Wintersleep

Background

Wintersleep formed in 2001 and released two albums with Dependent Music, a music label and artists' collective that began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1994.

In 2006, Wintersleep signed with Labwork Music, a partnership label of Sonic Unyon and EMI Music Canada, and re-released their first two studio albums to the U.S. and Canadian markets. The re-releases include bonus tracks and videos not featured in the originals. Their debut album was remixed and re-mastered by Laurence Currie for the re-release.

On October 2, 2007, Wintersleep released their third full-length album, Welcome to the Night Sky A limited edition of the album on vinyl with alternative artwork was released by Hand Drawn Dracula. They won the 2008 Juno Award for New Group of the Year.

The band's members frequently collaborate outside of Wintersleep. Murphy and D'eon played together in the band Kary, now on indefinite hiatus. Drummer Campbell has also performed with Kary, and is a member of a number of other projects, including Contrived, Holy Fuck, Hayden, Chikita Violenta, Land of Talk, The Holy Shroud, and The Remains of Brian Borcherdt. Murphy collaborated with his brother in the project Postdata. Bigelow plays bass in Contrived with Campbell, and also plays in Holy Fuck and The Holy Shroud. D'eon played guitar for Contrived before Samuel joined the group, appearing on Contrived's first record, Pursuit of Plots, and the second album, Dead Air Verbatim. Samuel was a member of Halifax band Slight Return.

Wintersleep was selected as one of the opening acts by Paul McCartney for his concert at Halifax Common on July 11, 2009. That year the band toured in support of their album Welcome to the Night Sky, while writing for their fourth studio album, New Inheritors; tThe album was released on May 17 in Europe and May 18 in North America. They released their fifth album, Hello Hum, in 2012.

The group's song "Weighty Ghost" was used in 2008 film One Week, in both the trailer and one of the final scenes. In 2010, the song was included in The Top 100 Canadian Singles by National Post's Bob Mersereau. Wintersleep performed "Weighty Ghost" on Late Show with David Letterman on January 14, 2011. In 2011 the song appeared on the TV series Being Human and was also used in the background of a Molson Canadian commercial, advertising the "Red Leaf Project". In 2013, "Weighty Ghost" became the theme music of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television crime drama Cracked.

In 2014, the band recorded 11 tracks at The Sonic Temple studio in Halifax. That year they also performed on a moving streetcar at the North by Northeast festival in Toronto.

In December, 2015, Wintersleep signed with Dine Alone Records. In January, 2016 the band premiered "Amerika" through the Wall Street Journal's blog. In March 4 of that year the band released an album, The Great Detachment, through Dine Alone.

Band members

Awards