Sleepmakeswaves

But then, American Psycho’s Bateman was quite a charmer, too, and so I’m certain not to make any accidental reference to Genesis or Whitney Houston as we plumb the shape of the post-rock outfit today, and the made-for-cinema saga of how Wicks-Greens rose from devout fan to fully fledged band member with a minimal amount of bloodshed.

“Oh man,” he recalls, “the original guitarist actually ran into me one day at Sydney Uni, and we had a quick chat about him leaving the band, and how he [wanted] me in particular to step up. He did me a huge service, for which I’m forever grateful. Then I got an email from the band outlining what they expected for the first audition, and I just worked my butt off for a week. I didn’t see any sunlight, but I also already knew the songs back to front. I was seeing every show when the band was kicking around the Excelsior, the Hopetoun, rooms like that. I knew how the songs felt live, and when I walked into the studio to have that audition, I felt very ready for it. I felt like this was what I was supposed to be doing.”

It’s every fan’s fantasy to play with their idols, and makes you wonder if after the audition, having laid it all on the line, did he feel like he’d nailed it?

“You know what?” he says, and I can hear his grin. “Yeah, I did.”

Sleepmakeswaves formed back in 2006, when Jonathan ‘Kid’ Khor came on board with Alex Wilson and Tom Binetter. Two EPs later, Binetter stepped aside from the band and Wicks-Green found himself living the dream. The band’s successes have been on a steady rise since, with two ARIA nominations, Locie Awards, and a touring schedule that has not only taken them across the seas, but has seen them perform alongside their friends and idols. Not bad for a bunch of angry post-rock dudes under some stage lights.

“Ha, totally angry,” laughs Wicks-Green. “I’ve never had anyone walk up to me and be like, ‘Oh boy, here comes Otto from Sleepmakeswaves, you’d better watch out because this guy’s a loose cannon.’ I think when you have that outlet [onstage], that artistic expression, you get that opportunity to share that and have that experience with your bandmates, with people who come to your shows – it’s a wonderful, really healthy thing. I think that’s why a lot of people come to heavy rock shows like ours, or your hardcore punk bands. [You’re] struck by how aggressive the vibe in the room is, but how friendly at the same time. Everyone is swinging their arms around, climbing on top of each other, but the moment anyone looks uncomfortable or [falls] down, everything stops, they’re helped up. I think that’s really beautiful. There’s something beautiful in that output, but also in the atmosphere, the experience you create in those shows.”

For those who have yet to see this first-hand, your next chance is fast approaching. Bird’s Robe Records is celebrating its fifth birthday in style, and given the label’s significance in the life of Sleepmakeswaves – and a slew of other acts across Australia – the band members are cautiously ebullient ahead of the show.

“I’m super excited, and kind of terrified. We haven’t played a show in five months. We got offstage in June, and we were such a well-oiled machine. We’d been playing together for months on end; we could tell whenever someone was going to move left or right, when a guitar was about to come hurling at your face and you needed to duck out of the way. It’s great to be a part of the journey of this little label that started here in Sydney and became this real Australia-wide meeting point and community for progressive and experimental music. Mike [Solo]’s done such a wonderful job, especially for us as our manager, what he foresaw for us. It’s a real celebration of that, so we’re kind of calling it Mikefest 2015.”

Although Sleepmakeswaves’ most recent release, Love Of Cartography, is still out there finding fans, plans for their next album are already afoot. It comes after some pretty radical shake-ups to the band – including the amicable departure of founding member ‘Kid’ Khor, whose own replacement will be auditioned in the coming weeks.

“It’s been a year of extremes for us,” Wicks-Green says. “We’ve had some relationship stuff fall through in light of our touring commitments, which was really hard. I think that made the whole tour a bittersweet run for us. We were having some great experiences, but it was coloured by what we’d left behind and what was lost along the way. It made us really think how we wanted to embark on this next lot of songs.

“When I look back over the landscapes that have inspired our discography, on the first record there’s a real sense of the Australian country there. With the second it was more international, about playing these songs for people around the world. I think for the third record, the visual metaphor that I keep coming back to is the Antarctic. This idea of a desert of water, this hostile but also very beautiful terrain. That’s the conceptual landscape I think we’re driving for.”

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