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The Sleeping
Rob Ortenzi on 6/16/09 @ 1:26 PM
NOW PLAYING: What It Takes (VICTORY; victoryrecords.com)
WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: After weathering troublesome lineup changes since their previous release, the Long Island post-hardcore outfit returns this month with new blood and new riffs.
YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: Thursday / At The Drive-In / Deftones
STORY: Brendan Manley
PHOTO: Gene Smirnov
Doug Robinson has paid his dues, and then some. After enduring the obligatory van touring and abject poverty young bands typically face-as well as a dismal stint living in an unheated, bathroom-less Long Island warehouse-turned-rehearsal space-in 2007, things were finally looking up for the vocalist and his band, the Sleeping. Their sophomore release, Questions And Answers, was attracting attention, tours were steady, and the band's song "Don't Hold Back" even found its way onto Guitar Hero III. Then the group's own guitar hero, Cameron Keym, called it quits.
Fed up with touring and enamored with an English lass he'd met while the band toured the U.K., Keym packed his bags and moved to London, while the Sleeping, who then included drummer Joe Zizzo and bassist Sal Mignano, pondered their next move.
"When [Keym] moved, we didn't know what the fuck we were gonna do," remembers Robinson. "We were like, 'Should we just break up?' [Keym] was a strong guy, and sometimes in a band, you feel like you can't replace someone." The search actually resulted in two new Sleeping members: New guitarist Paul Cadeña, a former North Carolinian who played briefly in Hopesfall, filled the six-string void, while organist Chris Evans, a Philadelphia native, was tapped to lay down a thick bed of sound, almost equivalent to a rhythm guitar. Robinson says the new blood, particularly the difference in guitar players, has made a huge impact on the band's latest material.
"As much as we loved Cameron-he was an amazing guitar player-Paul brought more riffs to the table; like, meaty, chunky guitar that we were kind of short of, which makes more room for me to flow over parts and choruses and stuff," Robinson explains. "It's difficult when you have a guitar player who's super strong but noodly, where you kind of can't sing over everything. I felt like some of our choruses could've been a little beefier."
With the new lineup set, the Sleeping spent the fall and winter of 2008 sequestered in Baltimore at Brian McTernan's Salad Days studio, recording their third full-length, What It Takes. Robinson describes the new music as driving and energetic, yet lyrically darker than anything he's personally written before, with topics such as chronic frustration, death and even bad acid trips finding their way into the songs. One track, "Bomb The World," is especially meaningful considering the band's recent struggles.
"You can feel like your life is the worst shit in the world, but somehow you gotta keep going," says Robinson. "I wanted to write about people keeping going in a more aggressive way-like, fuck everything, and do what you have to do to get by. Everybody in this band knows, we make happen whatever we want to make happen, even if we have to do it in the most shitty, ghetto way."
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I first heard The Sleeping on a demo cd that came with the Atreyu cd The Best of Atreyu, and I loved it! If any band deserves being heard, it's this band right here!