A CONVERSATION WITH
SLEEPER’S BELL
Photos by: Malcolm Riordan
Words by: Helen Howard
Chicago-based duo Sleeper’s Bell ushered in a calm, sense of sweetness to the party this year with their debut full-length album, Clover. Out on Fire Talk’s imprint label, Angel Tapes, the project is a twinkling delight of vulnerable, indie-folk songs that ache in all the best ways. These nine tracks pull at the heart with a quiet tonality that, coupled with their light, acoustic instrumentation, is the perfect combination. Releasing their debut album and coming together as a band is something worth celebrating for members Blaine Teppema and Evan Green.
The project began as a solo outlet for Teppema to write and practice guitar, culminating in her first EP, Umarell. This solo effort led Green to connect with Teppema, who fell in love with the release after being shown it by a mutual friend.
“Evan had just moved back from Colorado and wanted to play music. He was very encouraging and was like, 'Oh, we're gonna make an album! We're gonna play so many shows!' And I was like, 'That actually sounds really fun!’ It's so fun to collaborate, and it just breathed new life into it,” said Teppema.
Green’s eagerness and love for Teppema’s songwriting were the catalyst for the two to begin playing music together, as he realized they were more on the same page than he initially anticipated.
“I was kind of starstruck meeting Blaine for the first time. I was really shedding the tunes, just practicing all the songs, and then Blaine came over for the first rehearsal. She hadn't played the guitar in a while, and we took the guitar and turned it around because we heard some rattling inside, and there were literal dust bunnies pouring out of it. That kind of cut the tension. I was like, 'Oh my god, Blaine is just a normal person, this is gonna be awesome!’ And then we played our first show shortly after,” said Green.
Green’s eagerness and spontaneity led the band to a quick turnaround, as they crafted what would become Clover. These songs include new and older compositions of Teppema’s, and the two navigated what the album would sound like in their expanding, big picture that continually evolved throughout the recording process.
“I had the tracklist laid out pretty quickly, but we didn’t even have a band, and we didn’t really know what it would sound like. We would rehearse songs over and over again while recording and do it maybe 15 times before deciding, 'Okay, this is what we're going to put on the record.' We'd just rehearse and run the tape, and it led for a very fast and loose thing, so it was cool,” said Teppema.
“We hadn’t ever put drum beats to the music before. We would play things much slower. Blaine had these ideas for the song ‘Over.’ I remember the first time you were sitting on my couch, and you played that song to me. I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is a rock song! You can have drums on it, and it has a clear beat.’ Blaine, Jack [Henry], and I would come up with an arrangement on the spot. We hadn't ever played as a group together before the days we recorded it. We hadn’t even met!” said Green.
The natural chemistry between Teppema, Green, and engineers Jack Henry and Gabe Bostic allowed the pieces of the album to come together in organic fragments, each one improving on the last with the addition of the next moving part as the album came into focus.
“I don't think we could have imagined how certain parts of them were going to sound. It was just something that we kept discovering. We were like, ‘The songs are sounding great, but Blaine's dad plays fiddle, right?’ We brought him into the studio. Suddenly, a bunch of songs had fiddle, and that opened up room in the arrangements for things like the saxophone. It was this collage of our friends adding arrangements. It seems like a very unusual way of recording, where we didn't have an idea of what it was going to sound like in the beginning, and then found that idea, which I liked. We were growing as people, so that coincided with what we were adding. I think it worked,” said Green.
While the arrangements of the songs on Clover came together in ways that felt unconventional to Teppema and Green, their choices reflect the love and trust that can only exist when a deep sense of faith in your instincts kicks in, and you allow yourself, alongside your friends, to create something beautiful, and maybe you don’t even know what it sounds like yet.
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We asked Blaine and Evan of Sleeper’s Bell about the idea of celebration and what it looks like for each of them:
Biggest accomplishment you’ve celebrated since Clover’s release?
Blaine: People giving me their interpretations or telling me what it's meant to them! It's so nice to just talk to people. I think it's given people an opportunity to put their cards on the table and I'm such a a slut for connection, so it's awesome!
Evan: We were put on a playlist on the New York Times. That was kind of crazy. That was a big one for the parents, I would say. That was when my mom texted me, and she was like, “Oh my god, you're a musician. You're a musician now!”
Song you celebrated most while creating?
Blaine: “Phone Call” for me, I think that's still my favorite song that I've written, just because it kind of marked a new way that I wrote music. It marked my new process. It's like a rumination, two verses of rumination, one story verse, one verse of reflection.
Evan: Playing, recording, “Passing Through” in my apartment was super special. You can hear my roommate in the kitchen moving pots and pans and even though he knew we were recording. From a production standpoint, maybe “Bored” or “Clover” because of just how lush they feel.
Go-to celebration music?
Blaine: “this is heaven & i’d die for it” by American Pleasure Club. I've just been listening to that song for years, and it never gets old. It just gets me so pumped. I just love emo music! Basking in the glow by Oso Oso as well. Land of Talk!
Evan: I've been listening to the Fib record, our homies from Philly. I've listened to a lot of old love songs recently. I've been making playlists, lots of old outlaw country stuff, but also anything from Dion and the Belmonts. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of Nick Cave because he just performed at The Salt Shed. That's been my celebration music, just blasting Nick Cave in my car.
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