OUTLOUD Interview with
The Sleeping
Vocalist Douglas Robinson of The Sleeping
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January 15, 2009
Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Interview and Photos by Ashleigh Ahern
Prior to The Sleeping’s show with Funeral for a Friend at the Culture Room, OUTLOUD interviewed lead vocalist Douglas Robinson.
OutLoud: How did you come about joining The Sleeping?
Douglas Robinson, vocalist: When I tried out for the band, they hadn’t played any shows yet, and they came out of a band called Sky Came Falling from New York. I was actually going to my ex-girlfriend’s college frequently, and I saw that the band needed a singer online, and my old band had just broken up, so I sent them a message. I had put a couple songs up onto mp3.com, so basically I sent them a link, and they liked my bands’ songs. I tried out, and after 20 something singers and three months later, they asked me to join.
OutLoud: I heard at first they were kidding around with you and said you weren’t in.
Robinson: I was super young; they were substantially a little older than me, and they said, "The other singer’s girlfriend is a lot hotter." You know someone’s kidding when they say something like that, but at the same time, you want something so bad you’re thinking, "Are these guys just dicks and telling me I’m not in the band for some stupid reason?" But I got the joke, and after I was in, I was like, "You guys are f**king dicks."
OutLoud: Hah, ok. How’s that going for you now?
Robinson: Good. It’s awesome. They’re like my best friends now. I just bought a place next to our bassist, one of my best friends. The whole band is like family. I've lived on Long Island close to the other dudes in the band, and I just thought the move would be nice. Now I live next to Sal [Mignano], and we get bagels every morning.
OutLoud: What brought you into music?
Robinson: It’s always been with me. My father’s a drummer; my sister’s a very talented singer. I’ve always wanted to be in a band. I’d tell my mom I wanted to be a rock star all the time and just stupid shit you’d tell your parents when you’re younger and you think you can do anything you want. I guess I got really stubborn and really didn’t want to give up trying to be successful in a band and do what I love to do. As I got older I realized I had something that could keep going, and I kept trying and trying. I’d go to shows, and I’d get really inspired seeing local bands in New Jersey and Long Island when I was younger. I just went to shows, and you know, you just feel that connection, and you know that’s something you want to do for the rest of your life kinda thing.
OutLoud: I’ve got to ask: What’s the meaning behind the rabbit, the logo?
Robinson: It’s actually our old guitar player’s brother. He’s a web designer, and he had an electronic press kit sort of resume he would send out to people, and it actually had the rabbit on it. It was actually called thesleeping.com, and we wanted to have a name. You know, before we took the name from his website, we wanted to have a name that was kind of like an ode to people, to people not living out their dreams and not following their dreams. We kind of wanted to let people know that you could give up everything to do what you love, and when we saw his website, the sleeping kind of just sounded perfect. So many people are asleep and zombified by what they do from 9-5 that they don’t ever have the chance to live their dream and to go for what they love and want to do and be happy working. We named ourselves, The Sleeping, from his website but also as an inspiration to people that don’t think they can do what they love. They can if they just put their minds to it.
OutLoud: You toured for like two years straight.
Robinson: We’ve been touring since 2004. I mean, we’ve been home in the two years of extensive touring. We’ve been home like probably two months out of the whole two years. We’ve definitely toured straight, but it doesn’t seem straight when you tour for a couple weeks, then you’re home for a few days, then you tour for a month, then you’re home for a few days. Yeah, two months I think is the total rest we’ve had. But we love it; we’re all about touring. There’s no other way to live your life as a musician than to see every part of the world and play for different kids all the time.
OutLoud: What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you while touring?
Robinson: There’s just so much, you don’t understand. There’s so many crazy things that happen to us. In every band, every band goes through the crazy shit, but every story we have, people are like, "You could straight up write a book." Like last night, we were in the parking lot of the venue we played, and the parking lot and the venue were completely different properties, and the parking lot was by the property to the building that was next to the venue. The tow truck came and tried to tow our van and trailer, so we went out and tried to be nice to him, and he was like, give me money and I’ll let your van go, and we were about to beat the shit out of him. It was crazy. We were like f**k you, we’re going to kick the shit out of you if you don’t let us go. So we started unhooking our trailer on our own and stuff like that. I mean, that was the first night of tour, and it’s like, we always laugh like it’s just our luck, you know, shit like that always f**king happens.
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