about what to talk about. Or I shouldn’t even say try to think about. it usually just comes to me without having to think about it at all.
13/05/2026, 21:36 - Finbarre: How about you Elizabeth, what is like to bring that energy to a packed venue?
13/05/2026, 21:42 - Elizabeth:
We have had the pleasure of playing a couple of really decently attended shows lately. Jake probably won’t like the way I worded that. But we played in Denver on New Year’s Eve, for example, to like a packed theater that was really lovely.
And I think what I noticed in these shows where we have had more bodies in the room is like they really do seem to connect to those lyrics that are a bit like about being lonely or feeling out of place or just like not fitting in.
And I think a lot of the quirkiness is really validating and like, oh, I’m not the only one who has these kind of weird thoughts or like this humor spin on it and things like that.
13/05/2026, 21:44 - Finbarre:
My wife came in when I was watching one of your live videos, and her question was, is that a gig, a cult, or a support group?
From what you’ve just said there, I think it’s just a little bit of all that.
13/05/2026, 21:44 - Jake: it’s all 3 yeah!
13/05/2026, 21:46 - Finbarre: Just before we find a gift card for the next guest - have any of your fans ever made you grin or connected with you in a way that made your day sparkle? Made you feel a little less Hermit-y that day?
13/05/2026, 21:48 - Elizabeth:
The first one that comes to mind for me is actually that same show in Denver, which was all ages, but that kind of like, you know, there was a couple kids there like with their parents and there was one 11 year old kid, like something like that. And they were a huge fan and their parents were like, yeah, they’re the one who this was completely their idea. And we just happened to be here to tag along. And now we’re fans as well.
That was really cool because it’s just not the typical demographic.
13/05/2026, 21:48 - Jake: yes I like that answer
13/05/2026, 21:48 - Finbarre: Was that the gig where you were all wearing white and Steve was bopping like a fiend?
13/05/2026, 21:49 - Jake: we always wear all white
13/05/2026, 21:49 - Jake: and Steve is always bopping around like a fiend
13/05/2026, 21:49 - Jake: so yes
13/05/2026, 21:51 - Finbarre:
Yeah, he does exude that kind of Tigger meets Kung Fu Master energy.
Right, this is the time for you to reach into the cosmos, pluck out a card that you’d like to hand on to the next person, or conjure it up in your mind, and I’ll need two.
So I may have two people that I speak to, or it may be two sides of the same question that will be handed on to the next person.
I don’t know what I’ll do if you both think of the same thing, but let’s find out.
So, Jake and Elizabeth, what are your two cards that we’re going to hand on?
13/05/2026, 21:52 - Jake: mine is the Six of Swords
13/05/2026, 21:52 - Elizabeth:
13/05/2026, 21:52 - Jake: omg
13/05/2026, 21:53 - Finbarre:
What was that exclamation of surprise there, Jake?
13/05/2026, 21:54 - Jake: oh because there’s a tv show in the US
13/05/2026, 21:55 - Finbarre:
Now, I’ve never educated myself into watching the Wheel of Fortune from the US.
I’m thinking if you gave it a SVHS filter, a little bit of distortion, that sounds like something that will come from one of your videos.
13/05/2026, 21:55 - Jake: it looks like there’s a version of it in the UK hosted by Graham Norton
13/05/2026, 21:56 - Finbarre: LOVE THAT MAN! Such amazing suits!
13/05/2026, 21:57 - Jake: lol yeah
13/05/2026, 21:57 - Finbarre:
Going back to your two chosen cards there, Jake and Elizabeth, you’ve got the Six of Swords, which is that card of transition, recovery, of fleeing difficulty. It can be one of emotional turbulence. It could be one of distance. It could be leaving difficulty behind.
But then you’ve got this whole arc, this satisfying journey from one to another because the Wheel of Fortune is about timing, change, shifting events, opportunity and fortune. So I’d love to hear what somebody’s got to say about that. Thank you so much for those two.
And speaking of new beginnings and the Ace of Wands that we had previously, you mentioned your tour. Tell me all about it before you go. Where are you going to next? What are you looking forward to doing?
13/05/2026, 22:04 - Jake:
We are going first to the Midwest of the US obviously. We actually might, we’re looking into coming to the UK also. But that’s probably a fair way off maybe by the end of the year.
And then we’re basically going, I think back to the Midwest again and Canada, and then we’re going to Canada, you know, specifically and let’s see.
And then… oh, then the Northeast.
There’s just a lot. We’re very excited about it. We’re always excited to play for people. And it’s been especially fun lately. So we can’t wait to meet everybody. And, and yeah, thanks so much for, for doing this with us. We really had a fun time.
This is the first time I’ve never actually been able to listen to my answers to things in real time. So it’s pretty interesting.
13/05/2026, 22:08 - Finbarre:
Thank you so much, Jake and Elizabeth, for appearing on Tarot DMs.
If you are ever in the UK doing a show, give me a shout and I’ll be there like a shot.
That was the Dream Eaters, a conversation about making pain funny, making pop music strange, and how beautiful Canada is.
I’m going to have to visit.
So, you can find the Dream Eaters on Bandcamp, the streaming platform of your choice, and wherever the videos are currently haunting the algorithm.
As always, thank you for listening to Tarot DMs with Finbarre, and I’ll see you next time, lovely people. Take care.