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Putting Yourself Through Hell With AARAN & LOZ From While She Sleeps · HEAVY Music Interviews

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Yo, you're listening to the Heavy mag podcast, bringing new interviews with the
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biggest and best artists in heavy music from around the world. I'm as and
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this episode I got to speak with Laws and Aaron of UK metalcore band While
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She Sleeps. Those guys are making their way out to OZ in the coming
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weeks to kick it on the massive Good Things Festival, as well as doing
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some headliner shows too, So let's jump into it. Thanks so much for
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joining me on the Heavy podcast tonight. I've got While She Sleeps based and
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vocal guys, Aaron and Loss and I feel like I want to start with
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like hashtag big Things Coming, because you blokes are on your way to Australia
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and you've got a new album on the way. But I wanted to start
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with the Good Things Festival. What are you guys doing to prepare yourself for
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Australian summer? Both of you are wearing beanies right now. It's telling me
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that you're not acclimatized in any way, shape or form. No, that's
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the weird thing about like touring a place that's a lot warmer than where you
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are right now. You sort of put all your winter or your summer clothes
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away and then we're like I've been digging out my shorts and stuff and trying
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to figure out how hot it's going to be. Actually, I think that
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because it's been pretty cold over here recently, it's actually going to be so
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nice to just come over there and just bang of shit on or not and
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I just enjoy some sun before Christmas over here. So yeah, looking forward
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to it until you melt your own faces off on stage, because that's going
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to be you might have to like just like do a week's worth of like
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saunas or something before you get over here. Just get your system jazzed up
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for it. Yeah, that's it. Look the thing is too. I'm
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in Victoria, so I'm going to Melbourne. Good things, And like fear
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warning, there is every chance that Melbourne could be freezing as well, regardless
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of the season, because I think I've ad perceptions of freezing are completely different
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now, probably, but Melbourne weather is rather unhinged, so you know,
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it is possible. Probably not, but good to know, though. It's
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good to know. Like we've got a lot of internal flights on this trip,
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so we can't actually bring a lot of stuff with us like usually we're
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just be on a toll boss and take a loads of shit, but it's
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like we can't actually do that, so we've got to be quite strategic about
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what we're packing. So it's good to know that there is a chance it
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might not be boiling and to prepare for that. To be honest, look
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at it probably will be, but it does happen from time to time.
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So we're also doing like Asia too, so like some parts of Southeast Asia,
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which is like northern Hemisphere, which is technically winter right like you know,
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So it's like kind of need to pack for both. I think that
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will be happening after you come here then, yeah, right after Yeah,
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we go to like like Bangkok, we did like Taiwan, Japan, like
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Tokyo and Japan. Yeah, a few places. That's hectic. So with
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a new album on the horizon, will we be lucky enough to hear anything
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unreleased perhaps at your headlining shows or are you sitting on that material until it's
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released. It's a bit of a tricky one because I believe that it sort
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of drops literally as we come out there. So I think we should we
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should kind of be prepared to be able to play some some of that new
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stuff, like at least a new single, but yeah, leave it with
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us. We've got we've got a bit of time to practice a couple of
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days here and there, so we'll see if we managed to get that.
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But you'll definitely be hearing the previous single no matter what. So, yeah,
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see you have given us of what's to come with self Hell, which
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is also the name of the album. So that what that came out back
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in September, is that right? Yeah? And so it's a pretty to
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me. It's a pretty clear indication that you've been tinkering with your sound,
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and the press release I received said some super exciting things like that you guys
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are drawing influence from bands like Aphex Twin and The Prodigy, which like that
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really excites me personally. So when you started working on this album, did
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you all make a conscious decision to sonically step in new territory or was that
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was it more of an organic evolution too, you know, to be honest,
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it was a little bit of both. I think. I think the
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previous records that we've put, how have some of it has moved into a
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bit of sort of a vintage since sound that our guitarist Sean has been working
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with like a vintage since for a few years now, so I think it
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feels it feels like a natural progression. But also we're trying to do something
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fresh for our fans that and we like to sort of keep our fan base
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on its toes in terms of knowing what to expect from a new record from
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us. We've said it many times, but like, we don't want to
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be a band that sort of finds our sound and just sits in it.
