Back To The Front: The Sleeping Souls on Their Time to Shine
Tuesday, 23 January 2024
Written by Simon Ramsay
Photo: Lukas Rauch
Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan would be the first to admit that some of their most iconic work wouldn’t be anything resembling that without the support of their respective backing bands. Likewise, folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner couldn’t have crafted some of his finest records without the superb talents of his very own supporting ensemble, The Sleeping Souls. A superlative four piece — Tarrant Anderson on bass, pianist Matt Nasir, drummer Callum Green and guitarist Ben Lloyd — with class to burn, the group recently took a break from backing Turner to stride out on their own with impressive results.
Temporarily cut loose from their demanding schedule, last year’s gripping debut album ‘Just Before The World Starts Burning’ served to reinforce The Sleeping Souls' already sky high reputation. Fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Cahir O’Doherty, Turner’s longtime guitar tech, it’s an emotional, genre-hopping record that, thanks in no small part to the man behind the microphone, bears little in common with their boss's work.
Having done the major label thing while playing in Fighting With Wires, and absolutely hating it, O’Doherty had gladly stepped out of the limelight to assume more of a supporting role in the music industry. Aside from managing Turner’s gear, and occasionally filling in for both his boss and any Sleeping Soul who couldn’t perform live, the Irishman also plays guitar in New Pagans, a band led by his wife, Lyndsey McDougall.
Satisfied with his supporting player role, and certainly not yearning for a return to the spotlight, O’Doherty reluctantly came out of retirement to deliver a towering performance that tied the band’s sprawling, eclectic songs together. Prior to The Sleeping Souls’ first live gigs in support of their debut, we spoke to O’Doherty about filling Turner’s huge shoes, forging the band’s Frank-free identity and why, in the name of jest, he hates his paymaster.
It’s been a few months since the release of your debut, so how’s it gone down in terms of both reception and finding an audience for the band beyond people who were already familiar with The Sleeping Souls’, Frank’s and your work?
I’ve been getting sent things from the other guys in the band and people are saying nice things about the record, so that’s good. We’re really proud of it. I know there’s always going to be that Frank Turner crossover because of The Sleeping Souls, but for some of the people coming to the shows it might be more about curiosity and why Frank Turner’s guitar tech has replaced him. It’s gonna be fun and we’re really looking forward to it.
I believe you were a little hesitant about taking on this role at first after your experience fronting Fighting With Wires. What won you over?
The Sleeping Souls, we’re like brothers, we tour all the time. Frank’s the unstoppable machine and constantly on the road, so it made sense we would start writing songs. Myself and Matt wanted to write together but then it developed under The Sleeping Souls project. And I was very uncomfortable because, one, it’s Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls, two, I’d had my own experiences being the frontperson of a band and didn’t want to step into that role again and, three, I just didn’t feel the timing was right. The guys were so busy touring Frank’s stuff and it just didn’t make sense.
But then Frank was like, ‘I’d love to hear that record.’ He pushed us towards it. And when Covid happened we had time and Matt and I started putting ideas together. So it just turned into The Sleeping Souls. Tarrant and Ben started bringing their ideas to the table and with the new drummer Callum involved it seemed like the time was right to do it. But it wasn’t easy. It was done in dressing rooms, hotel rooms, the back of a bus, backstage at festivals, our bedrooms, wherever we could find a space to record and write. But we managed to squeeze a record together and I’m still in shock it’s happened.
And when did Frank get to hear the album?
He was one of the first people to hear the final mixes of everything. He paid us a compliment, which was really nice of him. He didn’t have to say anything, he could have been polite, but it was nice of him to compliment the record. That meant a lot because he’s so prolific and loves his music.
Did you ever write anything and then think it was too close to the Souls’ work with Frank?
Initially, yes. The band exists with Frank anyway, so they’re used to it, but I was very aware of it. I didn’t want to cross into that territory, and I don’t think we would. Frank and I, we have certain favourite bands we click with, but he comes from a different place altogether. And as we started writing, the songs unfolded, and people brought ideas to the table. There's such an eclectic taste within The Sleeping Souls it naturally moved away from that, because The Sleeping Souls are playing Frank’s vision of songs. He’s the chief songwriter. The Sleeping Souls itself is something completely different.
You’ve been described by Tarrant as a Sleeping Soul by proxy. So from your position of being both outside and inside, what are the unique strengths of the group?
They’re a fantastic live band. I watch them piece together their set with Frank and they’re just great. Each one brings their own thing to the fold. They’re so professional and dedicated in rehearsals. The show, the flow of the set, they bring such a wealth of live experience but also musical talent. Matt’s an amazing writer, he’s composed all the string arrangements for songs on The Sleeping Souls record, but also for Frank. The energy Ben and Tarrant bring, and Callum’s a phenomenal drummer, I feel really confident going in with the guys, knocking songs out and having the comfort of such a great band on these songs.
