Oh, Sleeper

We recently sat down with metalcore act Oh, Sleeper to discuss their recent full-length, Son of the Morning, the band's progression through the years, side-projects, and member changes. Here's what was said.

Maria@RRR: Introduce yourself please.

Micah Kinard: Hi, I’m Micah Kinard from Oh, Sleeper. I do lead vocals.

Maria@RRR: So you're in the middle of your headlining tour. How’s it been?

Micah Kinard: It’s been great. It’s really been a surprise for us. Like we didn’t play anything, we didn’t do any touring at all for about five months, and then we came out on the road. We really didn’t know what to expect, you know, if people had forgot about us or whatever. But we got a great tour package right now with Oceana, Tides of Man, and Greeley Estates, and before that I Am Alpha & Omega, and then Pmtoday was on it. And it’s just been awesome. The turn out’s been great. The people showing up the shows have been going crazy, like tonight. Tonight I can actually say was one of my favorite shows I’ve ever played in this band, and definitely the most I’ve ever sweated on stage before. [laughs]

Maria@RRR: Tell us a little about your album Son of the Morning that came out last year. How was the writing and recording process for that?

Micah Kinard: It went really well actually. We wrote and recorded Son of the Morning in about three months. And When I Am God actually was written and recorded over about a year and a half, and so Son of the Morning really just clicked with us. And we wrote it, and the guys got together and kind of got all the music together, and everyone pitched in and everything. After they had gotten all that done, they kind of gave it to me, and I did the vocal take on it and everything. Then we just went into the studio and just had a great time, and released it, and so far it’s been a pretty good response.

Maria@RRR: You made a video for your song “The Finisher” which is a sequel to your other video “Son Of The Morning.” What made you want to do a follow-up video?

Micah Kinard: The song, “Son Of The Morning” and “The Finisher” are kind of part one and part two. “The Finisher” is a response to “Son of the Morning,” and “Son of the Morning” and “The Finisher” both turned out to be singles, so it really just worked out perfect. The music video company we were working with really liked the idea as well.

Maria@RRR: How’d you come up with the concept of the videos?

Micah Kinard: Daniel Davidson was the director for the two videos, and it was really like, we wanted something different, and the lyrics are very kind of cinematic on this record. They definitely paint pictures, and stories and stuff. He kind of just took the lyrics and ran with it, and he approached us with this great treatment idea, and we loved it. It had all sorts of animated stuff going on, and you know, we just decided to take a chance and go with, you know. So, it kind of turned out well.

Maria@RRR: So has the band been writing any new songs?

Micah Kinard: Actually, that’s what’s on the agenda for after this tour. We took some time off, and then we decided we’re going to do a headlining tour, and then take as much time off that we needed to write the new record, and then go and record it. We just really want to put out a new record as soon as possible.

Maria@RRR: Do you have any songs written already?

Micah Kinard: Not yet. We have a bunch of ideas written. And I’ve got a bunch of like conceptual ideas for the new record, like kind of tossing around for lyrical, on lyrical basis. Really everything has just been word of mouth like back and forth in the van like “oh it’d be sweet to have a song thats like [makes some beat noises like badadadad adadadad], you know and we’re like “oh yeah!” [laughs] Nothing written actually yet, but that’s, like I said, what we’re doing when we get home.

Maria@RRR: So what direction are these ideas taking?

Micah Kinard: Man, there's....[sigh] they’re so all over the place right now, it’s hard to tell. I know the majority of us would like to go a little heavier on the next record. I don’t even know [laughs]. It’s a mystery right now.

Maria@RRR: Any reason why you want to go heavier?

Micah Kinard: The heaviest parts in the song are always the funnest to play live, and we tour a lot as a band. And so the shows are really, the shows and the interaction with the crowd and the fans and everything is really our biggest part of this. And if there’s a part that we can write that they will like, that they will have more fun to, then we want to do that ‘cause we love to see everyone having a good time.

Maria@RRR: How do you feel the band has progressed musically throughout your career?

Micah Kinard: Musically, I would say The Armored March EP, which was our first single release, and it was really really experimental, like those songs are all over the place, and they’re, you know, completely linear. Those were the first vocal takes, if anyone has that EP, it was the first vocal takes I’ve ever taken in my life. It was also the first time the band heard what I was doing. [laughs] So, there’s a lot of funny history behind that, but that was kind of all over the place. When I Am God was still along the same vein, including five of the songs from The Armored March EP. Then we toured on that for a while, and really, I guess, through that touring cycle, kind of fell into a niche. By that, I mean, that was our first album, so we really got to know each other as a band, and I feel like Son of the Morning was a more calculated approach. We really focused more on songwriting on that one, than just trying to be like, throwing all the craziest, random stuff as possible. I feel like what we want to do with this next one is we want to do kind of a mix of Son of the Morning and When I Am God. Not as calculated as Son of the Morning, but not quite as experimental and all over the place like When I Am God, but heavier than both of them. That’ll be good.

