sleepersound

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Genre: Prog, Experimental, Rock

Origin: Milwaukee, WI

Label: Independent

RIYL: Mono, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Radiohead, Mogwai, Can, Neu, Low, Dif Jez

US Publicist: CHRIS ESTEY / ESTEY@XOPUBLICITY.COM / 206 728 0457

"My Own Dead Love" 3/14/25

ALBUM ZIP (MP3) (WAV)

SINGLES

“Tread Down" 1/7/24 (Artwork) (BluRB) (Listen)

“Certain Beasts” 2/4/24(Artwork) (BluRB) (Listen)

“Ni Siquiera Tu” 2/28/24(Artwork) (BluRB) (Listen)

TOUR DATES:

SAT 3/1/2025@ Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
THU 3/6/25 @ Indianapolis, IN @ Healer
FRI 3/7/25 @ Louisville, KY @ Mag Bar
SAT 3/8/25 @ Dayton, OH @ Blind Bob’s
FRI 3/28/24 @ Madison, WI @ Gamma Ray Bar
SAT 3/29/24 @ Minneapolis, MN @ Zhora Darling

“Tell yourself / Whatever you need / to survive,”is how Sleepersound’s new album My Own Dead Love begins with eerie Stoic benedictions on the sylphlike opener “Let’s Play Wolves,” then pooling for shore into the punchline “Even if you have to lie.”

Sleepersound’s My Own Dead Love is the absolute loveliest miserable experience you’ll ever have. It’s the Milwaukee band’s third full-length of their vivid and picturesque post-rock, following up the richly praised In Medias Riasand Idle Voices, which were highly recommended by taste-making All Songs Considered, Outburn Magazine, and The Big Takeover, among others. My Own Dead Love is out on March 14, 2025.

Sleepersound recorded this album as vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Dave D'Antonio, bassist and keyboardist Mike Campise, drummer Dan Niedziejko, and Kenny Buesing. Guitarist/vocalist / keyboardist Buesing is no longer with the band; he left shortly after the songs were finalized, but did write one more song and added it to the record -- where it's just Dave, Mike, and Dan, ‘Certain Beasts.’”

Produced by Sleepersound, with D’Antonio located in Bay View, MI, about four miles from Niedziejko’s home studio, Indian not The Arrow, where it was again mixed and engineered by Dan.

D’Antonio and Mike Campise are both transplants from Chicago to Milwaukee. “We're all in Milwaukee area! Twenty minutes apart, tops,” Niedziejko adds.

Lyrically, influences range between Antonia Pozzi, Mary Oliver, and John Ashbury.

“This is a love story,” D’Antonio explains the record’s themes, “It’s about a journey into hell and back; a reconciliation into life and death, and an acknowledgment of the love that prevails despite darkness. The reconciliation of love is both the thing we’re thinking as a cure and the thing that is causing our deepest ailments …

“The songs are written in different stages of a very dark time of our lives,” D’Antonio continues, “They’re seeking truth after immense loss and self-understanding after discovering who you thought you were.”

“Dead love can be good when it leads to putting something in the past and moving onto something new and more fulfilling or positive. Making room for new possibilities. Moving on to the future.”

Musically, D’Antonio confides that Sleepersound “take a different vantage point with compositions on this album and we're highly influenced by our classical influences ranging from Mogwai and Radiohead and Godspeed! You Black Emperor, to Sahara-African influences like Tinarwin, Ali Farka Touré, Mdou Moctar,” D’Antonio says. “It also features a few direct influences from Chopin's first piano concerto and Tchaikovsky's Symphonie Pathetique.”

Niedziejko confesses, “Rhythmically, I am always listening to Tony Allen, Bill Bruford, Terry Bozzio, Alphonse Mouzon and James Gadson. I know none of those don’t seem to make sense in context of Sleepersound immediately, but they do. What's common about all those guys I listed are they distill the rhythms while still delighting the listener with some curve balls that separate them from the norm.”

“I think this band is pretty unique how we pull it together,” Niedziejko continues. “A lot of times a melody and riff might start with something Dave will bring to practice. He'll throw an idea out there, sometimes formed and sometimes not so much, but it's pretty organic, in terms of us just then listening and adding something. Often, I start a beat to be very stripped down and it might need to marinate or evolve over the course of some practice to add in something that makes it a little more unique.

“Having the band always able to record is nice because we don't lose good ideas. I like that we can communicate on stage at this point with a form of telepathy and know what we're doing without keying each other so deliberately. We are always thinking about the songs and sometimes we break them down completely and reform ‘em into something new.”

“I believe that music is therapy, among other things,” D’Antonio says. “Therapeutic for the creator and hopefully sometimes for the listener. ..Composing with friends can be mutually therapeutic. And a member for whom we wanted to share in this mutual therapy is Erick Knudtson, who did our album art.

“Erick doesn't know this at the time of this interview but the theme we gave him was a pair ravens playing in freefall. Yes, that behavior is often considered a form of play among ravens who are well known for their intelligence and complex social bonds, including various forms of aerial play. When one raven free-falls and another “rescues” it or engages in coordinated flight maneuvers, it demonstrates their loyalty and friendship.”

“It's been nearly ten years as a band and I consider that a real fortunate thing,” Niedziejko says. “Most bands don't last this long, and despite our losing a member - Kenny- we have resolve to continue on. I'm looking forward to making more music and getting it out to even more people, playing even better shows and keeping on keeping on with these guys. Losing a member is always a challenge, but we're approaching it as a growth opportunity and so far, it's working out.”

Dave’s song explanations for the key tracks to be released as singles:

“Tread Down”: “This one's for one of our family members who is going through an extremely difficult emotional crisis. We had just lost two other cousins due to overdoses and saw a wave of mental health ravaging. Those were the closest to us. The song is a calling for that individual to stay strong and persevere. it's also a calming for anyone else who feels weak and needs to silence as often too loud voice of self deprecation. It's a call for self affirmation, healing, and a reminder that every single one of you out there reading this matters. Life is really so fragile.”

“Certain Beasts”: “I’ll spare you the personal details behind it, it's about coming home after being so far lost that you never expected to be received and so far bettered that you were never survive to see the day grace finally embraces you.”

“Ni Siquiera Tu”: “A briefly opened the window into a past life. An acknowledgment and memory burned in effigy.”

In terms of format, the vinyl is Coke Bottle Green translucent and sounds really great, “like how a vinyl record just sounds better,” Dan sums it up.