Sleeping At Last | All In A Year’s Work
Written By: Jameson Ketchum

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hat an appropriate misnomer! Sleeping At Last is a dream, a mellow yet cathartic journey for your lobes. Beginning this last October Dan Perdue and Ryan O’Neal, the duo that comprises SAL, began releasing three songs per month calling it “Yearbook” and subsequently gaining a wider audience and more notice than ever. The pair strive to ride the line between viable commercial success, including a Grey’s Anatomy episode, and charming indie stardom. Regardless of where SAL lands, you can’t deny the smile that will undoubtedly be plastered across your face while listening to their recent EPs and eagerly awaiting eight more this year. Pick up October through January, available now!

Firstly, can you give us a quick background on how Sleeping At Last was formed and how you came upon your signature sound?

Dan Perdue: Well, Ryan and I have been playing music together for about ten years now.  We first met in high school through my younger sister.  We were both playing in bands around town and eventually it worked out for me to join the band Ryan was playing in.  As far as how we came about our sound, it’s definitely evolved over the years but it’s always just been based on making music we love and are proud of.  It’s never been about striving for a particular sound.  We try to let things develop organically.

One EP a month is a pretty hefty endeavor. What brought about the Yearbook idea?

Ryan O’Neal: Well, after making a handful of full-length records and touring a bunch in between, eventually throughout the routine of it all, we asked ourselves, “What’s the one thing we wish we did more of?” and writing, recording and releasing new music was clearly the answer.

Being independent definitely has a hand in making ideas like “Yearbook” possible… the risk and challenge of a band writing/releasing three new songs every month for a year, wouldn’t perhaps be something a record company would be excited to test out, so we feel very privileged to be able to pursue ideas that challenge us like this. The reasoning behind three songs is because we feel like a three song EP is substantial enough of new songs for our listeners each month, but also because it’s doable number of songs for us to create, without sacrificing quality. And we chose one year because it’s challenging and because within that challenge, we have freewill to experiment with new sounds and ideas as often as we want, without compromising any desired cohesion of a full-length record.

So far, it’s been our favorite and most inspired project to date! It’s been a lot fun to experiment like this.

So walk me through the recording process, were they all recorded in one fell swoop and now they’re just sitting waiting to be released? Or did you stagger out the sessions a bit? How did that work?

RO: Other than a couple months of preparation for this project, everything we’re releasing was written and recorded in the month before its release. So we are literally writing three new songs each month. We tried to get a little head start on the first couple EPs, but we didn’t get much of one, so we are creating things on the fly. Its super fun to do, in spite of the stress, but it’s also nice because “Yearbook” is meant to be a display of sorts of one full year of creating, so the closer we write to the release dates, the more natural the collection of songs become.

Does the music match the season at all? Is there any significance as to what songs come out when?

RO: We haven’t made huge efforts to match the seasons, however recently our December EP did have an original Christmas song and January did have a song that focused solely on the New Year so it happens, but as a whole we want it to naturally display creativity in those months, whatever that may sound like.

“I think being independent is the reason we can make this work.  We have no one to answer to but ourselves and ultimately our listeners, so that makes us able to move quickly and get things done at this pace.”You mentioned having more freedom without a label on this project. Did this feel like a large project to try and do without any label help? Have you guys received any bites at this point in the game?

DP: It’s definitely a big undertaking and there are times it would be nice to have a few more hands to do the non musical work that goes into releasing these EP’s.  But at the same time all the red tape and waiting around you have to go through when you work with a label would make this project impossible.  Like Ryan mentioned earlier, I think being independent is the reason we can make this work.  We have no one to answer to but ourselves and ultimately our listeners, so that makes us able to move quickly and get things done at this pace.  Every now and then a label will come along and show some interest, but so far none have been the right fit.  We really enjoy being independent and it will really take the right label and the right group of people to change that, if it ever does.

I feel like this is good movie soundtrack stuff, maybe when the male lead realizes he just made a big mistake by not kissing the girl at the opportune moment. What are your thoughts?

DP: We are both huge movie buffs.  After music I think movies would come next on our list of favorite things.  We love film scores and I think that has definitely been a source of inspiration and influence in our music.  We would love to someday score a movie or have a song used on the soundtrack.

I’m a sucker for piano and strings in any song. What is your guys’ writing process like? What inspires you when you sit down to compose?

RO: Well, each of the songs seem come about in different ways. But I have little routines that seem to work for me, at least in processing ideas. I approach music and lyrics generally separately. I keep a journal of sorts for lyrics and ideas that I’m always trying to add to so if there’s a word I happen to like, I’ll toss it into the journal. Sometimes, I’ll free write there as well. When it comes time to gather up some lyrics, I go to my journal and see what fits the feel, etc. For music, I approach it similarly. I always have a digital recorder on hand or nearby and I’ll just play around with different instruments. When a chord or part comes up that I like, I grab it with my recorder and often, file it away for later, unless I’m feeling ready to work out the song more fully. When I have an idea I like a lot and feel like there’s some direction, Dan and I will sit down and work out the arrangements of the song and where what parts belong, etc.

That’s the general outline of the process, but sometimes songs will come fully formed, needing little work and other songs are nothing but struggle to write.

Being that the music is so mellow, what kind of atmosphere do you strive for when it comes to your stage show?

DP: As with a lot of aspects of our music, I think the main thing we strive for when performing is sincerity.  We don’t have flashy lights or stage costumes.  We just go out and play the songs from the heart and hope that connects with people in a meaningful way.  For better or worse I think it’s safe to say that we may be musicians but we are not performers, if that makes sense.  That’s really all we know how to do, play the songs with sincerity.

Where and when can we catch you guys on tour?

DP: Well, with all the time and energy going into “Yearbook” right now, we won’t be playing all that many shows if any.  But this fall you can look for us to be out doing shows again.  If you sign up for our mailing list on our website you will get all the info about any upcoming shows or news. www.myspace.com/sleepingatlast