It’s been a big year for American rock band, Sleeping With Sirens after the release of their fourth studio record, Madness. Ahead of their Australian Tour, rhythm guitarist Nick Martin had a chat to us about the live reception of Madness, his work in the business side of the music industry and working in experimental rock supergroup, Isles & Glaciers. With his vast knowledge and music background, joining the band in 2013 has been an invaluable experience for him as a musician and business professional.
So how has touring Madness been for you guys so far?
It’s been a blast. It’s cool because I feel like we’ve just started touring Madness. It came out in March I believe but it wasn’t until our South American Tour that we just got home from, that we really just started playing songs from that record so it’s kind of exciting that we’re just finally playing new songs and seeing what the reception is so far. It’s been awesome so hopefully we have just as much as a great reception when we get to New Zealand and Australia and I’m sure we will.
Yeah of course. Especially playing new material it’s all fresh and you see the crowd react to those songs live as well. I noticed that on Madness there’s a lot of soft songs. How has that translated to the audience, seeing a different side to Sleeping With Sirens?
It’s been surprisingly well. I’ve been in the band for two years now and seeing what their material was before and what has progressed to, obviously in the back of your mind you hope that people will still grasp on to what you’re doing and still be into what you’re writing even if it doesn’t have breakdowns and chugga chuggas. So far it’s been amazing. The reception’s been great. We’ve done a good job with our new setlist in co-operating songs from Madness and old songs at the set is still very up-tempo and very intense surprisingly ’cause I felt like there would be parts of our record and our set that would almost be too soft or maybe put people to sleep. But for the most part, everyone’s been really excited on everything so I’m excited and stoked.
It’s kind of interesting because I spoke to Kellin [Quinn, vocals] (interview can be found here) before the album was released and I heard the track “Kick Me” and that was really heavy, in-your-face typical hardcore Sleeping With Sirens and to hear Madness have all these soft songs, I was actually really surprised. How did the sound develop for the band when you were working on the record?
I feel like it was a natural thing and there wasn’t a day or a moment where we came in and said, ‘Let’s write an acoustic song today or let’s write a soft ballad’ – that was kind of the beauty of what we did with Madness. Madness really kind of sums of the whole process of writing our records that we just wanted to go in without ideas and without pre-conceived notions as to what we were supposed to write. It was really just about writing shit that we like and it doesn’t matter if it’s soft or if it doesn’t have screaming in it or if doesn’t have breakdowns – as long as it means something to us and that there’s a connection that we have with it as a group then that’s what it is. For once, let’s just create art and music that we like and if people don’t like it then that’s okay too. We just wrote what we want and it seems like it’s gone over well so far.
Yeah, for sure. I have been following Sleeping With Sirens since 2011 so I was nineteen. It’s interesting to see the age demographic of the band’s fanbase as well. Since Madness came out, it connected a lot with the younger audience. How does it feel knowing that the band has created some impact to actually connect with teenagers that are 14-15 as well?
It’s great. We never go into a writing process or into a marketing meeting and say, ‘We wanna market our music to fifteen year olds. We wanna market our music to thirty year olds.’ It’s always just a blessing to know that there’s anyone listening to it and then to know that kids of a younger generation are connecting with it. I mean, for us, I think I pride myself and ourselves on spreading a positive message in what our music says even if there is a native connotation behind it – there’s still a positive message at the light of the end of the tunnel no matter what and if kids can connect to that then that’s great because I would much expose kids to a more positive message and I think that pertains to anybody. It doesn’t matter how old you are and what your age demographic. I think that there’s no reason that people can’t connect with just being positive and being happy.
I think that was a really strong message as well from that album. It was very positive and meaningful and I guess that connected a lot with many people which is great to see. Also I noticed you worked on different projects as well before Sleeping With Sirens. You worked alongside Craig Owens with Cinematic Sunrise and D.R.U.G.S and also started your own band, Underminded. How has working on those projects helped shape your career as a musician?
Because I started Underminded when I was eighteen and I’m thirty-two now so I feel like all those years I’ve been in bands – that’s kind of like my college, you know, that’s how I learned about how much on business and the world in general as far as being musician, being a touring musician, understanding the business behind that, the marketing and obviously getting into the realm of booking agents and managements and labels – I’ve done all of that. I’ve been on major labels, I’ve been on independent labels, I’ve been on thousands and thousands of different booking agencies and production companies and I feel like now I come into this with a vast knowledge as far as what I think works and what doesn’t work. I think that’s a big reason why the band has really kept me involved and wanted me in the band because you know, I bring some sort of knowledge as far as the business side of everything and what I’ve gone through before in previous bands and previous band members. I think that they respect me and listen to everything that I have to say and that’s very important because if they didn’t, I’d kick their asses [laughs].
