“I was really, really, really paying attention and praying for the most honest record I could make and I think that prayer was answered when my life took a huge turn and Underoath was over and I lost my house and every dollar in my bank account was drained and I was helpless,” Sleepwave frontman Spencer Chamberlain recounts matter-of-factly.
“Going through a lot, in hindsight,” he continues, “I think, ‘Was that just the universe answering my prayer when I begged for honest music to resurface?’ Being the person that I am, I thought, ‘I wanna do it. I wanna be the next Layne Staley or Kurt Cobain.’ Obviously not their personal lives, but what they did for music and that passion and honesty.”
It’s plain to see, Chamberlain is not adverse to wearing his influences on his sleeve, which, he explains, were always subject to strict quality control. “My dad was pretty firm about what good music was when I was a kid,” he says.
“He made us listen to The Beatles, he made us listen to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd was kind of in and out of there and The Who was in and out of there, and obviously Jimi Hendrix was huge. That’s what my dad listened to when we were in the car with him was Pink Floyd and Hendrix and The Rolling Stones and stuff like that.”
But his reverence for the titans is matched only by his disappointment in the rock scene of today, which he attributes both to a lack of honesty in songwriting, as well as a general cultural shift away from rock and roll.
“I’m not saying I’m the saviour of rock and roll, but I’ll sure as hell try,” he explains. “There’s a song on the record called ‘Rock and Roll is Dead and So Am I’, it has nothing to do with rock, it’s not about music. I named the song that because I was fucking pissed off.”
“I sat in a major label and the guy asked me, ‘What would you want me to do with this?’ because I demoed out all of these songs before I signed to any label. ‘What do you want me to do with this? Rock is dead. There’s guitars on this. That’s over. You’re living in the past.’”
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“I was like, ‘You’re fucking retarded.’ If you don’t like that, just ‘cause EDM and country folk rock or whatever you guys are calling rock now is winning Grammys and awards… and Lorde, I’m not talking shit on her, but that’s not rock. It’s just not.”
“You can’t have her win rock record of the year and tell me that things are okay and I should listen to this producer and co-write with this guy when it’s not okay,” he says adamantly. “Rock music right now is not okay.”
Ahead of the band’s visit to Australia for Soundwave 2015, we got Chamberlain to cover some of the records that have been instrumental in forging that very idealism and his own career path.
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Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I
“I would say the first thing my dad showed me would be Led Zeppelin I and I think at that moment I knew I wanted to play guitar and I got a guitar and started learning very young, I was probably kindergarten or first grade. Then it was, y’know the phase happened in the ‘80s and I wasn’t really into it, Guns ‘N Roses I thought was cool, I thought that was really cool, but I was really young though.”
“My older brothers just loved Led Zeppelin and that just installed… it wasn’t even an option for me, and I do love them still to this day. But that was just like someone asking you, ‘What was life like before you drank water?’ I don’t know, I always drank water. I always listened to Led Zeppelin, I don’t know what it’s like for people that grew up around just pop music or children’s music. There wasn’t that for me. It was always rock and roll and it was always intelligent, respectful bands that had a lot of integrity.”
Nirvana – Nevermind
“I had three older brothers, so I was probably into cooler music than I should’ve been, because I was the youngest. Then I remember what really, really affected me was Nirvana and my brothers had Bleach and I heard it, but I was really young and I remember when ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the single, dropped, and that’s when I realised I was gonna play guitar and sing and that was it, that changed my whole view on life and I was a really young kid, but I still knew that that’s what I wanted to do and I’ve never stopped and I’ve never looked back.”
“I didn’t even know what it meant and I just knew when I heard Nevermind, not what he was talking about, I had no idea, but I do know that it was something about the aggression in the guitar and the vocal melody, there was something about the melodies and the harmonies that really, really affected me and I think that’s what’s awesome about music is that sometimes when we’re too young to know… I just knew that he was hurting and he was passionate, that’s how I felt as a kid and I know that just the choice of melody over the music that was written was so unbelievable to my ears as a kid.”
Alice In Chains – Dirt
“Alice In Chains’ Dirt. I had no idea, you know what I mean? Very dark album, very dark album that I still love to this day and I remember as a kid, again, I think I just gravitated towards that vocal melody, it was something about the control that Layne Staley had in his voice and the passion behind it.
