An Interview With The Sleeping [11/2007]

As the Long Island, New York band was getting ready to set out on the huge Victory Records tour, I was able to sit down and talk with the band’s lead singer Doug. Want to know what it’s like to party with The Sleeping? [Note: you better have a strong stomach for Jager] and what the band does in their free time? Then I suggest you read more.

pixie: So, you guys are from Long Island. I actually grew up out that way.

Doug: I’m actually from New Jersey, but I moved out here when the band started… I lived in Sayreville for a few years.

pixie: And what else can you do out there but have a band, right?

Doug: Yeah, over there, there’s pretty much that.

pixie: You can have a band, or… I don’t know. Play lacrosse.

Doug: [laughing] That’s funny… all my friends are total lacrosse freaks.

pixie: Welcome to Long Island! So you guys are going to be doing the Victory Tour… what’s that going to be like?

Doug: It’s going to be awesome. We’re stoked about it because it’s our last tour before we start writing the new record and we just got back from an amazing UK tour, after our headlining tour in the US with A Day to Remember. And Bayside are our best friends on and off tour, so it’s a really cool tour to be our last tour before we go off and record the new record. It’s really good when it’s all friends and you know, it’s going to be really cool to hang out and meet the other Victory bands that I have not met yet. I’m really excited for this tour.

pixie: So how do you guys travel on tour?
Doug: Well, the headlining tour was in a bus, and we were going to do this tour in a bus as well, but it fell through. And we don’t give a shit - we’ll do a tour on a sled if we have to. We’re just grabbing a van and going.

pixie: Do you do a lot of tours on sleds?

Doug: I don’t think we’ve done much… but snowmobiles are a different story.

pixie: So what’s your best tour story?

Doug: I have a ton of them… pretty much every day has a crazy tour story, and that’s not even a joke. The first day of the tour of the UK, we drank eight bottles of Jager… between like ten people. It was pretty sweet, but a friend of ours got thrown out of the bar because he peed on the floor.

pixie: I have to picture there is a lot of puke involved in that much Jager. It’s a rule.

Doug: Actually, no. Everyone was pretty okay, just a lot of peeing on things.

pixie: You’re really selling yourself to all the towns you’re going to hit on this tour….

Doug: Oh, yeah. You come hang out with us and you’ll get a party. But it’s cool. You go to the UK… I mean, we drink and we party, but we take the music seriously. But when you go to the UK and meet new people, you have to bro down, and what a better way to go out together than to get a bunch of Jager and Jager bandanas to put all over your heads and arms and put stickers all over the place….

pixie: Jager actually has more merchandise than most bands do…

Doug: It’s ridiculous! We got the boxes from them and there were bottles, and then these little sponge things that you put the tube shots in, and hand-warmers that you crack in half and they get hot, they have Jager dog tags… it’s really funny shit.

pixie: So, did Mountain Dew send you anything when you made the top 12 of the Dew Circuit Breakout?

Doug: Ah, no… they just help us out so much! We’ve been played on MTV and we’re still trying to get votes - so everybody vote for us at the Dew Circuit Breakout. Being in the top 12 is really fun - you get to see your video on MTV every once in a while and you’re like, “oh shit, they’re really helping us out!”

pixie: Yeah, I saw you guys on there Saturday night, I think…

Doug: It’s pretty cool.

pixie: So how do you guys deal with being on tour so much?

Doug: Life is weird. When you get home from being on tour, you definitely have to adjust, but it’s cool. I have my roommates who I love very much, and I get home and the Bayside crew comes over and our friends come over - it’s kind of like you never left in a way. But when you’re on tour as much as we do, but you’re dying to get back out again, you kind of realize that touring never ends and life is never normal. You get home and you want to go back out. You see your friends for a week and want to get back out on the road. It’s fun.

pixie: You said you were going to be recording after this tour, though. Do you go anywhere special? Stay at home?
Doug: We’re actually thinking about moving somewhere to record the record. We’re not sure if we’re going to stay in the state, or head somewhere else… we’re going to look for places to get a different vibe than our shitty rehearsal space at home. Maybe somewhere colder or somewhere warmer. We don’t know yet, but we’re excited and that’s already a help for writing, when you’re stoked about doing something new with the people you see every day. It’s really fun figuring out where we’re going to go and what will come out of going to our own little place together.

pixie: So you don’t have any songs written yet?

