SLEAPINGDREAMING - Interview

 

INDICATE - What does the term "shoegaze" mean to you?

SLEAPINGDREAMING - I guess technically it means the use of a lot of effects to create dense layered soundscapes. Basically, it has historically been represented by people spending shows looking down at their pedal racks rather than engaging with the audience, thus the term "shoegazing". The style, for us best represented by bands like MBV or Slowdive, has been associated with introspection, melancholy, but also danceability. I don't think any of that describes what we do all that well, but we certainly borrow a lot of the technical elements from the style, especially in sound layering. However where we differ is that we try to be a bit more cinematic in our approach. Not having a lot of vocals means we have to try other ways to keep the music interesting. Our songs are typically a bit longer than traditional shoegaze and have several movements that often develop at a slow incremental pace. 
INDICATE - If you could jam with any musician, who would it be?
SLEAPINGDREAMING - Probably Johnny Jewell of The Chromatics and Glass Candy. That guy has such a fantastic ability to transmute emotion into sound. He's been a big influence on how we write our music.
INDICATE  -  What can people expect when they see a SleapingDreaming show?

SLEAPINGDREAMING -  Something loud, intense, cinematic, and ultimately a bit dreamy. We want the audience to be emotionally moved, but not bored or bummed out. Thus, we try to vary what we are doing within songs and in how we progress throughout a show, pairing songs that are loud and bombastic with others that are quieter, aggressive songs with melancholic etc. We want people walking away from a show feeling they got lots of everything and never feel like they could easily tell where we were going next. It seems to be working. A lot of bands we play with, people who don't know them will watch for a few songs and be like"ok, i get it" and go back to the bar. We havn't seen people do that as much with us. They tend to get curious at all the weird shit we are doing and we get lots of questions after shows on how and why etc. Its pretty cool.

Check out SleapingDreaming's album, "Victory Roses", out now!

https://sleaphingdreaming.bandcamp.com/