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We just want to always evolve and try new things and just try things that
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make us feel excited. So there is a bit of that I think that
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you know, no matter how much you try and say, we have got
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influences from other bands and stuff like, it's tricky because we always still manage
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to sound a lot like while She sleeps. So although there are influences peppered
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in from you know, us being younger and listening to different styles of music
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and now all the way to now, So there are those things peppered in,
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but I think it'll be you know, it might be in such a
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sleepsy way that you don't really click onto any of that straight away, if
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you get me, Yeah, definitely. It's more like an underlying sort of
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influence if you like, Yeah, for sure, and that's how you want
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it to be, right. You don't want to be just regurgitating something that's
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already been done. You want to make it your own. So yeah,
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that's it. I think I think we're really lucky the way that the way
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that the band plays together, our singing voices and Sean's lead play, and
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it's like, I think we could write country songs and still managed to sound
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like while she speaks, you know, I mean like it's just one of
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those things. So we are lucky. We never wanted to sort of sound
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like another band, and I think we managed to do that. So yeah,
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it's a good thing. I feel like that taking that as a bad
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thing, no, no, no, not not at all. But I
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feel like that that is an opinion that has come from someone that possibly doesn't
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listen to you guys in depth, because my husband said the same thing.
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He's like, oh, is this a new limb Biscuit song? He doesn't
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like limb Biscuit and he doesn't really listen to you that much. So when
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I said, oh no, it's oh okay, apparently that made it better
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that it wasn't Limp Biscuits. I think honestly, like this album is like
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we've always kind of like been diverse with with the sounds within like one particular
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album, but I think with this one we've kind of like we've like it's
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on steroids in that kind of respect, you know, like like there is
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no one song that really sounds like another, and so if like people think
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like, oh, it's like self hel is that what we're expecting with this
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album, It's like not really, Like that's kind of like a standalone song
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with how it sounds and like everything else, There's there's so many different sounds
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within this album, which which makes it probably the most exciting one that we've
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ever written. So yeah, keep we're keeping people on the toes, I
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think with this one. And how dynamic does that make a live show as
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well, Like the fact that you can pile all this all this stuff in
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and appeal to ranges of people and yeah, yeah exactly, I think that
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like that's always been the goal for us. We've always loved heavy music,
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but we've always loved like like the sing alongside of things as well, Like
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there's nothing better than your fans singing back to you. So we've always wanted
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to include everyone in that sense, like have something during our live show for
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everyone, whether it's just a stinky, heavy riff or some anthemic sounds for
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people to latch onto and sing back. I had a really interesting thought the
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other day. You know the term britpop, right, I mean it's yeah,
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So for me, this record is like Brit metal. It's like we've
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taken a lot of that britpop sort of elements from sort of the nineties and
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early two thousands and made our own sort of sound. But yeah, I
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think Brit metal is kind of a cool way to think about what it might
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sound like. Did you just create a new genre because metal doesn't have enough
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genres? Sorry we should Yeah, definitely definitely yeah, but whilst he sleeps
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create the first Brit Metal I like it. You heard it here first,
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everybody. And just to backtrack a little bit, I translated from what you
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said earlier that the next album is going to be a country album, so
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you'll get it. So next tour it'll be Hodowns. Yep, that's the
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way we're going. So to ask a serious question, then, when you
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are an established band like you guys are and you've got a long term following,
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and you explore new sounds like this, and you're on the cusp of
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releasing the record. Do you feel that you have to brace yourselves for fans
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that don't get it, or do you just simply not give a fucking you
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just as long as you guys are stoked with it. I wouldn't say it's
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not necessarily like not given a fuck, but I think we definitely knew when
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we were releasing self Hell that then might be some backlash from from certain people.
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But at the same time, it's like we we've always written music for
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ourselves, and we have been very fortunate and lucky enough to have a bunch
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of people come along for the ride and really enjoy it with us, you
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know. But yeah, like at the end of the day, you can't
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please everybody, and I think if we tried to please everybody that it would
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be an extremely diluted version of what Sleeps would be, and therefore we would
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never have created this legacy in the first place. So I think as long
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as we stick true to what we want to do, no matter what that
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is, it may come with backlash, but we it's gonna it's gonna come
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with whatever we do. So we writ the same album again, people would
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say, oh, it's the same album again. If we write something new,
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people are going to be like, oh, we prefer the old stuff.
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It's like, well, you can't win either way, so we might
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as well just do what you want. I think that when we first sort
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of got picked up, when we're younger and stuff, you do feel like
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you have you know, you have to you have to appease those fan base
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because you're new to it, do you know what I mean? You don't
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want it to blow up sort of thing in your face and not continue the
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journey. So I think naturally, when you're when you're when we oh goodbye.
