Joe Appleford – ‘Dystopian Dreams, Utopian Nightmares’

Croydon trio Bad Sign were very much in that group of UK alt-rock bands that should’ve been bigger, yet they succumbed to the trials and tribulations that any independent band goes through. For frontman Joe Appleford, Bad Sign’s end took it’s toll on the 28-year-old to the point he no longer wanted to play music. Thankfully, his grandma gave Joe some words of encouragement, spurring him to reignite his passion for music. Fast-forward to the present day, and we now have ‘Dystopian Dreams, Utopian Nightmares’, Appleford’s debut full-length. Interweaving personal issues, the record is described as a concept album based on the “juxtapositions of modern life”. While stylistically, Appleford could have gone down the tried and tested singer-songwriter route, he leans on a cinematic-sized al...