Wintersleep
Wintersleep was first conceived as a recording project in drummer Loel Campbell's 15th floor apartment in downtown Halifax. It was here Loel and friend Paul Murphy would come together to produce some of Paul’s quieter material, songs that didn’t quite fit the aggressive sound of Paul's band at the time, Kary. The pair quickly compiled a catalogue of songs in apartment 1503 and were soon looking for additional musicians to help fill in the missing pieces. Paul called up his old friend, and Kary bandmate, Tim D'eon to add guitars and keys. Then Jud Haynes was borrowed from the local scene to add bass and complete the line-up.
Recording their debut took the four musicians out of Loel’s apartment to the seaside town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where they confined themselves in a 100 year old opera house turned studio, complete with secret stairways and mysterious late night noises. The result was twelve haunting, beautifully dark tracks.
Wintersleep (self-titled) was released in 2003. The band then packed up the van and toured for two years. They traveled repeatedly across Canada; drove to Austin for SXSW and New York for CMJ; and made trips abroad, touching down in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, and England.
For their new untitled album, Wintersleep stayed closer to home, recording the bulk of the material in Halifax with Laurence Currie (Sloan, Holy Fuck). Upon release, the album quickly rose to the top of the Canadian national campus radio charts and stayed there for over fourteen weeks, drawing comparisons to acts such as Radiohead, Mogwai, Hayden and Low. Untitled also garnered the group their first Juno Award nomination and is just one of the reasons they’ve been voted "best band in Halifax" three years running.
Touring continued with the likes of Broken Social Scene, K-os, Pearl Jam, Stars and Metric, including inspired sets at the The Virgin Festival (Muse, Phoenix, Flaming Lips), Osheaga (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Wolfparade), POP Montreal (Joanna Newsom, Beck, Interpol), and more!
March 6 2007, both Wintersleep albums are being released in the US for the first time. And once again, the band are ready to hit the road, crisscrossing interstates playing to anyone who will listen!
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