SLEEPWALKER SUN

Sleepwalker Sun are a fine progressive rock band from Brazil that can be heard on Loud Metal Radio this month. This is an interview with Luiz Alvim.

Hello Luiz, nice to talk to you! Sleepwalker Sun is a great album. Please tell me a little bit of the background of our band.
 Well, all band members and guests have worked with progressive bands, either playing covers or writing their own songs. When my last band broke up, I got some songs I wrote then and tried to rearrange them, and also worked in some new material with Falcon, our bass player. When I felt that the material was good enough, I called the other guys, showed them what I had, and then we started to make demos and record it.

 

what who you say are your main influences.

There are so many... But to resume I’ll say Kansas from the 70’s, Marillion from the 80’s and Dream Theater from the 90’s. 

 

what are the subjects of your lyrics?

They do not have all a common subject. Some are about decisions to be made, some are inspired by movies, some more abstract, relationships, we try to use a lot of metaphors to make them poetical.

 

Where did you record the album and how long did it take?

We recorded it at our hometown, and it took almost 2 years, from pre production, recording and post production. It was hard work, I can tell you, but we are very glad with the final musical and artwork result.

 

would you say that there is a good live scene for progressive rock in your country?

Unfortunately not. There are occasional concerts around here but nothing to be considered as a good prog rock live scene. Every year there's a festival, but apart from that...

 

Is this a real band or a studio project and do you have any plans to tour within or outside of South America?

This is intended to be a band, for sure. I’m ahead of it, that was the way I chose to record the album, to make it happen, but this is a band. But as I mentioned earlier, there isn’t a good live scene around here, so it makes everything more difficult. The metal scene is better, but not that much. If we get invitations to make concerts in Europe or North America, we are ready for it.

 

What can we expect next from Sleepwalker Sun

We have to work on the debut album for a while, we are doing some acoustic pocket shows for now and waiting to see what happens outside South America.  That’s probably what we are going to do for 2006, then starting to work on a new album for release in late 2007.

 

Anything else that you would like to add?

I want to thank Loud Metal Radio and everyone who is listening to Sleepwalker Sun music and is giving us some great feedback. I hope we get the opportunity to see you on the road. Thank you very much and watch www.sleepwalkersun.com for news and updates.