Death Valley Dreams

From the Wyoming Valley to the road again

Death Valley Dreams came together in the autumn of 2015 in the small‑town Pennsylvania axis of Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton. Frontman/guitarist/synth player Nick Coyle and guitarist/synth player Jonny (Johnny) Nova had worked together in The Drama Club; their new project took shape with Ryan Dougherty and Matt Rutkoski completing the first line‑up. An early press snapshot in June 2016 lists Coyle (vocals/guitar/synth), Nova (guitar/synth/vocals), Dougherty (bass/vocals) and Rutkoski (drums/samples), matching what local coverage described from their January 2016 hometown EP launch. The band’s “From” tag on Apple Music remains Wilkes‑Barre, PA, and venue bios continue to place them squarely in the Northeastern Pennsylvania scene. [Jan 15–16, 2016; Jun 2–3, 2016.]

The work that put a name to the sound

They moved quickly. A self‑titled debut EP arrived on 15 January 2016 and was launched the next night at River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains Township, near Wilkes‑Barre. Within months they released a fuller set of recordings as Lust in the Modern World, dated 20 June 2016 on Spotify, with 11 tracks including early calling cards Words Like Fire, The Darker Years and City of Dreams. Contemporary reviews picked out the synth textures and post‑punk lean, placing Coyle’s delivery against ‘80s‑shaded melodies.

The next notable entry is a one‑off soundtrack moment: Turn Out Those Eyes, issued with a video on 3 April 2018 to tie in with the indie film Baby Frankenstein. The clip, premiered by V13 Media, cut band performance footage with scenes from the film and credited guest drummer Chad Szeliga (ex‑Breaking Benjamin) — a small‑scale release that nonetheless kept the name active between longer runs of touring and writing.

After the pandemic bottleneck, the release cadence resumed. Reckless Heart landed as a standalone single on 18 November 2022 (Spotify lists the date on the one‑track release). In 2023 the band issued Feel This No More in early January — logged by chart trackers and later flagged in a 2024 blog “Song of the Day” round‑up — and then Leave Me Alone on 21/22 September 2023, the latter featuring a guest vocal from Brandon Yeagley of Crobot and drawing write‑ups from specialist outlets Post‑Punk.com and Melodic Magazine. Coyle also broke down the single’s nuts‑and‑bolts production and video approach in an October 2023 Q&A, underlining that the song was conceived with another singer in mind before Yeagley stepped in. [Apr 3, 2018; Nov 18, 2022; Jan 6/15, 2023; Sep 21–22, 2023; Oct 31, 2023.]

Stages, festivals and a growing itinerary (2023–2026)

Live activity picked up through 2023. On 28 April 2023 they were billed with Vision Video at Lovedraft’s Brewing Co. (Harrisburg, PA), and that autumn they appeared at Louder Than Life in Louisville, KY, where interviews from the grounds captured them discussing newer material and plans. Setlist aggregators also show fifteen shows logged for 2023, including an October club set built around seven songs from the 2016 album plus the two 2022–23 singles.

The step up in 2026 is clarity itself: as of early September 2026 there are seven North American dates on sale listing Death Valley Dreams as special guests on The Rasmus’ club tour with UK band Saint Agnes. Ticketing pages and Apple Music’s concerts feed align on the routing and timings — early‑evening doors in most cities — with the run starting on Sunday 6 September at Bottom Lounge, Chicago, and passing through Boston (Brighton Music Hall, Thursday 10 September), New York (Racket, Sunday 13 September) and Minneapolis (Varsity Theater, Saturday 19 September), before heading west for Sacramento (Ace of Spades, Tuesday 6 October) and San Diego (House of Blues, Sunday 11 October) and closing in Los Angeles at The Regent Theater on Monday 12 October. Separate listings also fold them into the Louder Than Life weekend at the Kentucky Exposition Center (mid‑September 2026). [Apr 28, 2023; Sep 6–Oct 12, 2026.]

What the set looks like now

The most recent hard evidence of how a Death Valley Dreams set runs comes from October 2023, where an average seven‑song club set featured The Darker Years, You Better Run, Feel This No More, City of Dreams, Reckless Heart, Words Like Fire and Leave Me Alone. That’s effectively a bridge between the 2016 songbook and the current singles, and tallies with the length expected of an opening slot on a three‑band bill. The tour they’re on through September and October 2026 has 6:30–8:00pm start times on most listings, with Death Valley Dreams slotted beneath Saint Agnes on the posters — an arrangement that usually yields a compact set before the changeover to the main support. While production flourishes are limited by club stages, recent venue bios emphasise the band’s reliance on synth pads and guitar layers rather than screens or large staging. [Oct 6, 2023; listings dated Sep–Oct 2026.]

Place and pedigree

The Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton roots matter here. First Avenue’s artist bio still frames Death Valley Dreams as an indie/alternative rock outfit from that corner of Pennsylvania, and the Apple Music artist page pegs the origin the same way. The core duo’s CVs run long — Coyle and Nova both logged time in the Florida‑rooted alt‑rock band Cold in the late‑2010s, a link referenced in venue notes and reflected in Cold’s public line‑ups — but Death Valley Dreams remains a separate, synth‑tinted proposition with a small, concrete discography and a steady re‑entry into touring. If 2016 was the first flush and 2018 the one‑off detour, then the 2022–23 singles and this autumn’s support tour mark the present tense: new songs in the set, and a run of seven club dates and festival slots that put them back in front of audiences from Toronto and Boston to Los Angeles. [2016–2026 references as cited below.]