From boy band to travelling the world making videos, meet the best friends who met aged 12 in a small North Yorkshire village

Josh Stockdale, 27 and Alex Boulton, 29, met when they were just 12 and 14 when Josh’s family moved from Harrogate to North Stainley. The boys hit it off, especially over their shared love of music and with three other friends formed a rock band, :PM.

“The band went really well,” recalls Josh. “We did all the normal stuff like Battle of the Bands and we were pretty successful. When I was 15 we were picked up by an independent record label owned by Johnny Depp, called Unison Music Group, and flown out to Los Angeles for a development deal. It was the most incredible experience which gave me and Alex an enlightenment to what’s outside of Yorkshire." In the end, due to their young age and parental differences, the band didn't end up signing a record deal and so they returned home, but their success continued on home soil over the next few years.

"We didn’t have much money as we didn’t have a recording contract so we did all our own videos and photoshoots. Alex had good skill with the camera and he used to do the music videos for the band.”

They ended up performing in front of tens of thousands of fans in major arenas around the UK, supporting bands such as the Vamps.

"It was a childhood dream from the age of 12 to play arenas like Manchester and the O2 and there we were doing it. Playing those venues with your best friend – it was an absolute dream come true and we really thought we'd made it.” But it didn’t quite work out that way and so Alex and Josh decided to leave the band,. “The music journey was truly unforgettable but we didn’t really capitalise on the success of the arena tour and Alex and I wanted more; we wanted to travel and experience the world,” says Josh. They went to Bali and started posting photographs and videos on social media. “We did the classic ‘see what you have left in your bank account and see where it can take you’ – and booked a one way flight to Indonesia. We had that feeling of wonderlust from the LA trip. It was 2017 and we took a camera and a lens and filmed a classic two lads running around Bali video and put it on YouTube. There was one particular photo we took on a beach that got some traction on Instagram. Lumix UK the camera brand picked it up and when we got back to the UK they signed us up as their first travel ambassadors for their new camera, the GH5." It was another dream come true for the friends whose first assignment was in the Philippines advertising the camera as a result they got scouted by MTV UK to be travel presenters for their travel brand.

"We got sent to Australia, presenting and producing promoting Tourism Western Australia to the 18 to 30 traveller with partners STA Travel. It went really well despite us having no formal training, we just spent a lot of time watching YouTube learning how to craft our skill.” Despite their lack of experience the campaign picked up a global travel media award. When they returned to the UK they decided to set up a company and Dream Beach Media was formed. "When we were in Indonesia we spent time on an island off the coast of Bali and had a few beers at a place called Dream Beach and took a great picture standing by the sign and put it on Instagram to show our friends. And when we were looking for a name for the company we just knew it had to be Dream Beach Media.” In the last seven years the business and the creative, hands-on approach of its two founders to producing engaging video content for social, digital and broadcast audiences has seen it grow into a global enterprise working for major clients in the tourism, music, sport, travel, luxury and lifestyle sectors.

The agency’s mission statement ‘Based Nowhere, Found Everywhere’ perfectly captures an ethos that has seen it delivering projects in 40 countries in the last five years - from the edge of the Arctic Circle to the coral reefs of Australia, from the beaches of Malta to the rain forests of The Philippines.

In the last 24 months, the Dream Beach family – which now includes five full time staff – have filmed in Indonesia, France, Switzerland, Malta, Sweden, Italy, Jordan, Albania, Spain, Argentina, UAE, Croatia, Chile and Brazil. Clients range from Lindblad Expeditions / National Geographic to Universal Music Group, the tourism boards for Malta, Jordan and the Philippines and they have also worked with the likes of Jet2, Standard Chartered Bank, MTV UK, Warner Music, Anjunadeep and The Yacht Week. Their first major television commercial, an action-packed film advertising tourism in Malta, broadcast on MTV and Eurosport globally, as well as billboards at the Manchester United Stadium, Old Trafford was a Finalist, at the prestigious International Tourism Film Festival Africa awards in Cape Town. It follows an earlier Gold award for content marketing in the Travel Marketing Awards.

“In the beginning, the two of us handled every aspect of the business,” explains Alex. “Now, as we have taken on bigger clients and won more complex, long term projects we have built an international network of producers, videographers, photographers, drone pilots, social media managers and highly skilled VFX artists, who all share our creative approach and high standards of client service. It means that we are able to tackle multiple projects simultaneously and grow what we call, the Dream Beach family.

"We are not like any other agency or production company out there - we are a family of creatives built off our shared love for travel and creativity.” The friends have lived in Malta for just over two years and now have residency mainly due to Brexit limiting the amount of time they could spend in Europe where most of their clients are based. They now have a UK company and recently a company based in Malta after forming a strong relationship with the Visit Malta tourist board. The pair are constantly looking for innovative ways to make their video campaigns stand out in a highly competitive market. "The biggest challenge for us has been learning how to grow a business without any formal training,” says Josh. “We like the challenge but it’s been a steep learning curve. We are dealing with major brands, record label & governments around the world. On the creative side the challenge is always trying to better ourselves and not get stagnant.” Last year, they flew Ecuador to make National Geographic’s first ever FPV video tour aboard its specialist yacht for environmental tours. And when I speak to Josh they have just returned from Chile working with an Olympic Gold Medalist Snowboarder, on a project for the camera brand Insta 360. From being in a rock band, to travelling the world to running their own high octane business, Alex and Josh are still the best of friends.

"I can honestly say with everything we have been through together we have never had a cross word,” says Josh. "We have had a lot of good luck, but it’s all been down to the relentless hours we put into our dream each day. It never feels like work.”

www.instagram.com/dreambeachmedia