I Still Dream

Paper Divers

"I Still Dream" is one of those sentimental experiments where one explores a not-so distant ancestor's past works to find some sort of imaginary thread of connection. It is an interpretation of "Like A Dream" (1950), a photograph taken by the late Yip Cheong Fun. Jon and Jared have never known Yip Cheong Fun. They've seen his pictures and attended exhibitions featuring his work, but they don't actually know the person. Their impressions of him are just fragments of stories and anecdotes about his life, his hobby and his techniques. They do know their grandfather Andrew Yip who penned a poem based on this 73 year old picture of a misty road somewhere in Kallang. Called "I Still Dream and Just Dream", Jon was deeply drawn by its melancholic tone as an impressionable 17-year-old. Something about the expression of sheer despair placed it somewhere alongside Benjamin Gibbard's writing in "Narrow Stairs", a favourite album of Jon's. So even though the poem holds a somewhat abstract connection to the original photograph, the way the imagery amplifies the bleakness in the poem made the idea of reinterpreting it into song a no-brainer. It captures the essence of emo in its most earnest form. No feigned toughness, just deep regret - a thread to resonate with, another Yip to figure out. 10 years and 3 different versions of the song later, Jon found it right to hand it over to another Yip: Jared, who had just gotten into math rock and midwest emo. It's no secret that Jared is the secret weapon of the band – he can be extremely versatile when he wants to be. One strand of lightning caught in a bottle later and here we are with whatever this is: another interpretation of the same mysterious photograph.