Dreamer Boy takes us track-by-track through his sun-soaked third album ‘Lonestar,’ a seductive and spellbinding triumph born out of heartbreak and reckoning with the magic, the beauty, and the pain of love.

“If You’re Not in Love” – Dreamer Boy

I put on this brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. I haven’t taken off that outfit since.

Love might be the only real kind of magic in this world,

and on his third album, Dreamer Boy casts as many spells as he can while reckoning with the highs and lows of raw romance. Set against a sun-soaked, cinematic American backdrop, Lonestar is a sweet, seductive record of love and heartbreak, loneliness and longing.

Dreamer Boy’s name has never rung truer than it does here – as, heart plastered to his sleeve and soul unwaveringly exposed, he muses on the connections he’s lost, the intimate moments he’ll forever cherish, and the unshakeable aching deep in his bones.

The parking lot is vacant
Except a single car
With two young lovers
making vows on the tar
And I take a photo walking by
Memorize their shape
It’s a blurry mess
Of love and jest
It’s all I’m left to trace

and now I, I stumble the streets
And its summer in America
And I, the suns on my back
And its summer in America
And I, I can’t find love
And It’s summer in America

Released May 10, 2024 via slowplay/Capitol Records, Lonestar is Dreamer Boy’s dazzling, wondrous third studio album: An intimate, buoyant, and brooding record that sees singer/songwriter Zachary Arthur Taylor turning his innermost feelings into enchanting and instantly memorable songs full of vibrant energy.

“This album is basically me just unpacking heartbreak from a previous relationship, but I think over the course of the album I find peace with the way that the relationship is evolving and changing and the independence from the relationship shows me things about myself I would have never found otherwise,” Taylor tells Atwood Magazine. “I went from that transition into another big transition in life when I moved from Nashville, Tennessee to Los Angeles, California. I think the album speaks to even the physical American landscape that passed by me as I traveled from one end of the country to the other.”

Lonestar arrives three years after Dreamer Boy’s heartfelt second album All The Ways We Are Together, which received considerable acclaim and featured such hits as “Don’t Be a Fool,” “Crybaby,” “Let’s Hold Hands, and “Easier Said Than Done.” Since then, the Waco, Texas native left his longtime home in Nashville, Tennessee – where the Dreamer Boy project began – and started laying down new roots in Los Angeles, where he founded and has been playing with his six-piece band, The Lone Stars. Taylor considers his latest release an expansion on the themes he wrote about on the previous two records, noting a (perhaps unexpected) character arc between the three albums.

“To be honest, I didn’t have a vision for this album for a long time,” he admits. “It took several years of searching over 50 songs written and experimenting sonically. I was really struggling to find cohesiveness with my writing and palette. I was working with a lot of different producers in Los Angeles when I first moved here, and wrote a lot of songs and parts of songs that ended up on this album. I ended up consolidating a lot of that material and locking in with some close friends that I had met, and I feel like we began to refine what the Lonestar sound would become. I remember this one night in particular, it was the night after I wrote ‘Baby Blue,’ and I was listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen at the time. I had ‘The River’ on while I got ready to go out, and I put on this brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. I haven’t taken off that outfit since.”

That outfit, together with some face paint, helped Taylor get out of his own skin and create a rodeo clown persona that remains true to his humanity, while extending beyond his own flesh and bones. Like what David Bowie did with Ziggy Stardust and what Tyler, the Creator did with Flower Boy and IGOR (and many more alter egos), the clown – who’s made his way from Texas to Hollywood in search of love, fame, and more – is a theatrical, relatable character.

“There is me, and there is the Rodeo Clown character I am portraying,” Taylor explains. “They both feel familiar and embarrassing. Foolish love is the only way to go for it, but it means you take the risk, and true love will humble you. [It’s] worth it every time.”

The point is not to put up barriers between artist and audience, but rather, to break them down; Taylor sees this record, and its backdrop of great American landscapes, as a homecoming. Even the album’s title is a multi-faceted homage to both Taylor’s home state of Texas and his unrelenting heartache. “I feel like it leans into the LONEliness and longing for love that the album centers around, all while leading you to a north STAR.”

Taylor cites the sun-kissed opening track “Summer in America” together with “Heartbreaker,” “Baby Blue,” and “Harmony” as some of his favorite songs on the record.

“I like Harmony’s lyrics – they aren’t really directed at anyone, and they don’t really need to resolve anything,” he reflects. “They just float and carry the imagery that makes me feel something, takes me back to a particular time in my life. I like ‘friends come through the side door, mail is in a pile’ because my old house in Nashville, no one would come through the front door unless they didn’t really know me that well, and there was always a pile of mail on the floor right next to the door or somewhere near it.”

“I hope that listeners feel connected to the stories on the album, and can navigate their own transitional times in life,” Taylor shares. “I definitely feel happy I put the events and time of my life that this record was written about down, it was a wild time and I’m happy it exists in this form forever.”

Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Dreamer Boy’s LONESTAR with Atwood Magazine as Zach Taylor goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his third studio album!

