Sleepmakeswaves

Sleepmakeswaves have just released a new album ‘Love of Cartography’ and are about to embark on a UK tour so Music-news took the opportunity to ask them some questions about the recording of the album and tour. Drummer Tim Adderley fielded the questions.

1. Can you tell us how you approached the recording of ‘Love of Cartography’?

We’re very meticulous in how we write and demo, so all the songs were basically finished and ready to record note for note. We had a pretty good idea of how we wanted the record to sound and we knew we wanted someone experienced to produce, record and mix to achieve that quickly. We narrowed down our short list of producers to Nick DiDia, who was awesome to work with, and headed to Byron Bay to record at Studio 301. We went straight to Protools through lots of beautiful analog gear and everything was tracked over 8 days and mixed in about 5 days.

2. Your performances sound very natural, almost spontaneous on some tracks, was any of it recorded ‘live’ with the whole band in the studio?

Thanks, I’m glad that’s noticeable! Yeah, everything was recorded live together to begin with. Nick encouraged us to do it that way. This gave us a strong foundation for the songs to build on. We really wanted to get specific sounds for particular parts though, so we did end up re-doing a lot of the guitars so we could dial in the exact tones we wanted and experiment with others. But all the drums and bass and some of the guitars are from those first takes. Most of Alex’s original electronic programming was left untouched from the demo process, but some was revised with new sounds.

3. Was there a conscious decision to try to change your sound for this album?

Not really in terms of songwriting. The songs were naturally sounding different from the last album without us needing to force any particular direction. But we did feel our live energy and sound needed to be reflected on this record, so there was an effort to ensure that was represented when we started recording.

4. How precious are you with your ideas for the songs, and does it cause much friction?

Everyone’s very passionate about their ideas, but we have a lot of respect for each of our opinions and/or visions, so there isn’t really ever any friction. We’re all on the same page with how we want the band to sound and if someone’s not happy with something in particular, it usually just takes some more discussion and work to get it to a point where everyone’s in agreement. Sometimes we just have to let things go if they’re not working, but that’s all part of trying to get the songs as good as they can be.

5. Do you ever consider the audience when you start to compose?

It’s not something we set out to do collectively, but I personally like to try and write things I think everyone could enjoy whether or not they like our style of music or not. I like the idea of our songs being as accessible as possible whilst staying true to our sound and what we want to play. We write for ourselves first, but I think it helps to improve what we do with that sort of approach in mind. It helps keep the songs as engaging as possible.

6. Rightly or wrongly Australia is still seen as a stronghold for basic bar room hard rock ‘n’ roll, any thoughts on that and/or did you have any initial problems finding places to play?

I wasn’t aware of that, but I’m not sure that’s true. There’s always been such a variety of amazing bands producing music from Australia. It’s difficult to find places to play when you’re starting out until you have a fan base to support you, regardless of the style you play. I wasn’t in the band in the early days, but I don’t think we had any more difficulties than anyone else getting a show.

7. What can the European leg of your tour expect from sleepmakeswaves; a whole album run through maybe?

That might be fun to do some time, but we usually like to mix things up. We’ll be playing a bit of everything!