Huddled up in a farm house recording studio about 60 miles outside RVA, about 25 members of RVA’s music scene gathered to listen to early demos from the new Sleepwalker’s record.
Huddled up in a farm house recording studio about 60 miles outside RVA, about 25 members of RVA’s music scene gathered to listen to early demos from the new Sleepwalker’s record.
A case of Hardywood and some boozed soy nog helped get the celebratory juices flowing as the Brothers York; Austin and Michael, along with longtime engineer Alex DeJong, walked the crowd through what could be tracks for a yet to be released follow up to 2014’s celebrated Geenwood Shade.
Greenwood attracted a mess of attention from local and national music icons alike. It got the band, without full label support, opening on some national tours with the likes of J Roddy and The Lumineers.
We spoke to the brothers York at length after they got back from one of their trips on the road, painting this country in their brand of powerful dirty pop.
There’s an edge to the Sleepwalkers, something you can kind of see in the brothers’ eyes between sips of Chocolate Milk stout.
“None of this stuff was mixed, but you’ll get the general idea,” Mike York hollered over the quiet crowd inside White Star Sound studios.
White Star, run by Brooklyn transplant and songwriter/producer Chris Keup, had literally decked the halls for the event. But the wood finish and vintage recording apparatus only further flattered the high energy jams which burst forth.
The first track offered a pounding, sharp riff set to crisp high hat beats. The warm vocals of the Yorks, complete with occasional southern twang, offer an accessible but unique chorus – this track, as well as the rest we heard that evening, could play well on Disney radio or in a strip club.
Other tracks pulled from that modern mix of disco and funk with heavy synth basslines, forcing me to make the ‘gross guitar solo face’ one makes when musically impressed by someone you’ve seen make an ass of themselves while drunk.
In a town where metal shows run king, Sleepwalkers offer a party-alternative that not only gets butts in motion, it riles you up too. There’s grooves along side their frequent pretense for Beatles-style choral breakdowns. That throw-back element has helped define the band and easily made a fan out of this writer.
“We just like pop songs with layers of shit over it,” Austin told us earlier in the year – and it’s pretty hard to call it anything other than that. Sleepwalkers snatch up sounds and riffs and do what folks like Ty Segall and others have done in the past – make it their own.
The hour+ listening session invoked sounds from legends like Hall & Oats and The Beach Boys, tapping into the band’s love of vocal harmonies as well as pop troupes mutated to perfection.
There’s a lot to love, and get stuck in your head, and we eagerly await what’s to come.
While we were asked to remain tight lipped on too many details, rest assured, Sleepwalkers have an interesting mix of tracks in store for fans and newcomers in the coming year – stay tuned to RVAMag and we’ll be the first to let you know when the jams roll through.