[laughs] Such a bad ass answer. I guess in the music industry you need to have a strong business knowledge as well and obviously it’s not just about music as much as musicians want it to be in connecting with their audience. There’s also different marketing and business side of things in the music industry. I know you were also the co-founder of a management company [Citadel Artists] as well where you managed artists and bands. How has that shaped your career as well?
I’ve been lucky enough that the knowledge that I’ve built over the years has gone into other projects and other things that aren’t even music-related. I mean, I managed some bands for a little while and then I worked in a marketing business for a few years. I started a merchandising company about three years ago. I guess from my end I’ve always been an entrepreneur so being in a band and being involved in music and being my own boss has really given me insane amounts of knowledge as far as everything that goes on from the backend and what we do on stage, you know. I’m so lucky that I’ve been able to learn all that and it’s something I like to learn. I read a lot of books, I’m always keeping up on what’s going on as far as new business practices and new tips and tricks as far as marketing goes – all that stuff fascinates me so all those thing I’ve done in the past has kind of brought me to where I am now.
There’s little intricacies in the music industry that make it interesting but also really complex. I know that you also worked in Isles & Glaciers which was really interesting – it was a supergroup made in like 2008. How was working on that project with several members from different bands?
It was really crazy – it was such a spark and a whim of a project. We didn’t even know that it was gonna happen. Pretty much Craig Owens had hit me up and we’d already been working together on Cinematic Sunrise and he said let’s start a supergroup and I want you and Brian Southall (ex-member of The Receiving End of Sirens) who has been in several bands. He actually manages All Time Low now and he said, ‘Why don’t you guys just start writing material and get some people on board and we’ll go into the studio.’ And then that’s what we did, I mean Brian Southall and I wrote for about a month together – just us, nobody else and then we went into the studio and recorded that EP [The Hearts of Lonely People] in about ten days. We working like 18-20 hours a day, we did not sleep – I mean, we were just finishing this project and we had no clue what it was gonna sound like but it turned out really cool. I don’t know if we’ll be able to capture or do that again but it was definitely fun for that time being.
Obviously everyone has different schedules and it’s hard to just be in-sync and sit down and pick a time where you can work on a certain project because of people working on other things. It’s really interesting to see how that EP was developed within a small amount of time. Did that put a huge amount of stress on you or did that keep you creatively energised?
It was actually pretty stressful [laughs]. It was so hard because like you said, everyone is so busy. I mean everyone in that group had really strict schedules so by the tenth day in that studio, if it wasn’t done then the record probably wouldn’t have come out. It was really hard to make sure that it was done but everyone that we worked with was so creative. Vic[Fuentes] from Pierce The Veil and Brian Southall and Craig Owens and Jonny Craig – everyone was so talented and so creative that it made the process a lot of fun but it still was very stressful. I would never recommend anyone to try and record an EP in ten days with all those people involved, you know. It was very, very intense but we made it work.
As a musician, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your career so far?
Honestly, my mum had raised me really well. She always told me that to live your life is serving other people so I think that’s kinda been the most gratifying part of being in a band; being some positive influence or helping someone. Even if I don’t know who they are or just putting a smile on someone’s face or having someone listening to our record and feeling different about themselves, like they’re not alone – those kind of things mean the world to me. It’s not about money or how popular you are or how many followers you have on Instagram or Twitter, like fuck all that stuff. It’s always so important and gratifying knowing that at the end of the day, if you can help anybody in a positive way, that’s all that matters. I could die tomorrow the happiest person knowing that we would be able to do that for other people.
—–
Sleeping With Sirens will be kicking off their Australian tour next week. Tickets to remaining shows can be purchased HERE
Thursday, 17th September 2015 — SOLD OUT
The Triffid, Brisbane (All Ages)
Sunday, 20th September 2015
UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney (All Ages)
Monday, 21st September 2015 — SOLD OUT
The Gov, Adelaide (All Ages)
Tuesday, 22nd September 2015 — SOLD OUT
170 Russell, Melbourne (Under 18’s Matinee)
Tuesday, 22nd September 2015
170 Russell, Melbourne (18+)
Thursday, 24th September 2015
Astor Theatre, Perth (All Ages)
Check out their latest music video of “Better Off Dead” below!
———-
