I was able to sit down and talk with City
Sleeps front man Elliott Sharp about all things
City Sleeps, and even surviving McDonald's
drive-bys.
TuneLab Music: City Sleeps toured
throughout the summer with Glass Intrepid
and The Feds. How did those shows turn out?
Elliott Sharp: Um, some of those shows
were fantastic and some of those shows weren't
so great. There was a lot of drama, you know
we were parting ways with Warner Bros. like
during that, but the shows for the most part
were cool, we had a good time.
TL: The band was once known as
Smugface, and hit it big on the old MP3.com
with tracks like "Punish Myself" and "Paintbrush".
What was it like receiving such a buzz in
the early stages of your career?
ES: It was great, you know Scooter Ward
from Cold helped us a lot and that's when
we were involved in the whole Fred Durst -
Scooter Ward thing and we were going to sign
with Fred Durst's label Flawless which was
on Interscope. You know we were like 18 or
19 years old thinking "Oh my God, this is
great", but the whole Fred thing-we were a
little embarassed.
TL: That same thing kind of happened
to Taproot as well.
ES: Yeah did you hear that message he
left them on their recording machine? We were
in the same situation but with a different
turn out. He finally declined to sign us and
he went on to sign a band called Puddle of
Mudd so I think he might have made the right
choice [laughs].
TL: City Sleeps' debut has been
delayed for over two years. How has the band
persevered through all the setbacks?
ES: We look at it as fucking kind of a
blessing. We've recorded some of the greatest
music that I think will ever come out. There's
been a lot of frustration, but we've had some
help from a lot of people-it's been hard at
times but we've made friends and you know
when the record finally does come out it will
make it that much more cool.
TL: The album was originally
entitled 'Walker's Ridge'. Where did
that concept originate?
ES: Walker's Ridge is a place down here
in Atlanta with a lot of history surrounding
it. You can almost feel like there's this
evil, this magic happening. It's a huge neighborhood,
and it's one of those neighborhoods with you
know the typical the mother, the father, the
daughter-everything is so glamorous and beautiful
and when the sun goes down at nighttime, a
lot of crazy things happen. And that's where
I grew up, and it's where I met my first love,
and because of all the experiences I think
a part of me has kind of stuck. And we changed
the name of the record from 'Walker's Ridge'
because the record label really couldn't find
a way to market that so we had to change it
to 'Hotel' and I can explain why we
changed it to 'Hotel' if you think
that'd be interesting at all.
TL: Yeah, sure man go ahead.
ES: Well it's just like every one of the
songs on the record was written in a different
room of a different hotel in LA, which was
different than the whole perception of 'Walker's
Ridge' which was written before the record
was recorded.
TL: The band recently parted
ways with bassist Mars Davlan. How have fans
reacted to new bass player Brad Allen?
ES: Uh, you know absolutely spectacular.
The fans love him and he's a positive force,
he's a workaholic, he's great and everybody
loves him and so far it's been nothing but
good stuff. And it's really overwhelming because
people aren't like 'what happened to Mars?'
because everyone's really happy about Brad
for sure. He was in another pretty well sized
band called Family Force 5 and everyone's
like "oh yeah, it's good to see Brad back
in another band".
TL: Your lyrics revolve heavily
around female interaction. Are these personal
experiences or imaginative fantasies?
ES: Well, you know like "Prototype" is
obviously like a fantasy, a fantastical song,
but almost every song I write is pretty much
inspired by personal experience.
TL: What is the most awkward
and unusual situation City Sleeps has encountered?
ES: Oh my God I don't know. The most unusual
situation we've ever been in? Well we were
recording the record out in LA and I had been
writing lyrics all night and I went to McDonald's
and it was about 4:30 and I got out of my
car, the lights were off, so I was walking
back to my car to try and go through the drive-thru
and this guy steps off a bus and just started
unloading a gun- literally like shooting.
And I thought I'd been hit, so I hit the ground
and was just saying "oh my God". I got up
quick and got in the car and literally drove
down a one way street for about two hours
just to get out of there. I mean it was pretty
huge, someone shooting at you like yelling
"hey!" and just firing away, so I think that's
the most unusual situation I've ever been
in. It was way weird you know for some Atlanta
kid like me.
TL: Atlanta is home to several
up-and-coming rock bands. How has the city's
emerging scene helped you guys?
ES: Well it, it hasn't really helped us.
You know we were with Warner Bros. like four
years ago, and we came out of the scene when
it wasn't doing so well, and now that it's
doing so well and we're kind of in this limbo
situation, we kind of feel like we're caught
in the shuffle. I don't think our timing necessarily
helped us out. You know we don't wake up everyday
thinking "wow, the Atlanta scene has helped
us so much". Uh, there's a lot of good people
in the scene, but overall it hasn't really
done much for us.
TL: The band shot a video for
the track "Prototype" a few months ago. Do
you guys still plan to push and pursue "Prototype"
as the lead track and what are the band's
plans for a second single?
ES: I have no idea exactly if we're still
going to use "Prototype" as our single. "Not
an Angel" is definitely going to be on the
list for the next single in the near future,
and for a third single "Ordinary High" is
definitely getting some looks right now, you
know as far as another single.
TL: The City Sleeps Girls group
is an extremely unique promotional tool. How
did that get started?
ES: [Laughs] I think it's good because
most of our fans are you know, women between
the ages of like 13 and 40. We just came to
the realization that like 75 to 85 percent
of our fan base is female and Adriel our guitarist
actually came up with the idea. We're really
not even looking at it as a promotional tool
you know, it's just sort of a place where
some of our female fans can talk. You know
the record hasn't even come out yet but we're
still really happy with the reaction it's
getting.
TL: What are some of the best
places the band has had a chance to play?
ES: Oh, well we played arenas man. we
did the 3 Doors Down tour and walking out
on stage in front of ten thousand people it's
uh pretty magical. So that's probably the
best shows yet.
TL: What would be a perfect mascot
to represent City Sleeps and why?
ES: Oh my God I have no idea [laughs].
Well you know like I said back to the female
thing, probably a very, very, very delicate
girl with her own personal style. You know
some woman, somewhere with a unique style.
I don't know what the album artwork is because
it's still being decided upon, but if I had
to imagine, it would probably be a girl with
a very unique and personal style. I don't
know if that sounds kind of corny [laughs].
TL: Nah man, it's all good. What does
2007 hold for the band and can we expect any
new City Sleeps material in the near future?
ES: 2007, we're hoping to get this record
the fuck out there in stores you know, like
seriously. And we're making a double album
as our second album, like seriously about
28 tracks because we've waited such a long
time, so you can expect something really great
when the next record comes out. That's something
we decided upon very recently to treat the
fans.
