Where Words Are Not (Always) Needed

[Mostly] without lyrics to underscore their song's meanings, post-rock trio Sleepmakeswaves have learnt to find the beauty in the "translational chasm" that exists between artist and listener. They've poured themselves into their fifth album, It's Here, But I Have No Names For It, and now they're excited for their fans to find themselves, and not its creators, reflected in its music. Prog caught up with the band to find out more.

- Phil Weller

On 2020's These Are Not Your Dreams, Australian post-rock trio Sleepmakeswaves threw caution to the wind. Swerving producers and deadlines, they did things on their own terms. For a band that guitarist Otto Wicks-Green says are "always learning", that process left them with plenty to consider for its follow-up.

Multi-instrumentalist Alex Wilson traces the record's origins back to the global shutdown that resulted in a wealth of material, which the band will continue to work through in the years ahead.

"We were suited to being confined to our home studios," says Wilson today. "We wrote close to two hours' worth of material during that period." "We've been in situations before where we've been pushed against a hard deadline and felt the pressure of needing to complete material," Wicks-Green responds. "We'd be freaking out that we didn't have enough material or start second-guessing it. This was the opposite.

We wrote the hell out of ourselves." Of all the lessons learnt from These Are Not Your Dreams, brevity was key. Despite releasing it as a trio of EPs, the band found that fans and media still called it an album.

Consequently, Wicks-Green says they "decided to embrace that and make a really punchy album in the classic style of two 20-minute sides.

"One thing we did really like about that was the opportunity to really stretch out and explore some different ways of being a postrock band," the guitarist reflects. "I wouldn't particularly call it focused; it was all over the shop and I think people found that charming about us. Having had the opportunity to explore with...Dreams and not be answerable to a producer or studio clock, we could put all that experimentation and experience into a more focused process." To ensure focus ruled the recording's roost, the band established a clear democratic approval process. An idea could only ever be furthered if Wilson, Wicks-Green and drummer Tim Adderley were able to justify it.