Paul: Hello! Which member of The Sleeping are you and what do you do in the band?
Doug: I am Douglas and I sing for the band.
Paul: Boring questions first…how did The Sleeping form and how did you come across the name?
Doug: We formed when Cameron’s old band Skycamefalling broke up. They looked for a singer online for their new project and out of the 22 singers they tried out I guess I seemed to be the least shittiest….so they picked me. We came up with the name when we realized all of our friends have shitty lives and are too scared to attempt living out their dream. So instead of making good money in a little cubical we are begging for money in casinos while playing music everyday, haha.
Paul: You’re signed to Victory, how did they come across you?
Doug: We were always friends with Victory bands and we would always crash with Victory staff while on tour. So one day Joe and Sal called up Tony from Victory straight up and said “Listen… we are going to make our music known everywhere and we won’t stop until we do…are you in or are you out?” Tony was in and we have been tight with our label since.
Paul: Both ‘Believe What We Tell You’ and ‘Questions and Answers’ have done pretty well, especially in the UK where you have a pretty sizeable fanbase, making you one of the label’s biggest bands. What do you think it is about the band that has translated so well over here?
Doug: I think people realize we are just normal dudes who don’t give a shit about impressing any certain type of crowd. We hang with our fans and we have a badass time partying. We take our music seriously on record and on stage but off stage we just want to meet people and flip out. We don’t try to be this band that is above people. We are just 4 dudes who want to have a good time doing what we love. I know a lot of bands play that role during interviews and then don’t give a fuck in real life, but we are for real… if you want to hang with us you can come to the merch and see for yourself… just buy us a drink. 🙂
Paul: On a similar note, are you surprised at how well you’ve been received in the UK?
Doug: Totally… we never thought that the UK would respond as well as it has been. People in the UK just want to have a good time and they come to see shows for the pure sake of seeing a band and hearing new music. The US is amazing to us also….but a lot of that vibe has been gone for a while. I LOVE touring the states but there still are some spots where kids just go to shows to think they are cool and/or hit other kids during heavy sets. That to us is a bunch of bullshit. I remember being 14 going to some of my first shows and leaving meeting some of my closest friends that I still have today….not leaving with a black eye thinking I was cool. If you want a black eye or if you want to tell someone the story of how you broke someones nose in a moshpit…then go see Disturbed.
Paul: You’re currently on tour with Fightstar. Have you played with those guys before? Are they good dudes to be around while on tour? How have the shows been?
Doug: We are still on the tour and it has honestly been pretty sweet. I have never heard of the band before this..all I have heard were stories about this dude named Charlie from another band that was huge in the UK and all that stuff, but he is just a normal dude like everyone else and he is a very awesome guy. We all drink together everynight and just talk about normal everyday things….not just band stuff. Their whole crew are good dudes as well. Its only been a few days on the tour and we have all already gotten pretty close. Those tours are always the best tours..when you meet people and you feel like you’ve known them for quite some time.
Paul: Moving slightly further ahead, what does the rest of the year hold for The Sleeping?
Doug: We have the Victory Records tour back in the states about a week after we get home from this tour. We are super pumped on it because it is with Bayside who are our closest friends on and off touring. It is also with A Day to Remember..we took them out on our first ever headline tour and they have pretty much become brothers ever since. I talk to those dudes more than I talk to my mom haha. We are super excited for it because it will be our last tour before we start writing and recording the NEW RECORD!!! Its always nice to end the touring cycle with bands that are family… so we are stoked.
Paul: It must be time for a new album…has the writing and recording process begun yet? Do you have any confirmed song/album names or even a possible release date?
Doug: Nothing confirmed yet…but we have done a lot of jamming and things are sounding very very sweet. We have all been through a lot more together as a whole and seperately as individuals, so all of us are very ready to start up the writing process. We know what we want to do as far as sound and that is to just be ourselves as always and what comes out will come out. We are just a bunch of smelly hippies who like to jam on ideas and take it from there… so get ready for more tweaked out sounds… 🙂
Paul: Will the new material throw up any surprises in terms of what we can expect, music-wise from you? Any new found love for folk or death metal going to influence your writing?
Doug: I personally, have actually gotten into a lot of Brit rock…as cheesy as that may sound being that I am writing this to you from the UK, but even before I came over a lot of good friends showed me some pretty sweet music from over here. Brandon from I Am the Avalanche got me into a band called the Kooks and I have been rocking a lot of Arctic Monkeys as well…but thats just me though. As for everyone else we have all gotten into some new shit but our writing is always what we want to write not what other bands sound like. So no matter what expect something different once again.
Paul: One of our readers wanted to know when you were next planning to come over for a headline tour…
Doug: We were going to try for later this year sometime…but I think its safe to say we will be back over here spring next year once the writing and recording is complete. Maybe we will test out a new song or two as well….tell that reader thank you for asking and we hope he or she isn’t sick of the old records by the time we head back. WAIT FOR US!!! haha.
Paul: Are there any plans to re-unite/re-form skycamefalling? I mean we’ve had Led Zep, The Spice Girls and, erm, Snapcase re-unite this year…
Doug: I wasn’t a member of SCF so I wouldn’t be able to answer that… but if you can get At the Drive In back together for me I promise I would do my best to ask the dudes about it.
Paul: Do you have any fun re-collections of the Victory Records UK tour? Any good road stories to share?
Doug: We honestly have tons of good stories to share. The UK Victory tour was just 3 straight weeks of rage, haha. I remember things like screaming at the top of our lungs to soccer/football chants in Dublin Ireland to Joe from the Audition Almost getting stabbed by a bum with a bottle. I had to walk out of the bar with one of those VIP poles that holds the ropes on each end. I heard he was about to get attacked and I grabed one of those and stood outside until the dude left, haha. It was pretty sweet even though I almost fell because I was hardly able to stand to begin with, wink wink.
Paul: Rumour has it you’re on Guitar Hero 3…how did that come about? Are you all fans? Which track is the most played on The Sleeping‘s bus?
Doug: Well… GH 3 is a secret so I guess you are just going to have to buy the game to find out 😉 As for us …we are definately into Guitar Hero. I am however, a Guitar ZERO!!! I suck so bad at that game I just like to play War Pigs on easy all the time because I bite the buttons and do knee slides when I play it. I usually get booed off the stage within like ten seconds. Everyone else is good at it but for some reason I suck horribly…and the worst is that I can play guitar hahaha.
Paul: If you could be in any computer game, which would it be and why?
Doug: Well… I am just going to say Nintendo Wii’s WII TENNIS. The reason why I am saying this is because I already am in it technically. Vinnie and Kellen from I am the Avalanche have it at their apartment and made characters for everyone who comes over and plays it. The first night I played it over there they made up a Doug character and it looks pretty identical to me. Its actually really funny to look at all of the characters because the whole bands in there and they all look like them. Except for Vinnie….his dude is a badass rasta with huge dreads and big eyes. Its the best character to any video game I have ever seen.
Paul: Finally, if you have a message for any of our readers, now would be a good time to leave it!
Doug: Live your life on your own terms….don’t get sucked into these bands that appeal to some people because of the way they dress or try to sound as cookie cutter as every other band doing the same thing out there. Its better to be different and start your own thing then to follow others because you think you have to. Open your mind and the rest will follow. Also… if you drink please cheers to us so that everytime you hold your glass up… say “The Sleeping are some cute dudes.” Get ready for a new record….peace out.