INTERVIEW: Sleep On It talk US touring plans and new record!

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The Chicago rock scene really broke out in these past few years, especially in pop punk with bands like Real Friends and Knuckle Puck. Prior to that, as someone who grew up outside of Chicago, it was really limited to acts like Fall Out Boy and The Academy Is. The latest to make their name nationally is Sleep On It who are currently out with Four Year Strong to go right back out with UK rockers As It Is just a few weeks later!
The band has toured to Boston for a while now but not too often as an opener on these massive tours. The band dropped their new EP in October and have an full length album on the cusp of coming out. We were able to catch up with Jake Marquis from the band to talk everything current tour to new music for the band! Find this talented band once again in Boston tonight at Brighton Music Hall!

You’re about to go out on a huge US run with Four Year Strong. If kids haven’t seen you before, what can they look forward to in these sets? How will you go about these sets?
I think we’re just going to try to keep the energy up. Four Year Strong is an intense live band so we’re going to try to come as close to that as we can. We’re going to play mostly songs from “Lost Along the Way” so expect a decent amount of those songs in our set.

Sleep On It’s last EP came out in October. Now that the EP has been out for several months, is there a song that is catching on with fans that surprises you, maybe your personal favorite to play live?
We’ve been really grateful to see such a positive response to the EP. I think our first single, “Unspoken”, just keeps getting more and more fun to play as more people discover it. It gets me so hyped to hear people scream, “It’s been a long year” back at me.

Despite the EP just coming out in October, obviously the band as achieved great success lately. Is an album in the works, already finished?
The album is done– and by done, I mean tracked. We wrapped up at ABG studios a few weeks ago. It was honestly a wonderful experience we almost didn’t want it to end. For the time being we’re in the mixing process. Hopefully we’ll have the record out this summer, but we’ll see!

How do you feel the songwriting process has grown for the band, does it still change, stay the same?
So in Sleep On It, we sort of have two approaches. TJ will write a skeleton of a song and bring it to practice and we’ll flesh it out. Or, we’ll write together and build off each other’s ideas. “See You Around” came about that way. I think on the new record, we grew as songwriters. I think we are finally comfortable in our skin as a band, narrowing in our own sound.

We are still very early in 2017. What is the focus for Sleep on It this year? More touring, new music, etc.?
Touring and later– releasing the record. We just announced a full US tour with As It Is in May. We are hitting the West Coast and Canada for the first time so we’re incredibly excited for those shows. Hopefully we can put a single out in early summer and start sharing these new songs.

About Author

Colleen

Colleen has been writing about music since 2009. Interviewing bands since the glory days of Warped and has continued to do so for now over fourteen years. As well as doing freelance for other publications, the love for everything rock continues today.

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