WHILE SHE SLEEPS have announced that their fourth studio album ‘SO WHAT?’ will be released on March 1, via their own Sleeps Brothers label.
Loz Taylor and co also dropped the explosive lead single 'Anti-Social' and its accompanying music video:
Plus they've announced a mammoth UK & European headline tour through February, culminating at The Roundhouse in London on the day the album drops.
Support on the tour will come from Stray From The Path and Landmvrks, with a further special guest TBC.
On the new songs, guitarist Sean Long said: “We’ve let our hair down and we’ve got our bollocks out. I’m not fucking about. I’m not cutting corners. I’ve been writing like this will be my last album.” The band no doubt felt like the pressure was on after 2017’s self-released LP ‘You Are We' landed in the top 10 of the Official UK Chart and picked up a Metal Hammer gong and Best Album win at the Heavy Music Awards. Sean said: “'You Are We' got us to this special position, and it’s given us a platform.
“For us, it’s like, ‘What can we do to really stick this in people’s faces? What can we put out there that we’re buzzing off?’ I don’t want to be following everyone else; I want people to follow us.” The new album was produced by Carl Bown at the band’s self-built studio Sleeps Audio, ‘SO WHAT?’ and sees the heavy metallers working with a major label again, Spinefarm Records, for the first time since 2015’s ‘Brainwashed’, but that doesn't mean they will be making any compromises.
Guitarist-and-vocalist Mat Welsh explained: “We got approached immediately by a bunch of labels, but we turned around to all of them and said, ‘The only way we’re going to do anything is if you let us release it on Sleeps Brothers, but you house that on your train, and we make the decisions behind everything.
“I fucking loved releasing You Are We ourselves, but at the same time, I played more on my laptop than I did on my guitar for the whole campaign.
"This release is a partnership between Sleeps Brothers and Spinefarm, but no one is breathing down our necks about the record we’re making or the singles we’re putting out.”
Tickets for the band's 2019 tour go on sale on Friday (02.11.18). Pre-oder 'SO WHAT' here.
2019 HEADLINE TOUR DATES: Fri 01 Feb France Paris Trabendo Sat 02 Feb Netherlands Amsterdam Melkweg Sun 03 Feb Germany Hamburg Markthalle Tue 05 Feb Germany Munster Skaters Palace Thu 07 Feb Germany Leipzig Täubchenthal Fri 08 Feb Germany Berlin Huxleys Sat 09 Feb Poland Warsaw Proxima Mon 11 Feb Poland Krakow Zet Pe Te Tue 12 Feb Czech Republic Prague Meetfactory Wed 13 Feb Germany Nuremberg Hirsch Fri 15 Feb Germany Frankfurt Batschkapp Sat 16 Feb Switzerland Aarau Kiff Sun 17 Feb Italy Bologna Zona Roveri Tue 19 Feb Germany Munich Technikum Wed 20 Feb Austria Vienna Arena Fri 22 Feb Germany Stuttgart LKA Longhorn Sat 23 Feb Germany Cologne Essigfabrik Sun 24 Feb Belgium Antwerp Zappa Tue 26 Feb England Nottingham Rock City Wed 27 Feb Scotland Glasgow SWG 3 Thu 28 Feb England Leeds Beckett SU Fri 01 Mar England London Roundhouse