Currently making their way around the country on a tour in support of the release of their new single 'Robots', Dan Walsh (vocals/guitar), Mark Dixon (bass/keyboard/vocals) and Simon Tomes (drums/vocals) were kind enough to take some time out to give us the lowdown on what Sleepercurve are all about.


R13: First and foremost, how's the tour going?
DW: Tour's going really well. We've been up in Scotland for the first part of it, Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth, Glasgow. Inverness was amazing really packed out and a really good vibe, Scottish girls with light up LED headbands dancing round the front!
ST: They treat you really well, really look after you.
DW: You get invited to random people's houses to drink their whiskey and get assaulted by parrots.

R13: Assaulted by parrots?
DW: It's true.
ST: Took us by surprise.

R13: For those that don't know you yet, sum up Sleepercurve in one sentence.
MD: Muse for the dancefloor.

R13: Which leads me nicely on to my next question... you've been likened to Muse in the past, are they a big influence for you?
MD: Funnily enough no, personally I probably have the same sort of classical background as Matt Bellamy and so I've got those influences there along with a lot of electronic influences. We probably share the same influences as them rather than them being an influence.
DW: I've got kind of the operatic vocal sound which is like Matt Bellamy but not based on Matt Bellamy. I've never tried to sing like anyone else. We like Muse though, don't we.
ST: Yeah... won't say no when they offer that tour support....

R13: You're a 3 piece which is not unusual, but you've chosen to go without the bass player live, is there some background to that?
DW: Mark's left hand.
MD: I joined the band as, well, trying to be a bass player but I couldn't play. I managed to con them in to it, they took pity on me. We sort of did that for a bit and I was swapping between keyboard and bass.
DW: We were using the backing track weren't we?
MD: We were, it was starting to get awkward and it just wasn't that vibey so we thought lets just do it all live and do the bass with the left hand and that's sort of become our sound really.

R13: And it's obviously paying off?
MD: It's just since the beginning of this year and since then we've had a lot of good stuff, things have started happening.
DW: We can be more dynamic with the set, more musical with it we're not trapped into playing with a backing track which is a bit karaoke for my taste. If you can do everything live, which we do, even the twiddly bit on 'Robots', it's more energetic and it's a better experience for the punters.
MD: It helps with the writing as well because songs can just evolve naturally, you're playing you're practicing you can just change the speed, you don't have to go change the backing track.
DW: It gets to the case with some bands we've seen that just put backing vocals on the backing tracks you literally might as just as well be doing a karaoke show then.
ST: Press play on tape and mime.

R13: You've played with a lot of bands this year, do any really stand out as fun or special?
DW: Don Broco are really good, we always have a good time with those guys, My Passion have been really good to us we played some supports with them that's been fun. It was cool playing Download [festival] and having Jonathan Davies from Korn stood behind me. I'm like the class metal head in Sleepercurve. Although I don't think we can really say that we toured with Korn can we?
MD: We can try.
DW: We were on in the same mile radius.
MD: We were in the same book, the program.
DW: On the same t-shirt. That's something to show the grandkids.

R13: Have you learnt anything from any of them?
ST: Not to use a backing track!
DW: I think we're all quite experienced musicians now, we've all been in bands before so now we challenge ourselves.
ST: You can see what works when bands get the crowds going, you should take note of that.
DW: Definitely frontman bands, like at Download [in a growly American accent] "all you motherfuckers when we come back next year...."
ST: We haven't said that yet but we're hoping to, with the American accent .
DW: American accents growl, have you noticed that any singer in a metal band at Download when it comes to the chat with the crowd has exactly the same voice.
MD: And the audience like being insulted as well.
DW: Might try that with an English accent if we play there again "hello motherfuckers" then you get stabbed
R13: Well I've seen Welsh bands pull it off, not an English band yet though!
DW: [in a lovely Welsh accent]Tidy motherfuckers how you going there
R13: That works!.

R13: Tonight we're at the Windmill, it's your launch party, is there something special about this place?
DW: Sure is, we played our first gig here and I used to live on the same street, we had some awesome parties at my house after a gig, I used to run a night here too.
ST: It's where it all started.
DW: It's the spiritual home of Sleepercurve, and it's a really cool venue.

R13: You're about to release 'Robot's, the video's been online for a while now, what's the response been like?
DW: It's been mixed actually, it's like a Marmite song people either really really love it or detest it. One guy described it as it's got more hooks than a trawler net amazing, and then [another] what did they say? - you ever seen Spinal Tap, the "Shit Sandwich", it was kinda along those lines.
For me I prefer to be a band that you either really love or really hate I'd hate to be the "yeah they're alright" kinda band. Definitely like to evoke something with it.

R13: What was it like making the video?
DW: Tedious.
MD: It's never as glamorous as people make it out to be, there's a lot of waiting around a lot of doing the same thing again and again.
ST: I got in to it doing a bit of acting for the first time. I got to look really pensive at this fake robot that's not really there.
DW: That was hard actually imagining there's something there that wasn't and playing along to it, throwing it against the wall.
MD: Good director though.
DW: Yeah amazing director.
ST: All done within a day.
DW: Very intense.

R13: What's been your highlight of the year so far?
All: Download

R13: You opened the Tuborg stage, how was it?
MD: We opened the whole of Download I think.
DW: The thing for me, it was the first time really we've looked in to a crowd of random people we don't know and fans knew the words to some of the stuff. It's just a nice warm feeling inside.
MD: It's just a different scale of sound as well, you play the first note and whoa, never heard it like that before.
DW: Hopefully we'll play more festivals next year.

R13:Aside from festivals, what else is on the cards for 2010?
DW: We're doing another single, recording it in February in Bristol. We're doing a song called 'Slaves' which is my favourite Sleepercurve track, it was out on our first EP a while back but we've really changed how the song is played now. The original recording was good but it was basic and we want to really get the live vibe across with it. I think it deserves to be redone. So we're going to put that out and its going to be b-sided with another track we're playing tonight which is called Deep Inside The Movie".

R13: Finally, is there anything you want to let the fans and the people soon to be fans know about Sleepercurve?
DW: Come down to a live show.
MD: It's all about the live show it's where we shine.


'Robots' is on sale from Monday 16th November from iTunes and play.com or pick up the limited edition hard copy at a gig:
14th November - The Sanctuary Rock Bar, Burnley
17th November - Jam, Brighton
20th November - The Sweatbox, Wantage
28th November - Powers - On the Bus, Kilburn London