Sleepfirst - Sound In The Signals Interview

I recently had the chance to interview Sleepfirst. We talked about how they formed the band, their EPs, how they found their style, and more. Check out the full interview below!

First off, thanks for the interview.
Nick Terlecky: Thank you for having us!

For anyone not familiar with Sleepfirst, can you tell me how you got together and formed the band?
In December 2015 Brad, Greg and myself decided to start this band. The point was to do something different musically, something we have never done before. From December 2015 - April 2016, we were a 3 member band, searching for a drummer. On both Temporary Storms and Poetic Notes I wrote/recorded the drums as well as fulfilling my other roles in this band. Finally in May 2016 I discovered our drummer Mike on YouTube, sent him a message basically asking him to join our band, and the rest is history!

I really enjoy the mixture of styles you have in your music and the way the vocals are done.  You have the mix of singing and spoken word vocals. How did you find your style and sound? Did you start the band knowing what type of direction you wanted to go in or did it evolve when you started playing together?
Essentially our first release Temporary Storms, was us trying to figure out our sound and where we wanted to take the band musically. We are all happy with this release and will always back it, but we didn’t really start to figure out our “writing style” and direction until writing the songs for Poetic Notes. Not only were the songs much more meaningful/personal to myself, but the music was more so our “sound”. During the writing, recording, and even after the release of Poetic Notes, we knew we wanted to explore this style even more and I can promise you our next release will be even more so in the direction that Poetic Notes was heading. This band has many influences that inspire each of us personally and when it comes down to writing specific parts for songs, all our influences combine together into what I guess you could call our sound. The biggest thing for us is not being tied down to one genre or style of music, not for the sake of being different but we want to have the freedom to make whatever art we want. Whether it be influences from emo, punk, hardcore, post-hardcore etc.

You released 'Poetic Notes' this year and I was reading the description about it on Bandcamp and I think it touches on some really interesting themes. Can you tell me a little about the writing process both musically and lyrically for it?
Poetic Notes is a very personal release to myself and the situations I’ve unfortunately been apart of this past year. Like I said in the description on bandcamp, this release was written as a reminder to myself and others. I found writing this EP, the lyrics especially, to be very therapeutic for myself and I’m so grateful to have this outlet to channel whatever is on my mind.

I really like the closing track "Growth" a lot. How did that song come together in particular and how long did it take you to write and record it?
Glad you dig it! Growth was ironically the last song written for Poetic Notes and it’s funny that you asked because while writing this song, I probably changed it 20 times. After working on it for about 2 weeks, I finally was pleased with it and showed it to the band. We recorded Poetic Notes at Skyway Studios with our good friend RJ DeMarco and went to the studio for many sessions from June - July 2016.

You released another EP earlier this year titled 'Temporary Storms'. What made you guys decide to release two EPs this year and how has the response been to both of them?
Both EP’s were 3-track intentionally for the main purpose of experimenting with our sound/getting some music out. In my opinion, both EP’s are small pieces of art showcasing what we are capable of but not showing you everything, because frankly we were still figuring everything out (during both releases). As a band we only have 6 songs out and a demo we put out in 2015 but the response and support we have received from them has been really cool. We are very thankful and are very excited to be putting out something larger in 2017.

I guess that wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
Thank you again for having us! And yes, be on the lookout for more Sleepfirst show announcements in the next couple of month. Also we are currently writing a larger release that is set to be recorded at Pebble Studios with Cory Bergeron of the band Safe To Say, in May 2017. We are very excited.
Also some members of this band may be pursuing some other music endeavors in the next few months, as well as of being apart of Sleepfirst, so be on the lookout for that!


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