SLEEPY AND THE NOISE
After the release of their debut EP Altitudes, we were fortunate to catch up with Sleepy and the Noise. We chatted about improvements to the local music scene, their EP release show and their ‘gateway’ song for those looking to try their music!
VITALS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SleepyNTheNoise/
Web: https://sleepyandthenoise.bandcamp.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sleepynthenoise
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SleepyNTheNoise
Latest release: Altitudes (EP, September 2016)
Upcoming shows: Stay tuned!
SA: How did Sleepy and the Noise come together? Sleepy and the Noise: Sleepy and the Noise started out as Christian’s solo project. He met Kira after playing some shows in the scene and while in the process of experimenting with band lineups. Sarah joined most recently after she and Kira met through their involvement as teachers with Ottawa Rock Camp For Girls (ORC4G). We actually just played a fundraiser for ORC4G at Pressed this past Saturday with Radiogenic and GOAT, each band having some member connection(s) to the organization.
SA: What bands or musicians would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? Christian: We all have different influences that contribute to our styles; how we kind of come together as a band from different places can be unexpected and pretty neat - the three of us haven’t actually been playing together for that long - not quite a year, so we’re still having a lot of fun experimenting. When it comes to music and lyrics, I pull from a pretty broad and diverse set of influences - groups that are known for a spectrum of different sounds like Beatles, Bowie, Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead are favorites - so a lot of 60s-70s groups and 90s alternative rock groups were big influences. Then there are more indie-style artists like Sufjan Stevens or Canadian artists such as Wintersleep, Arcade Fire and Feist.
SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? Sleepy and the Noise: Our greatest success so far would have to be the release of our EP Altitudes. We’re really happy with the way the music turned out and finally have something to show people what Sleepy and the Noise sounds like - it’s fairly raw and close to our live sound. David Gervais recorded this one and we played our EP release at Bar Robo with his band Mushy Gushy, which was a great success!
SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? Sleepy and the Noise: Probably one of the biggest challenges we’ve had has been that summer in Ottawa is festival season, and as a new band who came together after festival applications, it was not the best time to try to get people out to shows. We turned this into a good situation, we think, by focusing on getting really good recordings.
SA: How do you guys approach the song-writing process? Sleepy and the Noise: So far, we’ve been working with songs that Christian had written - many of these were recorded with just acoustic guitar and vocals, some were more fleshed out with bass riffs or multi-track versions, but everything changes and transforms in some way when it comes into our current band dynamic to be deconstructed and put back together in the jam space.
SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? Sarah: As someone who’s tried to be really involved with the music scene, as a musician and as a listener, I’m thrilled by the amount and variety of bands Ottawa has right now. As a female musician, I’m also psyched about the huge amount of women musicians who are represented and respected in the scene. I feel like the challenge now is to get better at being intersectional : Ottawa’s music scene could definitely benefit from hearing more from racially, gender-, sexual- and ability-diverse people. The Ottawa scene is also actually dozens of super genre-specific mini-scenes : musicians and music lovers would benefit from people being more open to collaboration across genres!
Christian: From what I’ve seen, there are an increasing number of local venues that have publicized inclusive policies or premises where they try to accommodate body types, have gender neutral washrooms, etc. - certainly many of the music/arts festivals have these stated policies, and this is great!
SA: You guys recently released the four track EP, Altitudes, at Bar Robo. How did the show go, and do any particular events stand out as highlights from the evening? Sleepy and the Noise: The show went great! The staff at Bar Robo work hard to make you feel at home and Mathias was a champ at the show. We were also super excited to play with Mushy Gushy, since their new EP is awesome and so catchy and also because David Gervais from Mushy Gushy recorded Altitudes, so it just felt really fun to have that connection. Madison and Sarah (of Bonnie Doon) were also a huge help in making it a really fun night, with their great spins before and between sets. The crowd was really enthusiastic and Sarah left the stage with her bass at one point during our set to mingle and groove with them, so that was fun. We got the sense that everyone left happy which is all we want.
SA: For someone unfamiliar with your band's work, what song would you suggest they listen to first, and why? Sleepy and the Noise: We tend to suggest Mountains and Valleys. It’s a good representation of one of our more fun and upbeat songs and it might give people a feel for what we try to sound like live. This is also a song that is a good representation of where the band’s at right now with our individual influences each coming through into the mix.
SA: The band has said that Altitudes was more a matter of fine-tuning the pre-existing songs that singer/guitarist Christian Pasiak had written. Have you guys started writing new material yet, and if so, how has the song-writing process been going? Christian: While some of the songs are a bit older and existed even before the solo project Sleepy and the Noise, the newest songs are being written with the band in mind. The melody for My Medusa, which is one of the more newly penned songs made it onto our EP, is probably partially inspired by Kira’s rhythms. It was written on keyboard first - a choice I sometimes make if I’m looking to write something more immediate and hook-driven. While as a band we’ve been burning through the stock of finished songs week after week, adding or retooling bass lines, adding and working through the rhythms, refining the vocal and guitar lines to complement the three-piece - there are always songs in the process of being written. As a band, we don’t really dedicate chunks of time to song-writing - the songs are kind of always around, always being written. So it’s a continuous process - there’s usually something new in the works and we have finished material for at least a few more EPs.
SA: What can we expect from Sleepy and the Noise throughout the remainder of 2016? Our best wishes for your continued success! Sleepy and the Noise: Thanks! We’re currently playing gigs to really fine tune our live sets. We’re also planning our next EP and applying to lots of fests, so you’ll hear plenty from us next year too!