The longtime metalcore band are doing just what they need to do to not only sustain their career, but improve their sound and technique, and, maybe even more importantly, give all they can to the fans.
Currently in the middle of their United States tour, While She Sleeps is back on the road and showing America what they’re made of. The metalcore band, originally out of the UK, recently played a crushing set at Irving Plaza in New York City to a truly all-ages crowd, which means a lot of the band at this point in their career. And, if you look at pictures from the show, you can see fans crowd surfing, the band climbing the balconies of the venue, and the mosh pits that looked massive and fierce.
It’s officially been one year since their latest album dropped – Self Hell. With so many exciting things happening with the band since its release, including the live shows, we had to catch up with Loz (Lawrence) Taylor, their hard-working vocalist. We discussed just about everything that the band has gotten up to in the last year.
You’re currently on this United States tour with Bury Tomorrow and Vended. How has it been going?
It’s going great, man! Anytime you’re traveling so far away from home, it’s always amazing to see people coming out to the shows [and] singing the lyrics along. You feel like you’re in a room with like-minded people that get your message. All the bands are going down great. Having Vended open is very interesting for a lot of people – that’s really cool. We’ve been friends with Bury Tomorrow for a very long time. It feels like, ‘Why wouldn’t we do this sooner?’ We’re stoked.
It has to be a crazy feeling, growing up in the UK, then going across the world to California. There are so many fans there excited to see you, just like in New York City. It’s amazing how far your reach is.
Exactly! Not even just that, but if you look at the touring schedule at the moment, there are so many bands touring in the states. If you told me when I was 14 that we’d have people come out to see us play… and in some of the rooms we’re playing I’d probably had a nosebleed and pass out… it’s just great to be playing shows and see people giving a fuck! It’s wicked!
I saw that picture from Irving Plaza where you scaled the side of the venue. Tell me about getting creative like that when playing live.
It’s always the energy that we get back from the crowd – that is what pushes the adrenaline a bit further. We never try to pre-plan anything like that, [we] just go with the flow. If you’re feeling the vibe of the show… why not jump off something? I guess [Laughs], at least, it keeps security on their toes and keeps everything exciting. I think it comes from extreme sports and skateboarding. I see a balcony at a gig and that kind of needs to be jumped from. Going back to bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, from the UK, watching Dillinger in the States just be off the rails? And The Chariot? I’m trying to keep that alive. Some venues just beg for it. When there’s a ladder to a balcony and shit sticking out to dive off, it does itself.
Has there ever been a time you overestimated it?
A few times, yeah! I remember Download Festival in the UK after I just came back from throat surgery. We had this idea: ‘How cool would it be if I scaled the sound tower of the festival and jammed in the Brainwashed flag, the cover art for the record? Climbing that halfway up was pretty fucking high. Some of the scaffold bars were actually loose! I got halfway up and I thought, ‘This could end really badly.’ [Laughs] It was fine!
I’m happy it didn’t end badly! Now, Self Hell has been out for one year now. Can we reflect back on this album cycle?
It’s been a great campaign for us as far as trying new things. It’s been well received by our audience. The main thing for me at the moment is that a lot of bands in the metalcore genre just want to sound like Deftones-met-Korn. We’ve already got plenty of those bands doing that. I love Deftones immensely and Korn are a crazy good band. For me, though, we’ve got those bands doing that, so for us, Self Hell was about stepping out of our comfort zone a bit, but also not trying to sound like anyone else out there. We’re trying to do what we’re trying to do; that’s what excites me. It’s about not following the current trend in rock and metal and trying to do something that stands out on its own. I think we achieved that. It mashes Brit-pop with metalcore. I found that really exciting! It divided people at first, but now that people are seeing a lot of those songs in a live sense alongside our older albums, it makes sense even though it is a bit different. Let’s see what happens next to our sound.
With that record in particular, a lot of fans had a hard time classifying a genre for it.
Exactly, yeah! We wanted to talk from the standpoint of experiences we’d been through, talk through a lot of things we’d learned in the writing process. Also, I think it just clicked at one stage – metal bands can sometimes be a bit serious. We’ve always tried to tackle political issues or speak from a personal standpoint about emotions we’ve shared and our difficulties. I think with this record, especially the single, “Self Hell,” we thought we would just try and have some fun, be entertaining. Self Hell is the product of that.
Especially on the new record, but on every While She Sleeps album, you guys have some really cool collaborations. On the new one, you have Malevolence, you have had Sum 41, and I know you’ve worked with Oli Sykes.
