Forty Feet Tall – Sleepwalking

By starrymag | February 17, 2023

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

 

 

 

Q) How would you best describe your sound? 

A) Broadly speaking, we’re post-punk, but there’s a lot of psych in there and some people have even said we’ve got prog-rock aspects; straight ahead punk and grunge too. Who knows. All of it.

 

Q) Who are your Top 3 musical influences? 

A) Impossible to boil it down to just three, but some artists we’ve always drawn influence from are Parquet Courts, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and [sigh] The Beatles.

 

Q) Tell us the story behind your latest single “Sleepwalking.” 

A) It was written just after the lockdown and protests. We were all feeling shook, empowered and very, very disgusted with the state of affairs and Cole [Gann] tried to capture some of that.

 

Q) What is it about the disrupted political climate that has you so impassioned?

We’re living in a really pivotal time, to state the obvious. A lot of people are waking up to, broadly speaking, the disasters that late-stage capitalism is bringing about, whether that’s our inability to deal with climate change in a timely manner or the growing wealth disparity. We saw some of the largest protests in history for black lives and though they’ve died down people are in a different headspace – so many more people are prepared and know how to protest effectively. People are thinking about the role of cops in society, people are noticing the rise of fascism around the world. It’s pretty easy to get quiet and nihilistic as things go back to “normal” but we’re trying to look at the positive sides. It’s hard though. Times are really scary right now.

 

Q) Since its release, what has been the overall reaction from fans and listeners to the single?

A) The hate mail is pouring in by the buckets.

 

Q) What message do you hope listeners take away from listening to “Sleepwalking?” 

A) The gist is to just not be compliant. Don’t let all the energy die down. Think about ways that you can carry out small acts of protest in the long term and act on that.

 

Q) With the release of “Sleepwalking,” is there another album in the works? 

A) There is! We just released another single, “We Can’t Go Back to Normal,” and then one more EP after that!

 

Q) I absolutely love “Chin Up” from your last EP Boil, which was released in September of this year! Are there any songs that you have written that were your favorite to write and record? 

A) “Chin Up” was definitely one of our favorites to record. We went all in on layering and adding in instruments that normally wouldn’t be in our live setup.

 

Q) You just finished up a tour this fall. Which song(s) on Boil do you love to perform live for your fans? 

A) “Boil” is probably the fav. It’s our most energetic song, always near the end of our set and none of us really know what’s gonna happen at the end or where it will go; it’s exciting.

 

Q) If you could collaborate with anyone on an upcoming project, who would you love to work with and why? 

A) Many names come to mind, but certainly a top contender is Blake Mills. He’s probably one of the most intricate and in-touch producers out there right now and we would kill to see what he’d do with some rowdy post-punk. Got an email or digits?

 

Q) What are you currently listening to? 

A) A Charlie Brown Christmas on repeat.

 

Q) What would you like to say to your fans and supporters of your music? 

A) It’s cliche, but we couldn’t do this without you all! Buying merch, listening to the tunes, coming to shows, every little bit counts, and it never goes unnoticed.