Sleeper Agent Interview By Efren Martinez
After speaking with Tony Smith from Sleeper Agent while touring across the country, I was reminded of the many great bands I had the pleasure in working with when I use to book the shows for my sister, Debra, at Queen Bean Coffee House.
Like Tony and his band, they too where all in college, played at bars for some extra cash and worked very hard performing, booking shows and spending a great deal of their time and money into the dream while in school. It wasn’t long until people really started to dig what they were serving and in 2011 Sleeper Agent released Celabrasion that went ballistic on the music charts. Some of the hits that ruled the Alterative airwaves were “Get Burned” and “Get it Daddy.”
On January 14th of this year Sleeper Agent released their new album About Last Night. Thus far, it’s been going above and beyond viral with Rolling Stone recently premiering their song “Waves” off the new album and NPR picked it for their SXSW mix this year. About Last Night features12 tracks and indecentally, “Be Brave” happens to be my favorite on it thus far. While conversing with Tony via the phone, I asked him a series of questions in regards to how they all came together, their latest album as well as their upcoming show in San Francisco at The Brick and Mortar House on April 25th. First off, they aren’t from LA or even New York like many of the bands I have interviewed; they are actually from Kentucky. Tony is like most of our young inspiring Artists I’ve met here in Modesto locally, who’ve done those coffee house shows, charity events and private gigs before getting signed with RCA records. ( a division of Sony)
Most of the band Sleeper Agent got hooked up locally from their area and it was Tony who found the lead singer Alex Kandel on MySpace. Their sound is 100% feel good and it’s an alterative for those of us who like to just freaking rock out without having to break stuff while doing it. On the phone Tony sounded like a pretty mellow kind of guy and perhaps it might have been because he was on the tour bus watching the cars go by during this interview. When it’s time to be on stage for the show you can expect all of them to give you a high energetic fun experience.
I asked Tony if they had any kind of pre-show rituals they do prior to any show. His reply was that since they’ve all turned 21, they do what most bands their age do, they have a couple of drinks, get on stage and party rock with their fans. At this point of their professional music career, Tony couldn’t be happier. As the band he sees them playing their new album out from coast to coast with sights of a Europe tour at the border. The band also doesn’t plan to take such a long break in between albums like last time. Tony expressed to me that after their tour, they want to press on and keep putting out new albums for their fans.
On April 25th you can check out Sleeper Agent at The Brick and Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco. Tony shared with me that they will not only be doing songs from their new album, but some from Celabrasion. For show info click here. www.brickandmortarmusic.com/event/513453-sleeper-agent-san-francisco/<www.brickandmortarmusic.com/event/513453-sleeper-agent-san-francisco> Like them here www.facebook.com/SleeperAgentMusic/info Sleeper Agent (About Last Night) listen to it here www.aboutlastnight.sleeperagentmusic.com Available and on iTunes and Amazon.com (Waves) Video preview http://youtu.be/Hf9rPrpP3GU
Sleeper Agent Genre (Rock/Pop) Alex Kandel – Vocals Tony Smith – Guitar + Vocals Justin Wilson – Drums Lee Williams – Bass Scott Gardner – Keys + Synthesizer Josh Martin – Lead Guitar
On another musical note, for many years I had the pleasure in working with many entertainers out there from all over the world when I was booking the shows at Queen Bean Coffee House. Friends, you all have amazing talents and my advice to you is keeping on staging shows, not just here locally but more so in other cities and states if possible. Most of the bands that I know who have been signed by a big record label generally happened after performing at some small music hall or coffee house/bar hidden away off a back street in some metropolitan city. Seriously, all it takes is for that one person who has big influence in the music business to unexpectedly see you perform and enjoy your music. So no matter where you might be playing, always play like that one person is causally there hidden in the audience because they just might be. Retro & New Music View Efren j Martinez Get more of what you want here www.facebook.com/quakedjs