I think a lot of people will collab with an artist because it boosts the parallel from each side. You might get someone from a pop world guest on a rock record. From our standpoint, it’s always about what would suit the song. For example, on “Nervous” we have Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro. That whole time we were in the studio with that, we were just imagining his voice on it. Eventually we reached out to him and that came about.
Same with Deryck Whibley from Sum 41. “No Defeat For The Brave” had that Sum 41-style riff. It was calling out to us. That’s the way we go about it. On our newest record, Self Hell, it was not necessarily about how many followers someone has or how big they are in our scene. It’s still about us asking, ‘Does that vocal style lend itself to what we’re trying to create?’
We’ve had some cool collaborations almost accidentally. When Oli Sykes guested, he was saying, “Yo how’s the new record going”? And we were like, “Here’s the latest demo, have a listen,” and he just volunteered himself. “Yo, this track is wicked – I’d love to be a part of it.” We’re not going to say no! It worked out! We’re always up for it.
That’s a really unique perspective. Is there anybody still on your bucket list? Is there someone you still want to work with?
Personally, I would love Dustin from Thrice to be on one of our tracks. As a band, Thrice are like gods to us. That’s always one that has never come about, but I would love for that to happen. My other was always Andrew Neufeld from Comeback Kid. He sang on “Dead Behind the Eyes” on our first full-length record. That was an early tick of the box there. Andrew’s got such a great voice, but, yeah, I’d say Dustin from Thrice currently.
I know it’s only been a year since Self Hell, but are you writing new music?
For sure! Our guitarist Sean [Long] is obsessed with writing music and doesn’t stop. There are demos from previous albums that we’ve got all backed up. There are hundreds of demos that we’re working on and trying to improve. It never really stops. I’m always writing poetry on my phone or in a pad, so I’ve always got lyrics ready to go. We’re enjoying the tour and the album cycle, but it never really stops. We’re already scheming something for a new record.
I do want to highlight a huge friend of ours; you’ve worked with Melissa Cross. Tell me about the first time you met her.
I heard of The Zen of Screaming so fucking long ago. Years and years ago someone told me about it and I said, “Yeah, I’ll check that out.” Then I didn’t properly check it out. For anyone who might not know, I’ve had three surgeries on my voice in the past through partying and not having technique. A lot of people early on told me about the fry screaming technique and how it will save you on tour. My standpoint on that was always, “If it’s not heavy and passionate and giving it everything, then what’s the point of screaming?” I approached it wrongly in the first place. I always went out with every ounce of energy, and that mixed with heavy drinking, led to problems.
I finally sorted out going to see her in the States, in New York. I spent some time with her and she was really helpful. She’s an incredible woman. She’s helped so many bands in our world. It is also just very interesting to hear her talk about the people she’s worked with and how she got into it. She was literally the first person to put some attention onto heavy music and come up with a way around the vocal hurdles of screaming. They call her the Godmother of Metal! Huge shoutout to Melissa.
The main thing I’ve learned over the years, is that with a scream, you feel like you need to give everything you have, but the vocal cords work a lot better if you relax. This is extra, but when you sing, your larynx comes together and moves. If you’re screaming as hard as you can, you’re clamping your larynx completely shut and trying to push air through that. You’re going to cause problems. You need to relax your whole body. It’s about doing that to find the sound.
Another question I want to ask you about is the Sleep Society Patreon. I give you huge credit. In 2020, so many artists started a Patreon, but very few kept going with it.
Like you said, a lot of people had that idea during lockdown to help sustain their band in a time when they weren’t touring. As we know, fanclubs aren’t anything new. An example: The Misfits Fiend Club. We already had the idea of leveling up on some fanclub where people give a fuck as much as we do, there is a place for all that extra interal insight. We were already messing with that idea when COVID hit. “It’s going to be the perfect time to launch this,” we thought. A lot of bands we’re friends with had released records just before COVID hit and were having a terrible time not being able to tour it, and trying to promote a record when you can’t tour… it’s tough.
Luckily for us, everything obliged. We hadn’t put out the record yet, so it gave us time to really think something through. Our fanbase got so behind it. They read the message and sat with it. It’s incredible that we’re supported in that way by the fans of our band. It legitimately helped us sustain for those few years. We were able to bring more in-house in our practice space and have people work a different side to While She Sleeps than they would have if we were out on the road. We’re a self-managed band.We release music off our own label. We have a Patreon. You’ve got music videos to think about and it was a lot to take on board, but we’re giving it our all to make sure that what we were asking from our fanbase was fair for what we are still putting into it.
It’s all still up there. You can join now and there’s hundreds of videos and a back catalog of play-throughs, vocal tutorials, and behind the scenes stuff. Anyone that’s interested, it’s still there. Thanks to anyone that is/was a part of that. It saved our band.
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