Losing Sleep had a ridiculous 2014. From writing and recording an album, to touring Europe for the first time, to heading out with bloody Modern Baseball and Spraynard, they certainly kept themselves busy. We’re streaming a new song from their updated split with T-Shirt Weather, which you can check out below:
We caught up with bassist/vocalist Sean to discuss their crazy year, plans for the future and
Kingston.
So, you guys formed in 2012 in the wonderful town of Kingston and this year sees the release of your first full length. Do you feel that hailing from Kingston has had any effect on your sound? I mean, you’ve got the incredible Banquet Records right on your doorstep, as well as The Fighting Cocks, so that must be some pretty great inspiration. Sadly though, as we all know, we lost The Peel last year. How do you think that has affected Kingston, other than there simply being one less venue?
Yeah, it seems crazy to think it’s coming up to 3 years as a band! Being a band from Kingston has definitely had a big effect on how Losing Sleep sound. We have all spent years going to shows in Kingston, I think the reputation that proceeds Kingston’s music scene was a big reason why both Chris & Liam chose to go to Kingston University! The Peel shutting down really was a shame. We only played there once but, of course, over the years there were so many great shows.Fortunately we still have The Fighting Cocks & The Cricketers has a great room upstairs where we’ve played a load of great shows.
How do you think waiting three years to release your first record has helped the band grow? Do you feel more confident in yourselves as musicians now?
I am totally confident that every batch of songs we have written has far surpassed what we released before that so musically, as songwriters, I think it has been worth the wait. I guess we’ve all also got better at our instruments, or at least I hope we have, but I think the main growth came as a group of people – we are much better at writing & playing together. It’s a really comfortable process.
You had a solid 2013, playing a bunch of shows in the UK but last year everything really blew up. It was pretty amazing for you – you released the split with Durham’s very own T-Shirt Weather, as well as doing a short UK weekender with those guys. You also toured the UK with the incredible Modern Baseball and Spraynard. How on earth did that come about?! That must have been amazing.
Yes! 2014 was a brilliant year for us. We got to play a lot of shows, all over the place. It was
amazing. We got to release a record on vinyl which was a real dream for us, especially as it was a split with such great friends and, of course, the tour you mentioned with Mobo & Spraynard was brilliant. I have been friends with the guys from Spraynard for years and they told Modern Baseball and the person booking the tour about a few UK bands who they thought would be cool to open the tour. The Modern Baseball guys checked out the bands then asked us to come along, and of course we jumped at the chance!
Not only did you tour the UK, you also went on your first jaunt across the Channel to tour in
mainland Europe for a week with Tigersuit. How was that for you as a band? Was it your first
time touring there or had any of you been there before as part of other bands/tours? How do
you feel the mainland compares to the UK in terms of shows?
It was amazing. Totally incredible week. We got to play some really cool shows, make some
brilliant friends and see some breath-taking sights. Liam had toured the mainland before, doing a few weeks with Andrew Cream, both playing solo. I went over in 2012 with Caves and Spraynard, so it was lovely to go back and see some people I had met on that tour, too. It’s hard to compare shows, as we are coming from a totally different angle, but as a band from so far away it was truly amazing how well we were looked after and how great the attendances were. We can’t wait to go back.
After all that, you also found time to write and record the album. You guys were busy. How was the writing process for you? Did you find it stressful or were the ideas quite free-flowing? I know that you also recorded with Bob Cooper, the absolute don of recording, up in Manchester. How was working with Bob? He’s recorded with so many great bands doing similar things to you guys, so did his experience working with a sound similar to yours help?
Yes, we were really busy. The process was really great. Niall (who played guitar with us from late 2013 but left after recording the album and the Mobo tour…don’t worry, we have a new guitarist!) really came into the band and bought into the idea of playing a load of shows and writing an album. So, with all four of us moving in the same direction we really pushed ourselves when it came to the writing process. Working with Bob was great. We had been friends with Bob for a while (we actually toured with him in 2013 when he was filling in for Troubled Sleep on our tour together), so it was nice to go into recording an album knowing that not only is the person we are recording with great at their job, he’s also a good pal!
So, you are giving the split with T-Shirt Weather a little extra push by adding these two songs, what was the idea behind that? What are your plans for this year? Do you have any more tours lined-up or are you just going one step at a time?
The main reason was that we know the process of releasing an album takes a lot of time, even after recording. We wanted to get a new song out there, even if it is an acoustic version (hey, if Fall Out Boy did it before From Under The Cork Tree, why cant we?!) and a remix. We were sent the remix by a friend we made whilst on tour in France out of the blue and totally loved it, so we knew we had to release it somehow. This year we are going to tie up all the details on getting this album released, hopefully before the end of the year. We’ll be trying to release a two-song single sometime in the summer as well, which we are super excited for people to hear! At the moment we don’t have any tours booked, but I’m sure that before the end of the year we will try to get around the UK as much as possible and hopefully head back to Europe, too!
Finally, which UK bands would you recommend for people to get into?
Not UK per se, but we love The Winter Passing a great deal – we can’t wait for them to come back over in June, especially as they will have a new album with them. We love that new Hindsights record, Happy Accidents are totally class and getting better and better and that Landspeed EP is so, so class! On a personal level, I am really excited for that new No Ditching 7″ and I haven’t been able to stop listening to the Two White Cranes record that was released last year!
The split with T-Shirt Weather is available to buy here.
Losing Sleep are playing in Camden on Wednesday (25th March). Check it here.