Raw and aching, Perth’s Joan & The Giants have today stepped forth with their haunting new track ‘Sleep Alone’. Covering feelings of unrequited passion & love, alongside motifs of longing, loneliness, and fleeting memories ‘Sleep Alone’ is the band at their most challenged and vulnerable.
Building with singer Grace Newton-Wordsworth’s smokey and velvety voice atop a reverberating piano stanza, ‘Sleep Alone’ grows into a hook-driven rock-ballad with a vibrant and pulsating rhythm section throughout. Joan & The Giants have undoubtedly created an anthem for all those working through spurned feelings or despondency.
Starting life on an acoustic guitar, Joan & The Giants constructed ‘Sleep Alone’ from just the bare-bones of instrumentation; more reminiscent of a country-ballad than the alternative-pop heater heard today. Once the band was added, it grew to become larger than the initial output, with producer Dylan Ollivierre partnering with the band to guide its progression. He was able to keep the band in check and push them to complete the song; having full faith in Grace Newton-Wordsworth’s sad and haunting message. Acclaimed engineer Ryan Mill went on to mix the track, with mastering by William Bowden.
Speaking about the new single, Grace Newton-Wordsworth of the band explained, "'Sleep Alone’ is about feeling attached to someone that doesn’t make you feel appreciated or seen. You feel like you’re running in circles, canceling plans, waiting up for a message - all for someone who doesn’t really care. Then when they are there, it can also feel so good it’s suffocating, like it haunts the spaces you live in. The scent on the pillows, the memories that creep in the spaces around you. This song is about wanting someone so much, it’s toxic and you’d rather not sleep than sleep alone longing for someone’s touch. I love the references to the hauntings, burying secrets in a graveyard, the morgue - it all feels heavy, which is exactly what it felt like to write this song about real moments in time.”
Grace continued, “This song was one of the most challenging songs we have ever recorded. It’s funny because I wrote it entirely on acoustic guitar, and it sounded very country. When we showed it to our producer Dylan Ollivierre, he definitely had some ideas for a different vision that was much more alt-pop produced, which was perfect for us. We recorded this song during one of the most difficult periods of my life, and I nearly gave up on it altogether, but thankfully Dylan kept checking in and encouraging us to tackle it and keep going. It’s great having a producer that has your back, and mentors you along the way. I have never thrown myself so hard into the vocals, and literally just put all my sadness and heaviness into them - it was cathartic. You’ll hear that in the screamo part at the end haha”
Coinciding with the release of ‘Sleep Alone’ and in celebration of previous single ‘Cool Kid’ as well, Joan & The Giants will be heading out on their first ever headline tour; their debut East Coast dates as well. Starting in Newcastle on July 5th, the band then traipses up and down the coast, hitting Sydney, Wollongong, Brookvale, Alexandria, Melbourne, and Mornington, before heading back west, to play four shows across WA’s Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough, and Perth.
Connect with Joan & The Giants,