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:: stream/purchase LONESTAR here ::

:: connect with Dreamer Boy here ::

Stream: ‘LONESTAR’ – Dreamer Boy

:: Inside LONESTAR ::

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SUMMER IN AMERICA

This song was born as sort of an excerpt from a stream of consciousness poem I wrote while working on the album. I was really inspired by Patti Smith and her delivery and her willingness to let the words guide the melodies and surrender to what the soul needs to say. In the second verse I refer to someone named “Johnny” as in Jonathan Richman’s song “Parties In The USA” which was on repeat during making this album. I loved the setting of summer in America, it is very tangible and brings a lot of tension and excitement to mind when most people think of it. This is where I wanted to begin the story of this album, setting the scene.

HEARTBREAKER

I am so proud of this song! It really came out of nowhere in the creation of this album. It showed me something in myself as a performer that I needed to unlock. I loved writing this song that took real emotions I was feeling, and twisted them into this sort of Tarantino/western love interest who seems to be the cause of your demise. I love the hyperbole as a tool to show what’s really going on, how it FELT, not necessarily exactly what happened.

SUCKERPUNCH

This song was born from stomping and shouting and crying and running around the studio. I remember writing the first verse of this song while on a hike alone, at the top of the hike there was a round dirt patch that I kicked the dirt around and performed and wrote the verse with the instrumental in my headphones. Yearning for love on this one, and writing about that dejected, foolish feeling is really what I was going on about on a lot of this album.

TWIN FLAME (feat. Goldie Boutilier)

Cosmic connection, as corny as that sounds, oh lord. I feel like there are people who you just feel so deeply connected to, even if they don’t stay in your life for that long, or maybe you never see the full potential of that relationship or that connection. I really think this song is a hesitation to surrender when you are confronted by these particular flames. We tend to close off because we are scared of what it will mean to love someone that we feel that strongly about. We would almost rather stay comfortable. A lot of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk album was on rotation, a lot of Lindsey Buckingham yelling in my ear.

BUBBA

Bubba is the nickname that my sisters called me growing up, it’s the nickname I use in my everyday life with friends and to me I wanted Bubba to be a part of the fabric of this album. I talked about the Blue Bonnet, which is the state flower of Texas, and I have vivid memories of massive fields of these flowers. I wanted to make a song that felt like my childhood in Texas, and the warmth of relationships that were reminding me of that upbringing, and shared in that same spirit.

KANSAS

“Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell has been one of my favorite songs for a while, and I was hoping to capture some of the same distance that song portrays. There is this feeling of distance between you and the person you love. There is some sort of gap to close, or not. It might be growing into perpetuity. The song feels transitional, and open, and reminds me of the open road of Kansas, the Wichita Lineman’s setting as well.

BABY BLUE

Some fires burn so quickly, and some people are so electric that you can’t begin to try and hold them down. I think this song is trying to capture how it feels to be infatuated by someone that is a moving target. It became the centerpiece in the recording and writing process, when I made this song I knew what direction the whole album was taking and what musical impulses I wanted to live in and nurture for a while. In many ways this song is where the spirit of Lonestar was affirmed.

MUD

What would a summer of love be without a love triangle? Oh lord, this song is about that. I want to leave it up to the listener’s imagination and let the song speak for itself. I think that this song is me trying to cope with losing something, even through experiences that may be beautiful and vibrant in the moment, love can become complicated and hurt people or you might even end up self-inflicting some of that heartache if you’re not careful.

BIG SKY (feat. Miya Folick)

I wrote this song with my friend Miya Folick, and we wrote it with the intention of writing about the move from Nashville to Los Angeles and the relationships you leave behind. I think that this song personifies a place, in this case, Tennessee. I have the warmest memories of living in Nashville and I miss it so much all the time, but in order to grow, you are led to move on.

IF YOU’RE NOT IN LOVE

Relentlessly pursuing a love that will never work out will leave you throwing your hands up and waving the white flag. This song is that song, and admitting not only to yourself but also to the other person that, hey if this is not what’s in the cards for us, so be it. I think that if you’re not in love, you can’t force that, you have to grow into a new dynamic with that person, and let the love that is there shine. Sonically very inspired by Bruce Hornsby, Every Little Kiss.

UNTIED

This was a really important song to write for this album. It’s the moment of fully letting go and surrendering. I think that change can be scary and especially when you are changing a relationship or breaking up, you might not be able to see where the relationship or friendship with that person is going to end up. I think this song feels hopeful, and it is self-aware that “untying” from that person is the right decision. Letting new light in.

HARMONY

This is the peace that comes after the turbulence of change. You find that the little things you appreciate about yourself, your surroundings, the things that ground you, friends, all the little things shine brighter on the other side. Harmony is peace, and I think that you find a new home in that peace. I loved recording this song’s hook. We had a room full of like 12-13 friends all hanging out and singing, drinking beers and laughing and you can hear all of that on the track.

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:: stream/purchase LONESTAR here ::

:: connect with Dreamer Boy here ::

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 © Adam Alonzo

LONESTAR

an album by Dreamer Boy