Crack

When it comes to music Bristol has become good at the uncanny knack of throwing curveballs at you.

Through various venues employing innovative music policies and variation in the styles of music available, the city's musical agenda has become interesting again.
Sleeping States are a band who have found their home in Bristol. In a completely refreshing breath of musical air they also bear no resemblance to the stereotype of music for which Bristol is famous. They are a band pushing their creative merits and consequently the creative merits of Bristol music in a new direction.

The music has been an ongoing work in progress created, fronted and written by Sleeping States originator, 28-year-old Markland Starkie. It is only recently that Sleeping States has taken on the guise of a full five-piece band for their latest album In the Gardens of the North. Soft, lo-fi, grainy and folk influenced, Sleeping States’ sparse, cantering melodies are luscious slices of what melancholic folk should be. Standout tracks Showers in Summer and Gardens of the South showcase the diversity on the record. One is a crooning, hazy number; the other an emotional charged tearjerker.

Markland originally conceived Sleeping States in 2004, with debut album Distances Are Great, as a solo effort. As time has elapsed however, the sound has progressed and the organic development of Sleeping States has resulted in the addition of more and more parts and the sound taking on a whole new direction.

Markland explains this progression: “Coming into this album, I’d been working with drummers a lot and that was something I hadn’t really done before. On my first self-released album it was just me and on the last album There the Open Spaces, I only really started working with a drummer very late on.

“When I moved to Bristol about a year ago I started playing together with Liz who is our guitarist. We met another mutual friend called Rose who played drums. It was then we started playing as a three-piece and did a supporting tour with Noah and the Whale last year.

“I knew for this album I wanted to make it a bit bigger. So I recruited Michael on guitar, as he plays in several bands in Bristol and is quite active in the music scene. Liz’s girlfriend Rhiannon also plays cello; so it’s all come together really nicely. I have a really short attention span and it gets a bit boring doing the same thing over and over again; so I’m really pleased with the different state of the band at the moment."

Markland’s commitment to innovation might be the result of a short attention span, but there is no denying it has kept the Sleeping States model an interesting one. When second album There the Open Spaces was taking an exceptionally long time to release, Markland tried various touring methods to keep the songs on the album interesting to both himself and his audience.

Markland explains: “There the Open Spaces had taken such a long time to get out that after touring it solo I was getting a bit tired of the songs. So to combat that, I did a really fun thing in the US. I’ve got a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon, and I really wanted to do an American tour. We’d been chatting for such a long time about coming over and putting something together; so I went over. We found a drummer and decamped to her basement for about ten days. We got to grips with the songs and then did a two month tour right around the US as a band. It was incredible.”

The latest change in Markland’s musical direction directly coincided with his migration from London to Bristol about a year ago - something of which he is acutely aware.
“I found a really good music scene in Bristol. People had put me on a few times at various venues in the city and there was a really great sense of humour here. I still think that holds true. Where we fit in might be less high profile than the drum and bass scene or whatever; but I think there’s a lot of really good bands here, quite removed from what Bristol is traditionally famous for. There is quite a big DIY culture in experimental music. If you delve you’ll find something really striking.”

The other really striking aspect to the current record is the lo-fi quality to the production. Giving the album a much grainy resonance it sounds like you are listening to a vinyl - even when playing it as an MP3."

Markland explains that this was a conscious decision in the recording process: “There seems to be a trend towards lo-fi at the moment. There’s quite a lot of bands doing that. A lot of my favourite records are a bit lo-fi. I don’t tend to enjoy the tendency in modern pop and modern pop-guitar production that everything has got to be super clean and have super high vocals in the production. I don’t think in order to make an album sound good it has to be recorded crystal clean. Even though I had better technology at my disposal this time, I wanted to retain that nostalgic feel.

“There the Open Spaces I actually wrote specifically with vinyl in my head. It had a two-sided quality to it. I know where the split goes, but it never came out on vinyl; so I’m really happy In the Gardens of the North has.”

Having just completed their first UK tour as a five-piece that included a gig at The Cube in Stokes Croft, Sleeping States have reached an exciting point in their existence. With In the Gardens of the North receiving outstanding reviews and Markland establishing a talented roster of musicians around him, the future is certainly bright for one of Bristol, and indeed Britain’s, most promising bands.



Tune: The Next Village

http://www.myspace.com/sleepingstates

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