An Interview with... Sleeping Together
Meet Sleeping Together - One of the UK’s most exciting emerging bands!
Some bands form in garages. Others meet at uni. Sleeping Together formed over FaceTime in lockdown with a potato for WiFi and haven’t looked back.
We caught up with lead singer and guitarist Alex, lead guitarist Mike, and bassist Daniel ahead of a stacked summer of gigs. They talked us through food fights, their constantly evolving sound, and the chaos of bringing it all to life on stage.
Note: This interview was recorded before Sleeping Together’s incredible drummer, Amber Hughes, temporarily stepped away from the band following a diagnosis of Lymphoma. We send Amber all our love and well wishes for a speedy recovery. If you’d like to follow Amber’s story, you can do so here: Amber's Journey
So… who are you and what are you about?
Alex:
“We're Sleeping Together, aren't we? I feel you always wanna sound like the people that you listen to but never end up doing. We’re like indie noughties with a bit of a newer sound.”
Mike:
“A little bit heavier, maybe.”
Alex:
“That’s true. The newer stuff’s been nice.”
Daniel:
“Yeah, we’ve got a variety of sounds actually, haven’t we?”
Alex:
“A lot of our influences were — Libertines and Stones and Monkeys and Strokes.”
Daniel:
“Yeah. That’s confident. Get that in there. Definitely.”
You started the band during lockdown?
Alex:
“Yeah. We had two rehearsals, then boom - pandemic. Cool. Enjoy. We were like, lets keep it going.”
Mike:
“I live in the middle of a field. My WiFi is basically a potato with two antenna sticking out of it.”
Daniel:
“It wasn’t great.”
Alex:
“I’d FaceTime the others, play a song, they’d mute and play along. Then two years later we’d meet up like, ‘That’s what you’ve been playing all this time?’”
Mike:
“You weren’t even in the right key!”
Alex:
“It all worked out in the end though.”
What’s been your most chaotic night out?
Alex:
“Definitely the last one! One of those nights where you think, ‘If I watch this back, our manager will go mad.’ We got kicked out of the first place for throwing things. Not aggressively. Just… pizza.”
Mike:
“It was a crust!”
Alex:
“Then you (Daniel) couldn’t get back in because somebody was leathered”
Alex:
“He (Mike) slept outside my porch with the key in front of him and didn’t know it. That was a good night, to be fair.”
Mike:
“The hang-xiety was awful.”
Do you remember your first radio play?
Alex:
“I remember where i was when Summer girl got played. I was in the Printworks watching boxing and I got about 100 texts: ‘You’re on second. You’ve been given a Hot One.’ I was like, oh my God. What does that mean?”
“I was buzzing. My mates in bands were like, ‘As if you’ve got that first go!’. A few days later we were on a Spotify playlist. We almost took that song out of the set that week!
You worked with legendary producer Andrea Cozzaglio. Big moment?
Alex:
“Yeah, insane. Difficult for us though. We’re opinionated. Once you’ve been in a few bands, you know what you want. He’d say, ‘Try this,’ and we’d be like, ‘Nah.’ Then he’d say, ‘This is track 17 from that Inhaler tune you love’ — and it worked.”
Mike:
“Then we were like, ‘Can we have that thing in our track as well?’ It’s surprising how many different sounds go into a song that you don’t even hear. But when you take it out, you feel it.”
Alex:
“We don’t really use backing tracks either. The four of us recreate what we can.”
Which tracks go off live?
Alex:
“Daisy’s a go-to. Summer Girl’s had big moments. Essentials too.”
Daniel:
“Depends on the crowd.”
Alex:
“Essentials went off the week we released it.”
Mike:
“Love Sick at the O2 went really well.”
Alex:
“We played a new one recently — never done it live before — and it went down so well. That one’s staying in.”
You’ve had comparisons to The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys… fair?
Alex:
“I’d say no, to be fair. I think when you listen to your own stuff, you sort of gauge where it’s at. And when you’re writing something, you always want to write the next thing. Like drawing as a kid. You finish one and you want the next one to be better.
Do bands like Arctic Monkeys look at their first album and think, that was flawless because it had success? Or do they think, what was that? Because they changed so much.”
Alex:
“We said this the other night - Summer Girl - does it make the set now? I wrote it ten years ago. But do you play what fans want, or what you want?”
That’s something you think about when writing too, especially with the heavier stuff. Who are you writing for? Yourself? The fans? At what point do you lose track?”
Daniel:
Influence-wise, you’ve got the classics — The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys — but also new bands like Wunderhorse who are doing amazing things. Without just doing what they do, how do you get that in?
Mike:
“Yeah, it’s about borrowing the vibe without copying.”
Alex:
“We all bring different stuff. You can tell Amber used to be a heavy rock drummer. She’ll put that into an indie beat and I’m like, actually, yeah. This is my favourite song we’ve written.
What’s the dream venue to headline?
Daniel:
It’s got to be The Apollo.
Alex:
The Apollo? You like the Apollo, do you?
Mike:
Love the Apollo.
Alex:
I took my mum to watch UB40 there before. At the end, their generation don’t shout for an encore. They just stand in silence. Like, we’re not leaving. So you’ve got to come back out. And they played for ages. It was sick. I was like, we should try this intense silence.
Alex:
I like New Century Hall. That roof is great. I also like The Pink Room. I know they’re not the biggest venues in the world, but the Pink Room is a vibe.
Mike:
Until two weeks ago mine was the Ritz, to be honest.
Daniel:
Yeah. We’ve seen some class bands there.
What’s been on rotation lately?
Mike:
“I’m listening to Still Woozy, Rex Orange County. The Neighborhood, Dominic Fike. Bass-driven songs with pretty guitar on top.”
Daniel:
“Wunderhorse. Japanese House. A bit of 1975. Anything by Dirty Hit record label”
Alex:
“I’m on Basht. Wild Horses by Basht is my shout. Also Keo, Wunderhorse and Dead Pretties. The Hills by The Weeknd, Heartbeat by Childish Gambino. Kanye’s Runaway. Those three are like, you’re upset, it’s late night, it’s raining. Crying music.
