Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Sleeper Effect Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
We are a four piece progressive rock band from London UK.
We started up in 2009 and just wanted to rock out without having the pressure of being a professional outfit, touring, recording and being told what to do.
The sound is a straight up drop D merging of raw energy and melodies all closely knit with fat fretless bass and tight kickass drums.

2.You have an ep coming out in April, can you tell us a little bit more about your musical sound?
Yes! ‘The Hero Clone’ is our first record kindly released by the wonderful people at Wormholedeath.
It’s a collection of our first songs so it’s all quite immediate and punchy. There is definite growth within the EP. Songs like ‘Clown’ and ‘Hero Clone’ have a more mature sound where as ‘Fortress’ and A City Burns’ are much more aggressive.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Without going too deep the lyrical content and meaning behind The Hero Clone is about the injustice of War. The use and misuse of young lives and the loss of innocent lives during conflict. A lot of these songs were written while the world was going pretty through some pretty fucked up times. Post 9/11 I felt there was a real global paranoia, prejudice and ultimately I felt that this generation and the generations growing up in this period had a tough time comprehending some of the things we were seeing on our TV screens. And I guess that kinda sunk into to some of our tunes.
‘Fortress’ is about that generation growing up with very high political walls around them.
‘A City Burns’ is directly written for President Bashar Hafez al-Assad and the atrocities in Syria.


4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name ‘Sleeper Effect'?
The sleeper effect is a psychological phenomenon that deals with persuasion. It is a delayed increase in the impact of a message that is accompanied by a discounting cue.
In a subconscious way we’re hoping that more people we hear our music in a Sleeper Effect sort of way.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Argh! We’ve been gigging pretty hard in London town. All the shows are memorable for different reasons. Personally the battle for me is just to perform the songs to the best of my ability. I have been known to let the moment take me and end up running along the bar of falling into the drumkit.
To the credit of Tim our drummer, Julian on bass and Jason on guitars however much I fuck up the guys never drop a beat.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Yeah, we have ambition to get out of London and put a small UK and possibly a few European dates together but we’re just trying to raise the funds at the moment.
Outside of music some of us have proper careers and young families so it’s all a juggling act really. We’re really happy to play things out to our own plan at the moment and not have a label calling the shots.

7.The new ep is coming out on WormHoleDeath Records, how did you get in contact with this label?
I have no idea. WHD just dropped us an email and it went from there.
It’s been great getting to know them and we feel that they genuinely get the music and have our best interest at heart. That shit is priceless.
As you can tell we very much believe in DIY music. From management, to art work to producing our music, everything is done in-house either by ourselves or with people we know. It’s how to grow any business. There will come a time when you have to start giving away percentages of your business but holding on to the integrity of your art is paramount. We are very grateful and thankful to have WHD onboard and we are looking forward to working with them further in the future.


8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of hard music?
Really good. Surprisingly good actually. You know we have hard rock and metal influences in our music but we are not a metal band. We share the same genetic makeup with heavy bands but our output is different. We feel there are a lot of bands who don’t get that balance right. We want to be able to rock out but also have good hooks and melodies but that doesn’t mean you have to go from something super heavy straight to something really big and cheesy. It’s all about the blend and balance.


9.Are any of the band members involved with any other musical projects these days?
Julian our bassist is ‘Filed Under K’. An amazing D’n’B, dub/reggae, Dubstep producer and DJ. He’s phenomenal and has built up quite a reputation even before Sleeper Effect started out.
Check his Album ‘Slangers’n’Gash’. Its slick.
Tim our drummer is an amazing guitar player. He’s currently working on his solo album and Jason our guitarist is currently working the barbeque scene turning up unannounced with his acoustic and serenading the locals.
I have ambitions to put out a solo record. Just waiting for the right space.
 



10.When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
That’s a tough question. There are no concrete plans though we have plenty of material currently being compiled. In terms of musical direction we are expanding the current style really. Keeping that blend and balance of heavy punchy rock metal and more progressive noise. I certainly feel we will be exploring some wonky time signatures in the near future.


11.What are some bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We all come from very different musical upbringings but all appreciate each other’s tastes.
90s Jungle and drum’n’bass and underground Hip-Hop
Then the grunge invasion and what was poorly labeled Nu Metal
Reggae, minimal, hardcore. You name it we’ve listened to it.
As a musician I think you have to appreciate other music styles. I personally love some of the Jazz drummers from the 50s but you won’t catch me listening to jazz all day.
Nowadays it is still as eclectic as ever.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Pale Ales. Cask Ales, Gardening, Single Malt Whiskeys. Kerouac, Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Yes.
Adam loves Oceansize.
Julian picks The Beatles over The Stones
Tim’s early memories of music was listening to “money for nothing" by Dire Straits on his dads record player
Jason once ran over is Gibson SG.

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