The Sleeping have just wrapped up their last UK performance on their current trek overseas. It’s barely ten minutes after their chaotic brand of post-hardcore antics have left the stage that a very sweaty, yet very content young man from Long Island, New York taps me on the shoulder to introduce himself. Once he’s said his thank you’s to many (and I mean MANY) excited teenage girls, we head off to where the band’s tourbus is parked to exchange a few words.
“Other than the fact that I’ve been sick, this tour has been so much fun. It’s so cool to come to a different country and be like ‘oh shit, I remember this place!’
Still wearing the same clothes he sweated massively into onstage not fifteen minutes ago, Doug Robinson is clearly very happy with how things are going for him and his band at the moment. “It’s definitely overwhelming coming back here, and to have people singing back my lyrics. It’s crazy, we’re from two completely different worlds that can come together through the music, and although it’s what we’ve been striving to do for a long time, it’s a really cool thing. I think ‘crazy’ is the word I’d use to describe it!
While they may be tearing things up stateside, The Sleeping are only just beginning to get some recognition over here in the UK. So how would Doug, the band’s frontman describe his troop to those who aren’t in the know? “I like to think we’re a very energetic, very experimental rock band with a lot of hardcore elements. When three of us guys used to be in skycamefalling, you’d expect a lot of hardcore elements to turn up in The Sleeping‘s music. We all love hardcore, and we all grew up listening to hardcore, especially coming from Long Island. It’s important for us to not lose the roots of the Tri-state area hardcore scene, so you can expect a lot of those elements in our music.”
But what about offstage? You’d expect such an energetic band to be partying hard as hell when they put their instruments down as well. “You know we’ve been doing a lot of sightseeing, and things like that. We’re hopefully going to make a trip to Stonehenge as well because that would be really cool. For the most part, we’ve just been getting to the venues, seeing how cold the venues are and realising that this is an actual job now, and not just a party! We always try to keep things on a fun level, but there’s definitely a lot of hardwork involved. Kids, if you want to be in a band – make sure you bust your ass, because it’s hardwork!”
Unless you’re completely out of the loop, you’ll have no doubt seen the Give It A Name Festival line-up for this year, which amongst others, Includes The Sleeping playing all three UK dates. “I’m very nervous about that, because it’s kind of like next-level stuff. Playing venues of that size we realise, ‘OK, now we’ve got to be on top of our game’. It’s not just coming to a venue, and hanging out with your friends anymore. It’s coming to a venue, running to see all different bands, trying to keep your voice, or warm up your hands, play the show, then go do more press. It’s going to be very nerve-wracking, but I’m very excited as well. We’ve played a couple of arenas with Taking Back Sunday and Fall Out Boy and that was fun, but it’s going to be nothing like this. On the other hand, being a music fan, I am so excited about seeing Jimmy Eat World. They’ve been one of my favourite bands since I was fifteen years old. I remember talking to those guys when I was a nobody, not in a band or anything. I talked to Tom and Jim for about an hour, and they were genuinely nice guys, knowing I was just a young fan. Here I am now, playing the same line-up as them, and it’s just crazy. Absolutely crazy.”
We wrap things up before catching pneumonia from the cold London air, but not before Doug tells me how much he appreciates taking time out to talk to him. That’s the greatest thing about this guy. You can tell he is utterly thankful for everyone who buys The Sleeping‘s record, comes to their shows, or even just takes the time out to chat to him and his bandmates. There’s no doubt that he’s a thoroughly good-mannered man from New York who is on the brink of achieving everything he has dreamed of. And he bloody deserves it too.
Andy R