Doug: There’s always a little jamming live and we’ll say “remember this when we get home,” which is where we practice from like 4:00 to 9:00 every day. And from like 4 to 7, we’ll just do straight jamming for three hours straight. We won’t even stop, but we’ll be like that was cool… and then we’ll forget what it was, but at least we know we’re coming up with ideas. Hopefully, when we actually put a microphone in the room, which we should be doing anyway, but we haven’t because we’re retarded, these things will come out.

We love writing and we know each other better than ever, so I think the writing process is going to be a whole lot more exciting than ever before. Now we really know how to work with each other and what we like.

pixie: So, have you guys had any crazy fan encounters?
Doug: There’s always people that want to talk a little more than others, but we don’t really care about that. We’ll maybe be like, “whoaaah, okay there,” but it’s cool. All of our fans are die-hard and that’s how we want it. It means a lot that people care that much. A lot of other bands might say “these people are weirdoes,” but we want people to be into it. Like when kids come with tattoos and stuff, that’s one of our favorite things. It’s really cool.

pixie: Nobody hiding in your bus or anything like that?

Doug: No, nothing like that. Unless there’s someone in the bushes at this mall I am at right now. Hold on, I’ll check. Nope… nobody in the bushes. I’m good.

pixie: Good to know. Staying safe! So, you guys have some great merchandise, but let’s say you had an unlimited budget to make anything you wanted. What would you make?

Doug: I would make… I’d want to make a beer cozies. No, wait! Fish tanks! The Sleeping fish tanks! And fishbowls, with the bunny on the back, so when you watch the fish swimming, you can see the bunny in the background!

pixie: That’s awesome.

Doug: And beer hats. I don’t even drink beer, I drink liquor. But The Sleeping beer hats would be cool because everybody drinks beer. But instead of straws, we’d make them with little fake microphones, so when you’re sucking on them? It kind of looks like you’re signing into a fake mic. That’d be sick. I’m into that.

pixie: You guys should definitely do that. So, what do you do between shows when you’re traveling?

Doug: For some reason, when we’re on tour, we don’t separate. We’re always together. And I think the time goes by quicker because we’re idiots and do the dumbest shit together. Time goes by fast when I see my band members do the most ridiculous shit I have seen all day, and then it’s time to play.

pixie: So you guys don’t fight or anything?
Doug: No, we don’t. We’re brothers, so there will be a couple of “fuck yous” here and there, but I live with Sal, our bassist, and Joe and Cameron live 5, 10 minutes away. We always hang out. You fight with your brothers sometimes, but at the end of the day, you’re not going anywhere because you’re best friends. They’re your life, your job… and I am very fortunate to be in a band with people who are as crazy and loud and obnoxious like I am.

pixie: That’s nice to hear, when there are so many bands just changing members all the time, people in and out….

Doug: No, I get really bummed out when I meet bands with members switching all the time. I mean, you get into a band you’re supposed to be making music. I think a lot of people understand that it loses its sincerity. Yeah, of course, if somebody isn’t cutting it, you have to talk to them - but to me, when a member leaves, it’s not the same band. Maybe that’s just because I over-analyze music.

pixie: But there are bands out there with just one original member left and fans know it’s not the same…

Doug: Yeah, it’s upsetting. But at the same time? What are you going to do?

pixie: Do you have anything you

Doug: We’ll see you guys on the tour and honestly want to thank you for supporting us. A lot has changed since we started and a lot of new fans have come along and we owe a lot of this to how die-hard supportive people are. But we’re still normal dudes and we’ll be by our merch table, so come by and say hello… oh, and check out mine and Sal’s clothing company, Life is Shit clothing. http://www.myspace.com/lifeisshitclothing. We have Coffee mugs, shot glasses, and t-shirts.

pixie: But no fish tanks?

Doug: We just started! Maybe someday we’ll have a Life is Shit fish tank!

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