INTERVIEW: BIG SOUND FESTIVAL - sleepmakeswaves
- Tiana Speter
- Sep 2, 2017
- 3 min read
Updated: May 11, 2023
What's Big and Sounds awesome? In honour of the insanely epic upcoming Big Sound Festival and Conference in Brisbane next week, The Soundcheck has been featuring an artist from the festival every two days until the event kicks off on Tuesday 5th of September.
So far we've met Melbourne alt-soul machines The Cactus Channel, blues king Karl S. Williams, and lovable indie rock larrikins The VANNS...but this time round we've dropped the vocals and pumped up the post rock - ladies and gentleman, meet Sydney's premier "crescendo-core" legends sleepmakeswaves.
Instrumental post-rock/prog quartet sleepmakeswaves are in the midst of a 60+ date world tour in support of new album 'Made of Breath Only.' Known for their cinematic wall of sound and energetic live shows, the band's 2017 milestones include triple j rotation for 'Tundra', #15 on the ARIA Chart and rave reviews.
B (BACKSTORY) TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR BAND AND HOW YOU GOT STARTED: We just started out as excitable young dudes who were equally infatuated with post-rock like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky and hardcore like Alexisonfire and At The Drive-In. Writing good songs just clicked for us right away and we never looked back.
I (INFLUENCES) WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES? ARE THERE ANY NOT-SO-OBVIOUS ONES? On top of stuff like the above, we’re all really into the synth pop of the 80s, and the melodic melancholy that it did so well. Tears for Fears, Talk Talk and The Cure. And we all like 90s guitar music, everything from Soundgarden to The Smashing Pumpkins to Sunny Day Real Estate.
G (GIGS) WHAT'S BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE GIG SO FAR? We just came back from playing a festival of experimental rock and metal called ArcTanGent near Bristol, UK. It was an amazing crowd and I can report that lots of mud and wellingtons can add to the festival experience sometimes.
S (SONGS) WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO PLAY LIVE AND WHY? At the moment it’s ‘Midnight Sun’ off our latest album Made of Breath Only. I think it’s one of the best things we’ve written with a little bit of everything we do well.
O (ONE OTHER BAND) WHO IS THE ONE BAND/ARTIST YOU'RE MOST PUMPED TO SEE LIVE AT BIG SOUND? Scalphunter. I’ve heard great things and I do enjoy me some live metal.
U (UPCOMING STUFF) WHAT HAVE YOU GOT ON THE HORIZON, ANY UPCOMING TOURS OR NEW RELEASES? After Bigsound we’re going to do a month-long headline tour in Europe and the UK, and then come back to Australia in December to play with our US friends Rosetta. Check out our socials for dates.
N (NAME) WHAT'S THE STORY BEHIND YOUR BAND NAME? We chose it in the mid-2000s when it seemed like bandnamesinowercasewithnospaces would always be cool.
D (DREAM TOUR) WHO IS YOUR DREAM BAND/ARTIST TO TOUR WITH? I have just recently seen an all-female Japanese math-rock band called Tricot, and they utterly blew my mind. Would love to play shows with them.
You can catch sleepmakeswaves in action at Big Sound, all details plus a whole lot more below:
SLEEPMAKESWAVES - BIG SOUND LIVE SETS: CLICK HERE
BIG SOUND FESTIVAL AND CONFERENCE TICKETS: CLICK HERE BIG SOUND ARTIST A-Z LIST + SET TIME INFO: CLICK HERE
For more info on Big Sound head to: https://www.bigsound.org.au/
BY TIANA SPETER