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And that's where we lost Laws for a bit when he dropped out of
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the call. But don't worry, he comes back. This is a regular
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occurrence for Laws and technology. Yeah. I was aiming my next question at
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him too, because I you know, had lyric questions or do you guys
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all write lyrics? Well, we all write lyrics. Yeah. Yeah,
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that was just me being like assuming when I should not be assuming. No,
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that's all good, maybe, Yeah, I mean I could probably speak
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for him anyway at this point, like, Yeah, we're definitely like we
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we're very deep in the process together, you know. So it's like i'd
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probably and me and laws have definitely we've worked together like a lot, like
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personally, like on the like last few records, just creating lyrics to like
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together, they're like finding like what parts like his lyrics could go into and
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creating patterns for them. So I probably could, Well, what's your question.
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Well, I basically, with regard to the themes of the album,
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I quite liked the statement that was included in the press release from Sean,
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which it was lengthy, so I'm not going to quote it all now,
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but for the sake of the listeners, I might edit it in later.
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But basically, like the gist of it being that we are all experiencing suffering
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in some way, and while that creates differences, it also binds us.
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So I just kind of was going to ask if you guys could expand on
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that a little bit. Yeah, I mean, like, I think we've
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been very fortunate, you know, with the band to be able to kind
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of like remove ourselves from the orthodox way of like the way society operates.
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I guess, you know, like we're being able to almost have like a
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zoomed out like view and perspective of the world, because like when you're traveling
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in a band with your friends, you kind of like in your own little
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bubble and you get to go to all these different places and experience different cultures
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and and and you know, I genuinely believe that travel broadens the mind,
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you know, and and you you you're able to get like this very unique
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perspective on the world. And I don't believe I would have had like the
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same spiritual and kind of like mental growth, like none of us. I
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believe we wouldn't have had the same like spiritual mental growth without the band and
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being able to travel to all these places and really like being a really privileged
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position to kind of like experience all that. And you know, like we've
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always kind of tried to go against the grain and kind of you know,
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come at things from like a different perspective of like the mainstream, you know.
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And I think, you know, like when when when you look at
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like this is the six and brainwashed. Brainwash was like a very like politically
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charge like pissed off album, you know, and really wanting to delve into
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those topics of like why is the world the way it is? And you
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know, corrupt leaders and all this kind of stuff and then after like brainwashed
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and you know, us being on this journey for a while. I think
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it's like round about the U. R WE era where we start kind of
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pointing the finger inwards a little bit and we were like, Okay, what
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are we doing that impacts the world? And you know, because it's it's
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people changing on like an individual level that you know that changes the world from
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there on, right, Like you have to start with yourself. So like
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as uncomfortable as that is, Yeah, as uncomfortable as that is. Yeah,
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Like so I think like we're always kind of trying to be introspective and
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and just like peel back the layers and trying to like really like discover who
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we are and as individual people. And I think that's very important for everybody
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else to do as well. So like that's kind of like that's kind of
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like always been the topic. Yeah, just like discovering ourselves really like kind
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of like exposing ourselves in the raw. It's in its raw. It's form
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to try and yeah, to try and like convey that message of discover who
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you are, make yourself a better person that positively influences the world, and
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in that message, you know, if that could be spread then then great.
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You got me back. Guys, what happened my iPad died? Oh
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sorry, No, that's okay. We we were just going over the lyrical
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themes of the new record. Yeah, with some good things festival. Is
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there any bands on the bill that you're excited to be to be sharing a
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line up with? Yeah, for sure. I remember looking at the lineup
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and being like, this is great. I mean, obviously we're trying to
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rip off Limp biscuits sounds, so it'd be good to see those. Let's
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get read Durst in the guest spart Hell yeah, I can't remember the lineup
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just off the top of my head. Do you have it there? It's
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pretty diverse. We will Devot Devo's there, fall Out Boy headlining, taking
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Back Sunday. I fucking love those. Oh yes, oh I Prevail band.
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It's pretty decent, isn't it. Really? It's a it's a good
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solid lineup. Do you guys get many opportunities to watch other bands, like
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from side of stage or whatever, or do you find festivals are a bit
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hectic and there's a lot of prep and and that sort of thing. I
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think it's sort of a bit of both. Again, with that, I
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think if we get a bit of time, it depends when the next sort
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of show is as well. So if the drive to the next show is
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not crazy, then we can hang around for a while and watch some things.
