August 3: vocalist Holly Blake-Arnstein – of the groups Dream & Whirl Magnet - is 28-years-old today.

 

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Holly Arnstein was born on August 3, 1985 in Tarzana, California on August 3, 1985. She began acting at the tender age of eight and spent most of her youth performing in musical theater.

By eighth grade, she knew that she wanted to concentrate solely on her singing career. In 1998, Holly attended an audition for a new girl group by talent scout Judith Fontaine at the recommendation of her vocal coach.

Holly was signed shortly after along with Melissa Schuman, Ashley Poole and Alex Chester. The group's original name, First Warning, was later changed to Dream. The group stayed together from 1998 to 2003. Soon after, the group were signed by Sean Combs to his Bad Boy Records label. In January 1999, Diana Ortiz took the place of Chester.

Dream released their debut single, "He Loves U Not,” in 2001 followed by their debut album, It Was All a Dream. "He Loves U Not," peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at #17 in the UK Singles Chart.

Their subsequent single, "This Is Me," enjoyed a fair amount of success as well. The final single and video from the album was "This Is Me (remix)" and featured rapper Kain as well as Sean Combs. Though Bad Boy Records had planned to release "Miss You" and "In My Dreams" as the third and fourth singles from It Was All A Dream, they were never released.

Little was heard from Dream until April 2002, when Melissa Schuman left the group to pursue an acting career. A lengthy search conducted by Combs and the three remaining members led to 15-year-old Kasey Sheridan becoming the youngest member of the group in the early fall of 2002.

Dream spent the subsequent months recording new songs for their second album. In the summer of 2003, the girls returned with a sexier image and a new single featuring rapper Loon called "Krazy."

Arnstein has said she thought the second album was “100 times better” than their first one. "There was this push for us to be more sexual and this emphasis on being skinny. We always had this mentality that we were real, we were really friends and really in love with music and having a good time. Suddenly that was not the game. It was, 'How much weight can you lose and how sexual can you be?'"

Whirl Magnet

The single and its video did not receive the acclaim and success of "He Loves U Not," and the album Reality was never released. Bad Boy Records dropped Dream and they disbanded, although their dissolution was never formally announced.

After Dream broke up, Ashley Poole and Melissa Schuman  pursued solo singing careers.

Holly, who planned to attend San Francisco State to study psychology, joined the band Whirl Magnet. They've released two albums, Whirl Magnet, followed by Altered States in 2005.  


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