“What was amazing was the energy on a tour like that,” he says. “A band that’s so loved like Cog coming back, every show sold out. There’s not all that much to worry over or stress about. There’s a lot of good vibes to enjoy from such a unique atmosphere. Meeting all of the guys after being fanboys for so many years was great, especially because they’re all such great people and genuinely hilarious dudes. Rediscovering the music was a big part of it, those songs mean a lot to me. This is a band I was obsessed with from 17 onwards, their music still gives me gold-plated feels.”
The tour was also special for the band from a personnel standpoint – it marked the first full national run the band had undertaken with their new guitarist, Daniel Oreskovic, who replaced co-founder Jonathan ‘Kid’ Khor after several months of going through the audition process with several guitarists. Many in the alternative music community will know Oreskovic from his time in fellow instrumental voyagers Meniscus, and the energy he brought from his time as a part of that band was a deciding factor in his eventual inclusion within the sleepmakeswaves fold. “We talked to a lot of people after Kid left, and it was clear that Dan was the one for us,” says Wilson.
“He’s done an amazing job fitting in, and he’s got such an awesome energy on stage. He’s kind and relaxed in everyday life, but when he plays live he’s an animal. That’s something that fits us to a T. Adapting to the schedule of sleepmakeswaves can be a real challenge, but he’s really taken to it and we’re stoked about it.
“I haven’t managed to convince him how obsessed Otto (Wicks-Green, guitar) and I were with Meniscus. Any time we’ve brought it up, he tells us to get fucked,” Wilson says. “He’s very humble like that.”
August will see sleepmakeswaves undertake a run of headline shows, giving a fond farewell to their second studio album, 2014’s Love of Cartography. The tour’s named after the final single to be released from the album, Traced in Constellations. Following the run, the band will batten down the hatches to begin work on album number three. This is particularly exciting to Wilson, who is vocal about how the writing process is the most satisfying and rewarding part of being a musician.
“We’ve been steadily writing, and we’re getting an idea of what we want to do with the next record,” he says. “The next few months will be all hands on deck, getting things written and ready to go. If all goes to plan, we’ll be hitting the studio at the end of the year and releasing an album in the first part of 2017. As it stands, we’ve got about half of the material that we think is going to make the next album in a pretty fruitful development process. I love the creative side of being a musician – the time where you’re just making music. As much as I love the touring, I love coordinating everyone’s ideas and discovering what the vibe of the record is even more.”
Joining the band on tour will be Perth’s Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving, who have a long history of friendship with sleepmakeswaves, putting out a split EP together back in 2009. If that wasn’t enough, the main support for all of the dates will be American prog-metal sextet The Contortionist, making their maiden voyage down under. It’s essentially a post-rock exchange program – after touring the States as headliners with sleepmakeswaves as support, The Contortionist are coming to Australia with the roles reversed. Wilson is very excited about the prospect of having both old friends and first-time visitors in the touring party. “It’s a good system to have in place,” he says.
“We’ve built a few relationships like that – we did the same thing with 65daysofstatic back in the day. We count ourselves really lucky that we’re in a position that we’re doing well enough here in Australia to have something to offer to our friends from overseas. We’ve had a great time with The Contortionist, and we’re looking forward to sharing our country with them. The shows are secondary concern to those guys, though – they are hell-bent on coming here and hugging as many koalas as possible, and have made absolutely no bones about that fact. I’ve tried to warn them about the diseases and their ill tempers, but they’re having none of it.”
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
