The Julia Dream

“We did not name our band after a Pink Floyd song,” says the Julia Dream bassist Matt Spatial. Members of the Atlanta band say they found out after the fact that their group name was the B-side song on “It Would Be So Nice,” released by Pink Floyd in 1968. But it still didn’t deter them. “We loved the name so much,” Spatial says before vocalist Vernon P. Love finishes his sentence: “that we decided to take the punches that came along with that question.”

The name came out of nowhere. “One day I had a dream,” Spatial recalls. “I woke up and said the words ‘the Julia Dream’ out loud, brought it into the practice space the next day, and we all liked it.” It fits the dreamlike, layered sound created by Spatial, Love, guitarist Sacha Alexander and drummer Michael Jason. A blend of David Bowie, the Cure and R.E.M., it’s too smooth to be punk, not quite raw enough to be industrial and too hard-rocking to be pop. “I’d say we’re new wave,” Spatial says, “new wave meets dark wave.”

But that’s as close as the band wants to come to being pigeonholed. “I’m happy it’s hard for people to try to label us a certain thing ‘cause we’re just being who we are,” Love says. The band members say they rarely even consider their sound. “We just do what we do,” Spatial says. “And all we want to do is just make the kind of music we would want to hear someone else make if we weren’t making it.”

The Julia Dream opens for Your Vegas at the Hard Rock Café. $10. Sat., July 19. 9 p.m. Hard Rock Café, 215 Peachtree St. 404-688-7625. The band also plays the Comcast On Demand music showcase. $5. Tues., July 22. 7 p.m. Smith’s Olde Bar, 1578 Piedmont Ave. 404-875-1522.

To hear a song from the Julia Dream, click here.