Australian instrumental post-rockers Sleepmakeswaves have announced new music for 2020, three years since their 2017 release ‘Made of Breath Only.’
The new project, titled ‘these are not your dreams’ will be released on 17th July (Birds Robe).
Rather than following a conventional release pattern, new songs are being released as a series of 3 EPs.
The band announced the news to fans with a typically quirky video online.
Hi I’m Alex, I’m Otto, I’m Tim & we’re sleepmakeswaves.
A lot’s happened since our last release. It’s a crazier, darker world… it’s warmer and everyone’s been busy.
It’s damn hard keeping the artist ship afloat, when being an artist doesn’t mean what it used to.
And we know we’re rubbish on social media, but we’ve been keeping our heads down and working hard on new material. It’s taking shape.
Songs are written, and it’s now time to make some announcements… to put it simply: sleepmakeswaves are back.
Everything you’ll hear soon will have been written, recorded, mixed and produced by the band.
And we wanted to work harder than ever to justify it in an age of limitless novelty.
With all that said, we’re thrilled to announce we’re releasing a trilogy of 3 unique EPs this year.
Each will convey something specific about where we’ve headed artistically over the last two years.
These records will be released with special packaging and art, designed by our long time friend and collaborator James Stuart.
The EPs will be available as separate vinyl records for collectors, and as a full-length CD for those of you who enjoy the smooth sounds of the compact disc.
We’re producing all of these as a one-time limited edition release & we’re happy to be using recycled materials to produce these physical products wherever possible, as well as offsetting the carbon footprint for the other merch packages available from our website.
It’s been a long time coming. If you’re still here, we hope you understand how grateful we are to have your support after all these years. We’re proud and excited to share this with you, and we want to thank our dear friend and manager Mike for sticking with us to see this through. That’s it from us.
Formed via an ad on Myspace (remember that?), the band’s story started online and they continue to benefit from fans sharing their music on the internet. From their debut unexpectedly clocking up 50,000 downloads online, to hitting 200,000 views as the soundtrack to a romantic ‘Twilight’ movie fan video, or as the thumping opening theme for the AFL football season coverage on Channel 7, sleepmakeswaves’ music has always taken a life of its own amongst fans online. Recently, their triple j Like A Version tribute to Robert Miles’ ‘Children’ hit close to 1 million spins online, as did their Metallica tribute ‘To Live Is To Die’, whilst the band’s Spotify listeners top 1 million worldwide.
However, the story of the band is not complete without a nod to the work put in on the live stage.
Amongst the 300+ live dates played over the past few years, the band have visited 30 countries and headlined sold out shows on 5 continents. They’ve played festivals including SXSW (USA), ArcTangent (UK), Euroblast (Germany), Dunk Festival (Belgium), Strawberry Festival (China) & NH7 Weekender (India). They’ve toured with and befriended a host of iconic and diverse acts – Karnivool, COG, Devin Townsend, Underoath, Russian Circles and many more. They’ve forged links with and created touring opportunities for many of their international peers in Australia – 65daysofstatic, Rosetta, The Contortionist, This Will Destroy You, And So I Watch You From Afar and more. They fulfilled a decade-long dream in their hometown by headlining Sydney’s iconic Metro Theatre to a packed house and recording the show for triple j’s Live at the Wireless (going on to headline there several more times).
Despite all these unprecedented milestones, most importantly, their biggest achievement has been to endure and continue making music and performing for their fans. Through lineup changes, an ever-more-difficult economic climate for independent niche artists, theft of money and equipment, computers crashing, lost baggage, injuries, illness, operations, failed relationships, fire alarms, red tape and more, this band has maintained the passion and enthusiasm to continue creating. Their fans have supported them – through pre-order campaigns to make new albums, through ticket sales, merch sales and social media, through images shared of tattoos, gifts of birthday cakes in Poland, drinks in Hungary, videos of cover versions from India, tour guides in China, or just a handshake and a smile at the merch desk after the show.
So…the continuation of this band is an ongoing a celebration of all that. A way to say thank you for everything, with a quick glance backwards, before continuing on with many more new things to come.
Expect plenty of surprises, new music and one heck of a live post-rock show from this hard-working still-young band.
Check out more at www.sleepmakeswaves.com