Maria@RRR: Earlier in the month, you announced that your drummer Matt had left the band. Can you give any clarification as to what happened there?

Micah Kinard: He just decided that this wasn’t for him anymore, and he wanted to stay at home, and focus on that whole part of his life. We’re still great friends with him, we’re still in contact. He actually flew out to a couple of the shows on this tour, just to hang out, and we got him up on stage to play a couple songs. Actually, Ryan, our first drummer, came out to a show too, while we were up in Chicago. And he came out, and we got him up on stage, and he played a song too. And so, everyone, anyone who’s been in this band, we’re still great friends with. We still consider them brothers.

Maria@RRR: You also mentioned that you’re trying out a new drummer - Zac - on this tour.

Micah Kinard: Yes.

Maria@RRR: How do you feel about him? Is he going to be your new drummer? What’s going on with that?

Micah Kinard: I can’t say anything yet, but I can say that he is absolutely phenomenal drummer, and we’ve been blown away with is enthusiasm, and stage performance, and everything. He’s always, throwing his sticks all over the place, and standing up on his kit, and just going crazy. He plays the songs perfectly, so.. He’s a really, really great guy, and we’re really stoked to have him out on the road, and highly recommend him. But I can’t say anything just yet.

Maria@RRR: So Shane started a side-project called Anullaby. Can you give us any information about this project?

Micah Kinard: That would be something you’d want to ask him, but I think it’s awesome. It’s really cool. To me, it kind of sounds like, we kind of figured it out in the van today. I feel like it kind of sounds like a more aggressive OneRepublic meets... [consults James] What else would you describe Anullaby as?

James: Like a new metal OneRepublic.

Micah: [laughs] We’ll say a more aggressive OneRepublic. He’s a phenomenal singer, and great song writer. But like I said, I couldn’t really tell you much about it, it’s kind of his deal, but we’re all stoked for him. You should pick it up on iTunes though, for sure.

Maria@RRR: Can you tell me a crazy tour story?

Micah Kinard: Oh man...a crazy tour story...yes, actually, I can. On this tour [looks to James who’s by the van] What’s a crazy tour story?

James: Let’s see...I’m trying to think of a really good one.

Micah: There’s been a lot.

James: We got robbed once, and we came out of a movie, and like everything stolen out of our van, and it was April Fool’s Day. I’m not kidding.

Micah: And the movie we went to go see was about stealing.

James: And the movie we went to go see was a movie about these guys who learn how to steal in Vegas. It’s called like “21” or something.

Micah: As we’re walking outside, talking about how sweet it would be to learn how to steal from Vegas....

James: We walk out to our van and like ten grand worth of stuff is stolen. And like, it’s funny now ‘cause it was one April Fool’s Day. So now it’s just kind of like a hilarious thing, but we get robbed all the time, that’s not very funny.

Micah: Yeah, we got robbed on this tour too. We got three guitars stolen on this tour.

Maria@RRR: Aww that sucks!

Micah: Yeah. That’s not really crazy, as much as an insanely unfortunate story.

James: Yeah, it’ll be funny in like, six months though.

Micah: Yeah...We went to Puerto Rico. We got flown out to Puerto Rico to play some shows, and it ended up, they had a guide for us to like take us to the city, and we told him we wanted to go into the rainforest. And so, they woke us up, and they came and picked us up from our hotel, and drove us out into the rainforest and then we hiked like, a mile and a half into the rainforest and found this huge waterfall. It was like, fifty or sixty feet tall, and it was all the clearest water you could imagine, and just like, this little crescent moon of waterfalls in this one area, just like out of a book. They got there and we were like “oh man this is so cool!” and we were all standing around, and they look at us and their like “you jump, jump!” [laughs] and you know, we’re like “WHAT?” and they were all like “yeah,” and they just ran up there and jumped off and we were like “holy crap!” And then eventually we were like, okay, they just did that, they’re going to show us up. So we all just went out there and jumped off this sixty foot waterfall, and everything and spent the day out there, and went and played a great show in Puerto Rico. That was one of my favorite tour stories, I’d say.

Maria@RRR: Thank you for doing this interview, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you to anyone who has come out on this tour so far. It’s been incredible, we’re so thankful. Come see us and hang out.

Son of the Morning is out now via Solid State Records.