Over the past couple of decades, Sheffield’s own five-piece metalcore juggernaut, While She Sleeps, have gone from rocking local venues to smashing stages worldwide. Fresh off the back of their latest album, Self Hell, the band have spent the past few months touring the globe, dishing out new bangers alongside old classics for their fiercely loyal fan community. Now, to cap off an epic tour, they’re heading back to where it all began – with an up-close-and-personal headline gig at The Leadmill.
Heather Swift caught up with Mat and Loz of While She Sleeps via Zoom from a dressing room somewhere in Europe. They filled us in on what’s been an incredible year and why their upcoming hometown show means so much to them.
So, how’s the tour been so far?
Mat: It’s amazing! Europe’s one of our favourite places to tour. We’ve been coming here for so long. Coming back to venues we first played at 10-plus years ago, it’s built to such an amazing, strong audience. These shows are smaller for us, which is super fun because it creates such a connected audience of our core fanbase who know it so well!
What’s it been like playing the new album?
Loz: Every night is like a celebration of the new record. I think when we released the record, we knew it was a bit of a change in direction for us, and we knew it would ruffle a few feathers. But it’s just nice to see, now that fans have had a chance to sit with the record and get to know it, how the new stuff merges with the older stuff.
Mat: Yeah, it’s been really fun finding out if things click and which lyrics people have got stuck into. All we have to go off of is Spotify and comments, so until a room’s singing it back to you, you don’t know if it’s connected. This tour is like the reward, six months after the record’s come out, to see if it’s connected. And, safe to say, it has.
Any favourites to perform live? Have you been surprised by how any of it has been received?
Mat: We’re playing a bit off the new record, which has been a fun challenge for us to incorporate ones that haven’t been in the set before. We’re playing the first two songs off the record, ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Leave Me Alone’. I’m really enjoying that at the moment just ’cause it’s kinda out of our comfort zone but feels very fun and new for us.
Loz: Yeah, and ‘Rainbows’ wasn’t a single choice for us but has turned into a fan favourite from the new record, so it’s amazing to play it live.
It’s clear you have a great relationship with the fans. What does that community mean to you?
Mat: Yeah, we’ve built a really cool relationship with them over the years, and a lot of our audience, I think, has grown with us. Although we are finding people who are listening to the new record as their first record of ours, there are people who have been fans for years, which I love. We just always make a conscious effort to listen to them, talk to them, and make our fans feel quite included in what we’ve done. We’ve done so many campaigns and stuff that they’ve been a part of, so I think they know and understand how much we appreciate them. It just creates a really cool live environment.
Loz: It’s mad to think when we first started the band, we were all so heavily involved in our local music scenes, and it was that community vibe that spoke to me. You’d see someone in the same hoodie as you, or you’re out on the weekend all listening to similar bands. I think it was always important for us to have that vibe, but actually achieving that and being able to witness these connections being made through our music is crazy, to think we’ve sculpted this kind of cult following of like-minded people.
Mat: When I was going to my first shows, they were really pivotal moments in my childhood. Now, when we’re designing these shows, I love thinking, ‘Well, I was the kid in the audience, and if it was someone else’s first show tonight, what bits of it can we make memorable and enjoyable?’ I like using ourselves as the reference for that.
How has your creative process as a band changed over time?
Loz: We almost grow together as a small family. We know how each individual works best, and we try to drag the best out of each other. It’s about growing as a unit and giving ideas a chance to breathe.
Mat: We probably take each other’s ideas a bit more seriously now than maybe we once did. As we’ve gotten older and done it more, we’ve realised that you need to give everyone’s idea some light of day to hear what it’ll become, and just trust it.
Loz: The reason why this band has had the same lineup for so long is we’ve learnt over the years how to compromise with each other, and that’s what keeps us strong and keeps us creating.
Mat: We’re quite a well-communicated band. We hear each other out now, and there’s always a place for people to talk about their shit. You hear with other bands there’s so much under the surface that they’re just not saying, and that’s why so many bands break up. When you make a band, you don’t expect that to be your business for the rest of your life, so we’ve been on a constant learning curve.
The last couple of albums have seen a slight genre shift. Any particular musical influences that come as a surprise?
Loz: When the band first started, we came together over our shared love for early 2000s metalcore, but we don’t all listen to the exact same stuff anymore, so what you’re hearing now is a collaboration of all of us trying to channel what we want to get out of the new record and what we each enjoy.
