Sleeping States - Old Vs New

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 13 Nov, 2008.

Sleeping States have signed to Bella Union. I've not really heard much by 'em before so I'm here with open ears absorbing their noise. The Old Vs New EP struck me on 1st listen as being really good. I was pleasantly surprised (as I am often am though I do thoroughly enjoy a pleasent surprise). This is what I'd term as decent indie pop. Great guitars which veer from US sounding slacker indie to some more UK sounding indie. The vocals sound a bit weird like there's some sort of nonsense effect on there. Occasionally the vocals have a bit of a Morrissey esque ness about 'em... but then I heard a bit of Eric Matthews as well in there. Racking my brain and then it hit me. Field Music. Defo fans of their band of quirky indie pop will love this. It's really good quality music with decent songwriting. Brian reckons there's a bit of Good Shoes in there 'n all. Smashing pop music I reckon!!

The Old vs New EP was a project to document a number of Sleeping States songs that appeared on previous releases, but have since evolved through repeated performances into often rather different representations of the songs themselves. The result addresses a dilemma that I’ve encountered over the few years that I’ve been recording and playing under the Sleeping States moniker, which was to bring together the private and personal character of most of Sleeping States’ recorded material, with the altogether more extrovert, ‘band’-oriented interpretations of those songs when played live.

The idea of a ‘band’ is the focus of this record, therefore, with Robin Christian (drums) and Craig Gell (guitars/drums) making as much of a contribution to the performances of these songs as I did. Robin has been involved on a number of Sleeping States tours, while Craig has been a fundamental part of the live lineup since the first Sleeping States shows. For the EP, we bashed out each of the songs to tape with minimal overdubs to retain the sound and feel of the live show, transforming the original version of ‘Old vs New’ from somewhat of a lilting ballad into something more towards vigorously joyful pop-punk, while the overdubbed choir of Marklands on the original ‘A Trip to NYC’ was instead played through a vocal-sampler, with the original drum-machine replaced by both Robin and Craig playing separate parts of the drumkit. The lone cover on the EP, ‘Liberty Feelup’ (originally by the sorely missed Scottish band, Life Without Buildings), became a set staple on the last couple of Sleeping States tours and plays on the strengths of this simple line-up of two guitars and drums that we built to flesh out the songs live.

While it is of course impossible to fully convey a live show on record out of its context, the ‘Old vs New’ EP energetically captures (well, it was at least energetically performed) a large aspect of the music of Sleeping States that, until now, has only been heard by those who have seen Sleeping States live. Also, it just seemed a fun thing to do at the time, which is what it’s all about, right?

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