“It would be hard to keep them from rushing the stage and spilling blood in the name of some hippie goddess or the other.”

Let’s face it kids, Toronto and Montreal have already been explored and perhaps exploited as the epicenters of the Next Big Thing. It’s probably time to look to elsewhere and Halifax might just be the solution. Hailing from that city, Sleepless Nights could act as the accidental ambassadors. Fiercely loyal, the band consists of core members Aaron Wallace, Pineau, Trevor Murphy, Josh Pothier, Matt Macdonald and Andrew Sisk with others occasionally joining the line up. Tatum George tried to hitchhike to Halifax to conduct the interview but got no further than her driveway. Instead, Aaron Wallace the frontman, discussed Haligonian pride, trash talked the Trews, and invented new words like "differentarian" via email.

Please enlighten our readers as to how Sleepless Nights was formed and
what inspired the moniker.

Sleepless Nights was formed in response to all my other bands that tanked. It started more as a concept of a group where people are expected to come and go and know from day one that the group will continue with or without them. Initially the band played as slowly as possible and needed a name that reflected that sentiment. I was thinking about it when the name caught my eye from across my (at the time) cavernous basement room from the back of an Emmy Lou Harris record.

The band is (quite proudly) based in Halifax. In what ways has the city directly influenced or affected your music?

We all grew up in the rural or suburban Maritimes, so Halifax always had some sort of magical draw to it. Also when I was young and starting to get into music the Halifax scene was really happening. Most of those bands are gone, but if you know where to look they're still lurking around. For example, last night I saw a band with members of the Sycamores and Thrush Hermit called the Certified Legends. It was great. As for the actual city itself, it's a beautiful place to live. There are tons of universities around so lots of young people roam the city, and the local college radio station CKDU does a really good job of supporting local arts and music.

Since we've brought up Halifax I'm now obligated to mention Joel Plaskett and Sloan. Do you have any stories of personal encounters with these musicians?

Growing up people always used to say I looked like Chris Murphy. Sometimes people would even confuse me with him. As soon as I could I grew a beard.

There’s an interesting Joel Plaskett related story. A friend of mine who was super into tape-trading -- this is obviously way pre-mp3 or high-speed internet -- "borrowed" a copy of the demo for Sweet Homewrecker, dubbed it, then proceeded to trade them with people from all over for other bootlegs. From what I understand they were not impressed.

The members of Sleepless Nights are affiliated with various bands including The Internet, Share, Superfantastics and many others. Based on your experience, what is the most difficult aspect of collaborating with members who are involved in other bands?

The most difficult aspect is definitely the logistics of booking shows and tours. You just try to book your shit before anyone else can. We all share a calendar online which helps and now Share and Sleepless Nights are managed by the same group so that makes things easier.

Which of the bands is least like Sleepless Nights? What is the most significant difference between them?

Most of the bands are musically different, but the one that is the mostestly differentarian for me would be the Superfantastics: they’re extremely cute. I take pride in what an ugly band we are -- with the exception of Andrew, aka Share. He's dreamy.

Turn into Vapour is your second full length album. What are some of the inspirations/influences for creating this album that were not present in previous work?

It's definitely a heavier record. Not heavy in the black metal sense, but heavy like Eric’s Trip is heavy. The biggest influence on this record was the amount of shows we played while making it. It represents the band more like people are used to hearing us live. That being said, it isn't just a live sort of record. There is still a lot of studio work happening, like on “Breath Deep Tornado,” but it's all slightly faster and more energetic than our previous output.

Geography aside, I think the indie equivalent of an East Coast/West Coast beef might be brewing. The song “Godspeed you Deathwolf” is essentially an anti-hipster anthem directed at the Toronto scene. Discuss.

It was, but the time for that song has come and gone. The Toronto that we were poking fun at seems to have disappeared. The bands have either broken up or gotten so big that they no longer matter. It was definitely more aimed at hipsters than at a scene. Hipsters are so fickle. Also, with the amount of postsecondary institutions in Halifax every year we get a new influx of fresh hipsters. It can get annoying. I read Pitchfork too but seriously, form your own opinions.

Let's say hypothetically there was a Toronto/Halifax beef which you had to settle with an epic battle of the bands. A certain Toronto collective has enough members to be recognized as an independent nation by the U.N. To even things out we need to recruit some native Nova Scotian musicians for your band. Please choose from 2 of the following: Anne Murray, The Trews, Buck 65, or Sarah McLachlan.

I like Buck most of that group but for this purpose I'd pick The Trews and kick their asses and steal their amps. They're not a good band but they've got nice guitars and amps. Then we'd pick Sarah McLachlan because all her fans would show up and hate our music so the other group would have to deal with a really angry Lilith Fair contingent who, by the time we were done, would be so deaf and angry that it would be hard to keep them from rushing the stage and spilling blood in the name of some hippie goddess or the other.

By Tatum George