Mat: On the new record, there are electronic influences like Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk…
Loz: And a bit of Britpop in there, DnB every now and again.
Mat: There’s even some Muse in there… and Radiohead. You wouldn’t put it on and go, ‘Oh, that sounds like Daft Punk’, but that’s because it’s the influence of an artist like that, performed in the way that we perform as the band. There’s probably not many heavy influences on that record, just everyone’s eclectic, nostalgic music taste. It’s important to enjoy ourselves as creatives, I think. You’ve got to have your own creative journey and just do what you need to do rather than try and mould into what’s a current trend or what everyone else is doing. If anything, you should avoid and go in the opposite direction ‘cause if it’s already happening, what’s the point?
The reason why this band has had the same lineup for so long is we’ve learnt over the years how to compromise with each other
The new album Self Hell has a very raw, honest focus on mental health. How important is that to you?
Mat: For us, it’s an easy subject to write about because it’s something you’re always surrounded by. I liked the idea on this record that most of the time you write from quite a negative place, and a route out of that is to put those feelings into a song or poetry. Loz came up with the name for the record, and I love it because Self Hell is where you are before you get self help.
Loz: You have to go through Self Hell to get self help.
Mat: Doing this for so many years, we’ve experienced and witnessed around us so many emotional and physical rollercoasters of everyone going through the ebbs and flows of life. So this is a good way to do it, and we always try to remind people that the conversation aspect of these things is the starting point of any resolution.
Loz: I think that’s always been our message. With Brainwashed, it was touching on a bit of politics and the state of the environment we’re surrounded by, but the end resolve of that is always, ‘We’re all in this together. Everybody goes through this, and you’re not alone in these emotions, life experiences, or traumas. So when we’re in this room, and our band is entertaining you, try and understand that everyone goes through these same things, so you’re not alone in that.’
Mat: The gig is an outlet and space for people, including ourselves, who need somewhere healthy to let it all out. That’s why I love the culture of heavy music. It sounds aggressive, but it’s actually the calmest, most friendly, welcoming people who will do anything to help each other.
What’s it going to be like going from these shows all over the world to a tour of the UK ending with a smaller headline slot in your hometown?
Loz: That’s what’s so nice, being able to take your music to crazy parts of the world that, without being in this band, we maybe would’ve never had the chance to visit or experience! But there’s also that lovely feeling of, ‘We’re gonna hit Sheffield’, which is our hometown, in a few weeks. It’s a nice way to finish the tour, and it’s where we started. That’s where the support initially came from.
Mat: I often find hometown shows quite overwhelming because there’s so many people there that you know, and you’re thinking about all your family, worried that they’re not having a good time. But also, hometown shows are quite emotionally powerful spaces for us. We’ve done so much because of the music that coming back to somewhere we played when we were just the kids dreaming about going all over the world, being back in those spaces having now done all those things, is extremely powerful.
Loz: We’re the band now that’s selling out those rooms we used to watch our friends in, and it just never gets old. It’s a constant cycle of being humbled by situations and also grateful.
Why Leadmill over a potentially bigger venue?
Mat: It’s actually the smallest show of the whole tour, out of 29 shows, and as it’s the hometown show, it probably could’ve been the biggest show of the tour.
Loz: We’ve played massive shows and festivals over the years, but we love the small, sweaty rooms just as much as we love a big festival stage. Leadmill was such a big part of us seeing shows when we were young, and that’s why it’s so important to go back and nurture those smaller rooms. They’re the undercurrent of the scene we have in Sheffield, so they need these shows.
Mat: There’s no point in us having a bigger venue unless the bands have the route up to the bigger venue. In the local scene, you need that ladder to climb.
Loz: We’re seeing a frequent trend of smaller venues suffering now because of how music is digested, and people having an easy route to think, ‘Ooo that’s not for me. I’m not gonna go and check it out,’ whereas when we grew up, we just went because we got a flyer for a gig, and there was a band on. Smaller grassroots venues are suffering, so it is important for us to keep returning to the rooms that once helped us.
Mat: We’re just quite grateful to still be doing this, and that things are bigger than they ever have been. I think it’s safe to say we feel that While She Sleeps is here for a while. Massive thanks to the Sheffield community for being at the very foundations. We couldn’t have done it without that local support at the beginning, so it’s cool to come back and celebrate that.
While She Sleeps plays The Leadmill on December 10