How did you go about capturing that live strength on record?
It was really difficult because, like I say, we did it in dressing rooms and so a lot was written and recorded that way. I think the record has some really great live raw moments because we weren’t afforded the time to sit in a studio and go ‘Hmmm, I don’t like this take. Let’s do the next one. Let’s do it again.’ So we had to go with what we had and that lends an urgency, that rawness. Even some of the quieter songs have this sort of edge where..….I did the vocals in one take and there’s bits that are slightly out of tune and nasal because maybe I had an allergy or cold or whatever that day. There was no other time to do it so we had to leave it and go with it.
These days, when you listen to rock music, everything’s autotuned and needs to be perfect and that’s not what the human voice sounds like. There should be those wee inflections, those little moments, where it’s slightly out of tune and more interesting. AutoTuned vocals turn me off almost immediately. There’s a way to do it but it’s fine to be a wee bit out of tune. It’s fine to be a wee bit flat. It’s human. Go back and listen to old recordings, the classics. It’s fantastic. It makes the record exciting.
You’ve said the process of writing and recording this record was cathartic and helped you survive. There’s so much emotion and a lot of what feels like simmering angst and release in the songs, so can you disclose what you meant by that?
A few years back I had a particularly huge event happen in my life where I ended up not speaking to a large portion of my family. It was driving me crazy. Things were very unsettled and unstable and my wife Lindsey was just like, ‘You need to figure out how you’re going to deal with all these things that are going on.’ At the time I was in the middle of writing lyrics for Sleeping Souls and she said, ‘You should dig deep and just try and get it out.’
I was hesitant to say some of the things I say in the songs because they’re directed at certain people, or they’re a reaction to certain things that have happened and certain people, but I let it go, started doing it and it all just came out. I was trying to escape, trying to run away and once I started writing I quickly realised there’s no point in running. It might be bad for the moment but that doesn’t last forever. If you keep running it’s just going to follow you no matter where you go. It’s all about escapism and no matter what you do it follows you. Next time I should just stop, face it, deal with it as it comes. So it was very cathartic and helped me a lot.
The Selfist is a song that really resonates. What story are you telling with that one?
That’s directed at my mother. It’s a direct message to her from me, essentially telling her why we don’t speak any more — I did my best kind of thing and it’s never good enough and nobody listens. It resonates with a lot of people because they’re in these situations with their family and it’s that old saying, ‘You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.’ It’s tough, because you’re connected by blood, you feel you have to endure these things, and the more I read about it and the more I’m away and distance myself from it, I realise you don’t have to put up with these things. No matter who it is. No matter what it is. You can step away and focus on your own life and focus on your own family and on the good things, positive things, and not have people sort of drag you down.
That was also a particularly collaborative effort within The Sleeping Souls. Ben came up with the idea, Matt modified it and then the chorus was written on guitar, the melody, and then the lyrics and verse melody were all me. Once I realised what I was going to sing about the lyrics happened very quickly. It poured out of me. Sometimes I hate writing lyrics but with this I dug deeper and once I opened the floodgates it was an easier process to get these things out and fill up those melodies. It was like therapy and The Selfist is definitely one of the most therapeutic songs on the record.
With you guys being so loyal to Frank and his schedule, what does the future look like for The Sleeping Souls beyond the upcoming tour dates?
These shows will dictate what we do moving forwards. It might be great, things might open up for us and we’ll be able to schedule other things but, ultimately, our loyalty as a whole is to Francis. He’s been so generous and allowed us so much of his time and energy doing this project. He’s been so good to us through Covid as well. He’s a dude. Don’t tell him I said that because I have to pretend we sort of hate each other. But no, he’s one of my best friends and we’ll see what happens. I’m excited because we’re proud of the record and if these shows go well and it’s a positive thing I don’t see why we wouldn’t figure more shows out in the future.
And more music too?
Yeah, we’ll keep writing. That process really worked for us. Now we know we can write on the road and push that through, what we’ll do is refine certain areas as we move forwards and get better at it. Having that outlet when I’m touring with Frank is fantastic. I always feel like I miss playing and writing because I’m so busy on the road, but by doing The Sleeping Souls record I realised I can be writing and as productive and prolific as I want on the road. And I already have a folder that says ‘Sleeping Souls Album Two Ideas’ on my laptop. There are so many ideas that it warranted a new folder and things that didn’t make it on album one have been moved over to album two. There will be more music and more shows I would imagine.
The Sleeping Souls Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue January 23 2024 - GLASGOW King Tut's
Wed January 24 2024 - NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
Thu January 25 2024 - MANCHESTER Band on the Wall
Fri January 26 2024 - BRISTOL Thekla
Sat January 27 2024 - LONDON Garage
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