A bit over a year ago I reconnected with an acquaintance from college who plays drums and decided to start a band with a few other friends. I felt like it was a now or never sort of thing for me to do at the time. Despite being a self-proclaimed music nerd, I’ve been playing guitar for over a decade and never found the right mix of people to write and play music with regularly up until that point. For me, it was very difficult to find the right balance of A. “can I effectively write and play music with these people?” and B. Â “do I like being around them?” Â Luckily with Sleep Crimes the answers are yes and yes – otherwise I doubt we’d make it to this point.
Now maybe you’re sitting there asking: Well why didn’t you just record and perform on your own, Sam? I personally never went down the the solo singer-songwriter path because I wanted to be part of something bigger, not be forced to take up the entire spotlight. I also had trouble finishing anything I started when it came to writing music – either I would never know how to end things or figure out how to fit the music over lyrics (and vice versa). Â I always had fragments of songs that I could never fully piece together into a finished product. So I would just play for myself – improvise alone, for years, waiting to find the right group. Â I wasn’t going to be in a band for the sake of being in the band…the right pieces needed to fall into place for it to happen.