“And also, the harmonies once again, like Jerry Cantrell singing with Layne, it just created this eerie sound that I never heard on anything else. I know that I didn’t really realize anything about what they were talking about, once again, and when I got older I realized how deep and dark that record was and it’s pretty sad and it’s dark but it’s pretty powerful at the same time and beautiful. Yeah, so I would probably say Dirt was a huge one.”
Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
“I was a little late to the party with [Downward Spiral], but I do know I did enjoy that and like, Green Day was starting to surface and was popular around the time that I was starting to hear Nine Inch Nails and maybe the Deftones shortly after and there was a part of me that just loved obvious aggression and there was something about the destructive nature of that aggression that I loved as far as music goes, just those loud noises and I’ve been a Nine Inch Nails fan from Downward Spiral on.
“I’m a little younger and Pretty Hate Machine was a little before my time, but some of my favourites are what he did after. The Fragile and With Teeth are two of my favourite records, still to this day. I love the stuff that had the real drum kits on it and the real guitars, I love that he did. But yeah, I remember seeing the first video for ‘Closer’ as a kid and just being like ‘Whoa’.
“You’re young and impressionable and I was like, ‘Dude, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and scary.’ It’s like what people saw in Marilyn Manson but… I liked The Beautiful People, but I was already into the Deftones, I was ahead of my time because I had older brothers and Marilyn Manson was cool, but I never really got into it that much. I had already seen the weird with Nine Inch Nails and I thought the music was better.”
Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
“[When making the record, we listened to] a little bit of everything. We tried really hard not to be biting anyone so most of the stuff we listened to is a lot of the stuff I’d name now. From Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, to Coldplay, and newer Nine Inch Nails stuff. Even like newer Alice In Chains records. Kind of the same stuff. I really got into Coldplay, I’ve always been into Coldplay, there’s just something about that band that I love, and Radiohead and all that.
“I was more paying attention to what we weren’t hearing, as far as modern music goes. You know, there hasn’t been a Layne Staley or a Kurt Cobain in a long time and there hasn’t been a Trent Reznor, even though he’s still around and Dave Grohl’s still around. There’s no new spokesman for what kids go through in passionate music and honest music in so long, because all these people are getting caught up in these co-writers and labels.”
Sleepwaves will be playing as par of Soundwave 2015, dates and info below
Soundwave Festival 2015
Saturday, 21st February & Sunday, 22nd February 2015
Bonython Park, Adelaide, South Australia
Tickets: Soundwave
Saturday, 21st February & Sunday, 22nd February 2015
Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Victoria
Tickets: Soundwave
Saturday, 28th February & Sunday, 1st March 2015
Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales
Tickets: Soundwave
Saturday, 28th February & Sunday, 1st March 2015
RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane, Queensland
Tickets: Soundwave
Line up
Faith No More
Soundgarden
Incubus
Lamb Of God
Ministry
Antemasque
Gerard Way
Mayhem
New Found Glory
Fear Factory
Hollywood Undead
Atreyu
Animals As Leaders
Bayside
The Devil Wears Prada
Dragonforce
Evergreen Terrace
Fucked Up
He Is Legend
Killer Be Killed
Le Butcherettes
Lower Than Atlantis
Nonpoint
One Ok Rock
Sleepwave
Twin Atlantic
The Wonder YearsThe Aquabats
Area 7
Godflesh
Crown The Empire
The Interrupters
Icon For Hire
Emily’s Army
Patent Pending
Fireworks
The Bennies
The Color Morale
Monuments
Nothing More
Deathstars
Ne Obliviscaris
The Treatment
Slipknot
Slash w/Myles Kennedy
Marilyn Manson
Fall Out Boy
Judas Priest
Godsmack
All Time Low
Papa Roach
Of Mice & Men
Escape The Fate
Apocalyptica
Lagwagon
Tonight Alive
Crossfaith
Butcher Babies
Confession
The Swellers
Conditions
Coldrain
King 810
Dayshell
This Wild Life
The Wonder Years
Bayside
Nonpoint
