Q&A: Sleepwalk Are Done Waiting—Inside “Sandbox” and the ‘View From The Outside’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY NEO VASQUEZ ☆
CHICAGO FOURSOME SLEEPWALK ARE STEPPING OUT OF THE SHADOWS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS—Formed over a decade ago, the band built its reputation melding visceral hardcore energy with cerebral, reflective songwriting; drawing comparisons to Hum, Failure, and Quicksand along the way. The band’s current lineup, founding guitarist/vocalist Ryan Davis, guitarist Tyler Gargula, drummer Marcus Johnson, and bassist Vic Ordonez, solidified only in the last few years. View From The Outside, out November 13, is the first record to fully capture that chemistry.
Lead single “Sandbox” actually predates all of it; the Chicago four-piece finished the track before signing to MNRK and before this lineup was even locked into place, long before anyone knew it would be the song to announce their return. Recorded over two weeks at Hum guitarist Matt Talbott's studio in rural southern Illinois, the album leans into a wider sonic palette than anything the band has released before, stretching from post-hardcore riffs to shoegaze textures to unexpected detours into trip-hop. “Sandbox” sits at the center of it all, a song the band describes as a bridge between where they’ve been and where they’re headed next.
Luna caught up with Davis and Gargula to talk about the story behind “Sandbox,” recording alongside actual bats, and why they’d rather not get too hung up on genre.
LUNA: What's the story behind “Sandbox”? How did that one come together?
DAVIS: It was actually kind of an older song that was finished before we were even writing the album, before we signed with MNRK or anything. It was originally written with a previous lineup, too. We kind of knew from the get-go that it was a strong contender as a single, and it stayed that way. It’s a good representation of the bridge between where we were and where this album is going compared to our older sound. Lyrically, it deals with my frustration around the normalization of conspiracy theorist thinking that’s seeped into our culture.
LUNA: This is your first album in five years. How do you think the band has evolved since then?
DAVIS: Everybody in the band is very on the same page now, as far as backgrounds, musical interests, non-musical interests. There's just a really strong chemistry that allows us to get where we want to go without it feeling imbalanced in terms of input from the creative process.
GARGULA: All of us are actually friends outside the band, too. There are groups where it’s more like, “we’re in a band and that’s the whole thing,” but we’re close friends even outside of that. It’s kind of rare to have people you’re that close with also be the people you make music with. It really helps with taking feedback and collaborating.
LUNA: You’ve talked about wanting to capture a certain aesthetic with the “Sandbox” video. What went into that?
DAVIS: We got hooked up with a guy named Matt Brown through Zac, who we recorded with. He's really good with analog video effects, so we put our trust in him to take a standard, high-quality performance video and add things that make it stand out. It was a really collaborative effort with Matt and Max, who did the editing and filming, though Tyler and Marcus probably have the strongest eye when it comes to the visual side.
GARGULA: We were going for a bit of a nostalgic feel, some references to ‘90s post-hardcore and grunge-adjacent visuals, without making it obvious we were trying to recreate something. The initial concept and what actually came out were almost completely different, we basically built it in the room with Matt and Max. They picked up on the language and imagery in the lyrics, and that's kind of where the whole aesthetic came from.
LUNA: If you had to put a genre label on this album, what would you call it?
DAVIS: I’d honestly throw it under post-hardcore. Or honestly, as I get older, the subgenre stuff starts to feel kind of unnecessary. I’m just like, we’re making rock music. There are so many different textures in there, post-hardcore, shoegaze, dream pop, some noisy stuff, even some trip-hop. But altogether, I think it just falls under rock, or alternative.
GARGULA: I'd also throw in that emo is a big influence for me. I always try to have at least one song on an album that's more of a ballad, and the next single has a real emo influence, open tuning, some American Football, Mineral-type stuff. That's always there too.
LUNA: You recorded this album at Matt Talbott’s studio. What was that experience like?
DAVIS: We got to meet him, though it was pretty brief. It was awesome, though, very interesting. We actually got visited by a bat while we were sleeping upstairs because it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere in southern Illinois. I’d seen Hum live in New York and Chicago before, so getting to play through the same amps was a moment for me.
GARGULA: There’s something creatively inspiring about being away from where you usually write and record. We lived there for about two weeks, and you get that studio magic. Knowing Matt's background and the bands that have recorded there, seeing all that history, gives you a fresh perspective for polishing songs and adding in details that weren't there when we first wrote them.
LUNA: Is there a reason “Sandbox” is the song introducing people to the album?
DAVIS: I think it just has a good balance of what you're going to hear throughout the record. It's got the heavier, distorted, riffy parts, but also the clean, mellow verses. That balance shows up across the whole album.
LUNA: For people hearing you for the first time through “Sandbox,” what do you want them to take away?
DAVIS: That there’s energy and aggression you can rock out to, but that it’s also soft at the same time. Vulnerable, I'd say.
LUNA: You’ve described your music before as “heavy music for the lighthearted.” Does this album still fit that?
DAVIS: Definitely. We have one song, the focus track once the album’s out, that’s a really heavy riff-driven song, but it still has that whimsy and softness to it. The idea is that the music’s heavy, not in a metal sense, but still fuzz pedals to the max. Lyrically, it’s more for introverted, empathetic people.
LUNA: What’s the plan leading up to the album release in November?
DAVIS: We’ve got two more singles and one more music video coming, and then once the album’s out, we’ve got an East and West Coast tour.
GARGULA: We’re playing Philly for the first time, which is exciting. New York, Brooklyn too. Texas for the first time as well, and our sound seems to be pretty popular out there. San Francisco I'm really excited for, there’s a lot of skate history there I want to check out.
LUNA: Anything you’d want new fans to know before the record comes out?
GARGULA: We’re just a bunch of nerds who like skateboarding, video games and cool music.
DAVIS: I’d say we’re not trying to be one thing. We get grouped into shoegaze a lot, but we’re definitely not trying to be just that. If you’re into the shoegazy-er side, that’s there. If you’re more into the rock, fuzzy, Smashing Pumpkins side, that’s there too. If you like the softer, dream-pop side, that's sprinkled in as well. It's hard to categorize as just one thing, and I think that means it can connect with a lot of different listeners.