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But then if we've got to get off and get to you know,
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get to a sound check, or we've got all the things to do at
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the festival, then we might have to bail. But yeah, I think
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nine times out of ten, if there's bands we want to see, we
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make sure we stick around. So I think I think for this all being
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well, depending on what the flight time is to the next festival, I
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think will definitely be around and out in the crowd and having a chill and
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watching some bands. So, like I say, especially because the weather's really
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cold here, it'll be nice to just chill out and watch some watch some
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live music. So we always try to enjoy some sunshine. Now we're probably
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coming up to my cutoff time, so I do in most interviews I try
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to include like a silly or lighthearted question. This one, though, however,
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is not of my construction. This afternoon, the guitarist in my band
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requested that I ask a question, and it's stupid, so be prepared.
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Who is she and what are you lot up to while she sleeps? So
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you want to know the story behind the name? Yeah, well yeah,
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yeah, Well you can tell the story behind the name, or you can
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just make up something really dumb. It's okay with me either way. Oh
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I'm not going to make up something really dumb because the names on the edge
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anyway. Yeah, but basically the lads were all sort of chilling having a
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drink when they well does it. Every good story starts off that way.
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Come on. At this point the band would call I think it was Final
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Ruin. Is that right? I wasn't in it, but yeah, I
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was in another band called tact. I'm going to plug my old band Tack.
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I think it was either Final Ruin or dead for So they were sat
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around the table and they wanted a new name, and there was a chat
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like a you know these crappy sort of chat magazines that basically like make up
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loads of crap just to get people to buy it. Anyway, the story
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about a woman that had found out that her husband had been cheating on her,
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so she like put his dick off, yep, so in his sleep,
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so that was while he slept on the thing, and headline was like
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while he was sleeping through that she d so. But at the time,
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everyone was trying to be like this was like years and years ago, and
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obviously everyone was trying to be really death metal, and it was always about
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having a name that he couldn't really see like properly for looking at it,
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and everyone was trying to be really disgusting. So they just thought it was
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a cool flip on that headline in the magazine and just wept with while she
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sleeps. But like it's kind of like it's kind of like on the same
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wavelength as like the Asale dyings and the storys and whatever. So we were
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like, while she sleeps, that sounds cool. Yeah, it does sound
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cool, and it's it's much better than the other two names that you just
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told me, which I've already forgotten, so alrighty well, that wraps things
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up for us. Then I can't wait to see you guys are good things,
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and like I said, I'm going to try and get along to the
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side show as well. So fingers crossed awesome. Yeah, and just as
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an aside, I missed my husband's birthday dinner to interview you guys tonight,
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So thank you, thank you for being a really good interview. I hope
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your husband does a great day, and I hope we get to get out
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there and catch up with them. Yeah, hopefully bump into a good things.
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Let's praise love inside of us while she Sleeps will be playing the first
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of their Aussie shows at Stay Gold in Melbourne on Thursday, November thirtieth,
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before they do the Melbourne Good Things the following day. Sydney and Brisbane Good
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Things are on the Saturday and Sunday the second and third of December, and
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then they follow that up by headlining at The bright Side in Brisbane on Tuesday,
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December fifth. And because I said in the interview that I would edit
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it in. This was the statement that guitarist Sean made regarding their new album,
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which of course is titled Self Hell and is being released on March fifteen.
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The name of the album is the foundation of how we view ourselves and
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the world. Everyone has a subjective experience like no other, yet the constant
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that finds us is the differences between us and the fact that we are all
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suffering in our own way. Don't be too quick to judge and demonize.
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Your time will come for redemption or damnification. We've been drawing inspiration from an
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array of misfit artists far from where you would usually pigeonhole while She Sleeps.
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Each member has brought in a different perspective of inspiration so far apart in genre
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that it has left us with a very odd and satisfying sonic. While She
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Sleeps will continue to keep the world guessing on what we will do next.
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Not only for the fans, but this is a spiritual venture that we will
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have to keep alive, moving, and constantly in flux. We do this
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by scaring ourselves with things that we are not supposed to do every single day.
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I really liked that, so I really wanted to include that in thanks
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for listening to the Heavy podcast. I'm as remember to keep life heavy and
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we will catch you next time. I know when it's good, It's so
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good. When it's I'll give you something and I will help you manage your
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mind down my outcre be fly f