Sheffield's While She Sleeps are not easy to neatly pin down for the music media – and that seems very much by design. Their six albums so far haven't just seen a band willing and able to stretch beyond their metalcore roots, but their whole ethos as an independent outfit willing to lead and inspire when it comes to self-sustainability in an often brutal music industry.
The approach of While She Sleeps musically, and their label Sleeps Brothers to whole ethos in the way they treat their fans, defines punk rock spirit for me, and when I met them at Norway's Tons Of Rock festival in Olso following a triumphant set on 26 June, I was pleased to see this extends to the way guitarists Sean Long and Matt Welsh approach their instruments.
In the video above Sean and Mat dig into their Charvel and Schecter instruments. Sean's is a customised version of his Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 signature model – a production model of which he gifted to Tom Morello recently. Mat's is a Gretsch-inspired Schecter T-style PT model that reflects a journey to find something different – refreshingly moving away from metal expectations and traditions, much like While She Sleeps as a whole.
These are also guitars that are designed to recreate Mat and Sean's unique dynamic and mix of tones onstage. "We've both worked with so many great companies over the years but it's taken this long, for me personally anyway, to be actually not secretly lying to myself because the roster of guitars from many companies I was left [saying], 'That's the closest thing to what I want so I'll play that'," admits Sean. "It's never been a case of, 'I'm really behind this'. It's taken me the best part of 20 years to find a guitar where it's, this is my thing."
"We're blessed to have a really good guitar collection," says Mat, who explains the band will often use Fender single-coil guitars on record for some tones. "Sometimes I'll play another guitar and come back to this, everything just sits in ultimate comfort. The bridge especially. We've been fans of hardtail bridges forever and I tried Evertune for a while, didn't get along with it. We tried Floyd Roses and those kinds of things and we both love a hardtail."
All Mat needs now is a Schecter signature model of his own.
You don't need to be amazing at something, just express yourself
"If you got right to the bottom of the valley of the band, we're here because we felt this need to be creative," he says. "To express ourselves in the best way we felt honest. That's what Sleeps is – we're just doing what we want and the fact it aligns with other people is amazing but we're trying to make our favourite band, to express how we feel and use music to do that. And I think the biggest misconception is you need to be of a certain level of talent for that to be possible.
"We've learned that through music – we're not professional but we're here somehow," adds Mat though we think he's massively underselling just what an accomplished band WSS are onstage now. "It's the same thing as art – you don't need to be amazing at something, just express yourself – that's powerful in itself. Allowing yourself to do those things is really important."
This ideology is reflected in their guitars, but moreover, they represent something more than wood and steel to these musicians.
"You can be the person you want to be without the certificate that says you're allowed to be," explains Sean. "And that took us a minute to realise.… you create your own vibe, you create your own thing. The drawing on the guitars I didn't do very well at school – I failed everything apart from two things; I passed music and I passed art. I failed everything else diabolically. When I draw on my guitars I feel like it's almost like the subconscious rebellion to 'You're not supposed to do that – this is naughty.'
When you're so precious and so caught up in all the technicalities of it, you lose yourself in that.
"This is just a piece of wood… this is only a tool, the main thing is us," adds Sean. "So I like to show people it's ok to drop your guitar, scratch it and break it – write what you want on it. Because when you're so precious and so caught up in all the technicalities of it, you lose yourself in that.
"It's such a mad thing for me when people say, 'I can't draw' or 'I can't sing'… everyone can do those things and when you do those things unapologetically, that is the thing people resonate with."
"That's your style," agrees Mat. "And that's all people are searching to find – identity. You have your identity if you just embrace it."
Check out our deep-drive video into their guitars in the video above and stay up to date with the band at whileshesleeps.com
