SLEEP WAKER which consists of guitarists Jake Impellizzeri and Jason Caudill, vocalist Hunter Courtright, drummer Frankie Mish, and bassist Aaron Lutas — have signed with UNFD. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based band will release its second album Alias on 23rd July. Pre-order the album here.
Sleep Waker have also shared the video for the first single ‘Distance.’ Check it out below.
‘Distance is about loss — more specifically, losing someone very close to you,’ says Courtright. ‘For me, it’s about witnessing my grandfather struggle with dementia. His passing really hit me and it was a very hard and emotional experience. I immediately knew I needed an outlet for that feeling and started working on the lyrics that eventually turned into Distance.’
Mish furthers, ‘When writing Distance, we realised this was the perfect song to round off this album. We had most of the songs finished and this demo just sat there as a lead and a chorus, and the further we got into the process, the more we realised we really needed something to stick out as a major emotional point in the album. Once that clicked, the song just easily flowed out.’
Overall, Alias is the sort of album that asks listeners to examine who we are, how we quantify our reality, and what it means to be alive. Although rooted in many of the same conceptual themes and ideas that gave the band their successful start in 2017, this time they’re diving even deeper. This time, it’s not just conceptual exploration. This time it’s personal.
“When I had the idea to start the band, I had insomnia and sleep paralysis,” says Mish. “It was a big thing in my life. I had the name Sleep Waker, I was playing around with logos and stuff like that. And then Hunter mentioned he had insomnia as a kid. So we bonded over that connection.”
“Each release has had a theme built around experiences we’ve had in dreams, or concepts based around sleep,” he continues. “[2017 debut EP] Lost In Dreams established that, and [2018’s debut album] Don’t Look At The Moon was all about sleep paralysis. But we tag-teamed the lyrics this time. I write from a lot of my personal experiences of nightmares and dreams. Overall, our overarching theme has always been the band name itself.”
‘I’ve had hallucinations,’ Courtright reveals. ‘I’ve had the feeling of someone sitting on my chest, and monolithic figures staring at me from the corner of my bedroom. That stuff’s definitely still interwoven throughout the album. But things really took a shift this time. On this record, my lyrics are quite literal and personal. Everything I wrote was either situational to my life, or about how a person can be changed by a life event or circumstance, thus creating an alias.’
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