Student spotlight: Dream Pool

Photo: Victoria Moffat • The Sentry
Alec Doniger, Riley Merino, and Luna Nuñez make up student indie band.

Student band cultivates dreamy sounds

With a soothing mix of guitar, drums, bass, and vocals, the band Dream Pool seems to emerge straight from a dream. The band is made up of three artists currently attending CU Denver, featuring Luna Nuñez, a senior about to graduate from the songwriting program, Riley Merino, a junior studying guitar performance and music business, and Alec Doniger, who is also a junior and studying drum set performance.

Initially Dream Pool formed in the summer of 2019 after frequent run-ins on the RTD between roommates Merino and Doniger with Nuñez. This would eventually lead to friendships, jam sessions, and finally, producing the band itself. Nuñez describes it as, “[Her] dream come true.” The group got together in July but quickly built up their music and practices, soon performing their first show, of many to come, in September.

Though the trio themselves may, surprisingly, not have stepped out of a dream, their name certainly did. The name reflects both a literal and metaphorical dream for the group, a dream from Nuñez featured the band playing at a pool party show in the basement that was vivid and wild, but as Doniger frankly put, “but then it stuck.” The metaphorical meaning exists in ties to the band, as Nuñez divulged, “I also think of it like a pool of all of our creativity, like a pool of our dreams and of what we want in a band.”

Originally, Nuñez’s main style in music was more acoustic folk. But as the band progressed as Nuñez describes, the sound more so “transferred over to this electric rock style.” Dream Pool’s music centers around more indie pop and art rock, presenting a fairly mellow essence within their acoustic and lyrically focused songs. Doniger expressed, “I like that we have a sound that we’re going for and are willing to expand upon.” All three members sing and write songs as well as play instruments but with each member being so versatile, they’re hoping in the future to have more diversity in parts played in each song.

The songwriting structure begins with the lyrics and the instrumentals are then built around the lyrics, providing a feeling for the vibrant imagery existent throughout the tracks. The written tracks of the band mainly focus on human experience, in a way, as Merino adds, “Celebrate that tragic human experience of feeling small.” Dream Pool also reflects human connection, as Nuñez highlights, “I want people to hear what we say, I like to write about human nature, maybe [even] things that people don’t like talking about.”

Currently, the group is mainly a live band with no released music other than several clips of live performances on YouTube. With Nuñez’s senior recital coming up, the band plans to make it their first release show and is excited for their first recordings to be placed on listening platforms. Nuñez laughed, “You guys have heard of us but now you can hear us.” Dream Pool has certainly grown in a little less than a year and continues to grow to strive for that summer dream Nuñez had of the group.

Keep an eye out for the date of Nuñez’s senior recital and for shows they might pop on to, for dream-like music and performance.