Wintersleep Come Up With A Title For New Album
Tuesday September 25, 2007 @ 05:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

On Oct. 2, Wintersleep will finally release an album that actually has a title. Welcome To The Night Sky stands as a testimony to how far they’ve come since their 2003 self-titled debut. Drummer Loel Campbell recently spoke with ChartAttack about who he’d like to tour with, making his parents happy and just why it is that they’ve never titled an album before now.

“We just didn’t feel the need to,” says Campbell of that last subject. “I see them everywhere being referred to as ‘the self titled’ and ‘the untitled’… it kind of just happened so quickly, we just didn’t have any good titles. That’s the only reason.

“We’ve had that title for this record and this body of songs for about a year-and-a-half. It’s pretty relevant to us and our band. Lots of different things have been happening. We’re really quite happy playing together in the band and we’re trying to do everything we can to ensure that we’re still making records.”

Though present on the new album, founding member and bassist Jud Haynes recently left the band, making room for former Holy Fuck bassist (and, oddly, former Wintersleep keyboardist) Mike Bigelow to return.

“There’s not really a cause,” says Campbell of Haynes’ departure. “We’ve been doing this for a while now.

“I think he just came to some realizations about the future and what needs to happen. It’s just life decisions and it just so happened that he’s going in a different direction. The record was really awesome to work on. It’s fine.”

Both Campbell and Bigelow are sometime members of the spontaneous synthesizer assault known as Holy Fuck, and though Wintersleep are also known for their live jams, Campbell assures that they’re kept in check.

“There’s only a couple songs we do that with. You don’t want to watch a band wanking. Recording the songs, obviously, you’re putting the songs under the microscope. Creating the songs, it’s not like that at all. It’s a very free feeling and then the live thing is kind of in between.”

Playing live has given the east coasters the chance to share the stage with some major headlining acts, including recent tourmates The Tragically Hip.

“We did two nights with them at the House Of Blues in Chicago and my folks came down for it, and the Hip’s crew were just so, so sweet to them,” says Campbell. “They hooked them up with an opera box seat right above the stage. You can’t really get a better feeling than making your parents excited or happy.”

For a band who’s also played with Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam and The Flaming Lips, Campbell is still quick to name one more he’d like to add to the list.

“Obviously Radiohead comes to mind. Everyone says that, though. It doesn’t matter what kind of band you’re in.”

Wintersleep and Wooden Stars will play these shows:

* Oct. 16 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern w/A Northern Chorus
* Oct. 19 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
* Oct. 20 Ottawa, ON @ Barrymore’s
* Oct. 24 Winnipeg, MB @ Pyramid
* Oct. 25 Regina, SK @ Distrikt
* Oct. 28 Edmonton, AB @ Starlite
* Oct. 30 Kelowna, BC @ The Blue Gator
* Nov. 2 Vancouver, BC @ Richard’s On Richards
* Nov. 3 Victoria, BC @ Sugar
* Nov. 6 Calgary, AB @ The Warehouse
* Nov. 7 Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos
* Nov. 12 Barrie, ON @ Foundation
* Nov. 13 Guelph, ON @ Vinyl
* Nov. 14 Waterloo, ON @ The Starlight
* Nov. 16 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
* Nov. 17 Montreal, QC @ Club Lambi