With a sound like School of Seven Bells meets Purity Ring via the 80s, Dublin-based trio Sleep Thieves make music just as mystifying and captivating as you'd expect. Now sharing their first project since 2014's You Want The Night, their highly anticipated return is naught but a triumph of modern music.
"We’ve been recording for the last few years, playing the odd show to try some songs out live. We’ve ended up with a massive amount of material all with varying vibes. This is probably due to being in a perpetual state of studio flux. The boom is back in Dublin, this generally means art is out and upmarket hip bars and coffee places are in. We’re in our fourth studio in the last two years. Just when we get settled and get into a groove we get moved on by the landlord and our studio is gutted and becomes a Karaoke bar, Office space, Starbucks.
We’ve now started to nest in a new studio outside the city with a different atmosphere. So what does all this mean to this release you probably ask? Well, we realized upon reflection that we’re a band that draws a lot from the atmosphere and the environment we record in and thus we’ve ended up with 4 different sets of songs recorded in each place. Fortress EP is a collection of songs drawing from each, beginning life in the first studio and evolving as our transient existence bounced us from home to home. These songs are a snapshot of how time, surroundings, upheaval and change can sculpt the creative process in unexpected yet welcome ways.
Releasing this EP as a sonic collection of this time marks the end of this period of transience with a more permanent home sourced. If your home is said to be your castle, we're (finally) making our new studio our Fortress."
"We’ve been recording for the last few years, playing the odd show to try some songs out live. We’ve ended up with a massive amount of material all with varying vibes. This is probably due to being in a perpetual state of studio flux. The boom is back in Dublin, this generally means art is out and upmarket hip bars and coffee places are in. We’re in our fourth studio in the last two years. Just when we get settled and get into a groove we get moved on by the landlord and our studio is gutted and becomes a Karaoke bar, Office space, Starbucks.
We’ve now started to nest in a new studio outside the city with a different atmosphere. So what does all this mean to this release you probably ask? Well, we realized upon reflection that we’re a band that draws a lot from the atmosphere and the environment we record in and thus we’ve ended up with 4 different sets of songs recorded in each place. Fortress EP is a collection of songs drawing from each, beginning life in the first studio and evolving as our transient existence bounced us from home to home. These songs are a snapshot of how time, surroundings, upheaval and change can sculpt the creative process in unexpected yet welcome ways.
Releasing this EP as a sonic collection of this time marks the end of this period of transience with a more permanent home sourced. If your home is said to be your castle, we're (finally) making our new studio our Fortress."
The EP includes releases that have slowly teased a return project, dating back as far as last year to the 2017 masterpiece Is this ready? Follow up singles Aching Bones and the recent Sea of Shadows only proved to maintain their title as masters of their craft and whet appetites for things to come.
Fortress is a 20 minute deep dive into the unknown, with each song seamlessly transferring into the next, allowing you to tune in, zone out and be transported to another world. Truly essential listening, listen below.