Common Loon Finds Reality Inside “Livin’ The Dream”

Topanga lives in Aviv Gilad’s music as a feeling. It calls up hillside bonfires where songs were part of the community’s emotional economy, and where having working musicians as neighbors felt entirely normal. Growing up there meant moving between classical discipline at the piano and the looser spirit of canyon rock shows, a continuity in which art was less a pursuit than a way of life embedded in the surrounding ecosystem. That environment still echoes through him, its many sounds subtly shaping everything he creates. His new project, Common Loon, rises from that solid, reddish earth. It is an album built on attention and trust.

“Livin’ The Dream” is the starting point, a song that traces the line between a dream and a waking life, where a once-spectral presence now breathes softly beside him. The hours of a dream stretch into the years of a lifetime, each framed by the same urgent savoring. The heart that once grabbed at hope like a fistful of smoke now holds something tangible, and the fear transfers from loss to the simple act of closing one’s eyes.

This is a song about getting what you wished for and how that can feel more fragile than the wish itself. It starts with longing so deep it visits in dreams, offering a temporary comfort that dissolves by morning. Then everything shifts. The dream becomes real, a person breathing beside you in your everyday life. The old fear of loss does not vanish. It simply takes on a different form.

Gilad’s process mirrored this openness, and in many ways, it is what defines Common Loon as a project. These songs were built across cities, with musicians like guitarist Luke Temple and drummer Jeremy Gustin bringing their own voices into the writing itself rather than simply executing pre-written parts. It reflects a deep respect for the specific talents of those who have stayed with the craft, something Topanga living likely instilled in him early on. This marks a small departure—but not a deviation—from his work with the prog-soul outfit Valipala, where he meticulously orchestrates every detail, and others perform it with little to no input. Here, Common Loon becomes, in his own words, “an exercise in humility,” built on trust, collaboration, and a shared belief in the process.