SLEEPMAKESWAVES
It’s been a crazy twelve years for sleepmakeswaves, the little Sydney quartet who dreamed big.
Hundreds of shows amongst 16 Australian tours, 6 European tours, 2 North American tours, 2 Asian & New Zealand tours… Unexpected critical acclaim including 3 ARIA nominations, 2 AIR Award nominations and a nomination for a J Award, amongst highly rated reviews from Rolling Stone, The Music, The Independent and more. Airplay including 3 songs added to triple j rotation, spending a combined 20 weeks in the CMJ Top 200 at US college radio and airing on BBC6. Even a glimmer of brief commercial success with 2 ARIA Top 40 albums and a #1 spot on the 100% Independent Chart for ‘Made of Breath Only.’ They even cracked the Top 100 in Kazakhstan.
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.
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Formed in 2006, sleepmakeswaves have earned a loyal following worldwide for their epic and expansive compositions and climactic live show.
Since the 2011 release of their ARIA-nominated debut ‘…and so we destroyed everything’ they have toured relentlessly, racking up 8 Australian tours, 3 European tours and a trip to the USA in less than 3 years.
FOR FANS OF: Russian Circles, Mogwai, 65daysofstatic, We Lost The Sea, Explosions in the Sky, God Is An Astronaut, Caspian, Karnivool, Mono, And So I Watch You From Afar, If These Trees Could Talk.