Words: Kieran Webber | Header Image: Luis Kramer
Recently the South-London band dropped their hip swinging, western infused garage-punk scorcher ‘Don’t Sell Your Soul’ into the world. It was met with praise and excitement for their forthcoming EP that is out later this year.
Listen to ‘Don’t Sell Your Soul’ here:
Riding hot off the back of this, supporting Drahla and getting signed to PNKSLM we had a quick chat with Glen Wild (Lead vocals & Guitar).
Kieran: So how did you guys all meet and what made you start creating music together?
Glenn: So, myself and my brother Sean, who plays drums were both in a band called Puffer a few years back, and we played a festival in Portugal with another London band called Whistlejacket, of which Danny was the bass player. When both of those projects came to their ends we all did a variety of different bits before deciding to join forces and form Sleep Eaters. It took us a while to find the right guitarist and Lapsteel player, which was always going to be a binding factor within the group, but we shortly recruited Will through a friend Jon Catfish Delorme, from NYC and the warehouse where I used to live and we used to put on shows was were we met Declan and in a way sort of all met for the first time.
Kieran: In a relatively short time you guys have made quite the impact, was this something you ever expected?
Glenn: We definitely work at it. All of us have a great impact and energy in the band and that’s what drives us. But it was always an intention to get people listening to our music and watching our shows so it’s great to see such a positive reaction in people when they enjoy it! As far as impact is concerned, I don’t think we’ve made much of one yet. I mean a year and a half as a band is still a fairly short time so it’s great to have the support that we have but we’re all aware that there is progress to be made and we’ll always be working at getting to the next phase.
Kieran: What did it feel like getting signed to PNKSLM?
Glenn: It was great! We were all really chuffed! It feels good to receive some recognition for the music we are making and the PNKSLM family seem like a really lovely bunch and think they’re going to be great to work with.
Kieran: Do you collectively share the same influences or do they vary?
Glenn: We all have a great wealth of common influences which span along many genres. Definitely Country & Americana has always been a big part of our respective musical upbringings and of course punk, rockabilly, and the like. But there’s also Turkish & Japanese psych which we love to put on when we’re hanging out. Sean and I have a DJ show as well on NTS called Loose Bones. But yeah, Classical, Jazz, Blues, too. We just all really love music!
Kieran: There seems to be a lot of really great music coming out of South London why do you think this is?
Glenn: South London is very much a musical anchor in an otherwise turbulent city. Generations of musicians have always coexisted in this open community, which encourages musical expression, gives it a platform to showcase it on, which is something that seems to be dying in other parts of London. You meet so many people in South who have such a passion for live music and those who live there know this and know these people and what they’re doing and when!
Kieran: What is in the pipeline for Sleep Eaters in 2019?
Glenn: So we just released a new single, ‘Don’t Sell Your Soul’ which is the first of three singles from our EP ‘Holy Smokers’ which is out in September. We’ll be doing a few release parties to bring them into the world! We’ve just done a tour with Drahla, who always are an absolute brilliant bunch of people to be around, and that was great! We’ll probably be embarking on another short tour around autumn. There’s also our first album we’re writing so definitely enough to be getting along with! We’re really looking forward to working with a few other musicians for the album too so we’re excited to share with you what we have coming up!
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