Sleeping at Last is a musical project led by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan O’Neal. The project initially began in Wheaton, Illinois as a three-piece band with Ryan O’Neal as the lead singer and guitarist, his brother Chad O’Neal as the drummer, and Dan Perdue as the bassist. The band independently recorded their debut album, Capture in 2000, which they used to attract the attention of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who helped them get signed to a major record label, Interscope Records. The band released their only major label album, Ghosts in 2003, before going independent again and releasing Keep No Score in 2006, and Storyboards in 2009.
Departure of Chad O’Neal and Storyboards, Yearbook (2008–2011)[edit]
On November 29, 2008, it was announced that drummer Chad O’Neal would be moving on to pursue other interests.[5] In 2009, the band independently released their Storyboards album, which featured a guest orchestral arrangement by the legendary Van Dyke Parks. On July 15, 2010 the band announced via their website that starting on October 1, 2010 until September 1, 2011 they would be releasing three songs on the first day of each month for one year,[6] a project they named Yearbook. The songs were released on their website in twelve separate EPs named after the month in which they were released (e.g. January, February, etc.). As of December 8, 2011, all 12 EPs became available in one Yearbook box set for $45.00. On May 22, 2011 it was announced that bassist and keys player Dan Perdue would be stepping down to pursue other interests. The band will still continue as Sleeping at Last, with Ryan O’Neal being the only permanent member.[7]
Posted from: wikipedia
“ATLANTIC, THE SEA OF ATLAS” & HOW IT WAS MADE.
“atlantic, the sea of atlas” is the 25th & 26th song in the yearbook series, as the opening 2 tracks of the “june” ep. so although “atlantic,” and “the sea of atlas” are technically 2 songs, they were written as one, broken into halves. the first half “atlantic,” is an instrumental piece (continuing the instrumental ocean series that was started with “pacific”) and “the sea of atlas” is the more lively, vocalized counterpart. so i’m going to write this blog post about both pieces. cool?
pt. 1 “Atlantic,”
about 44 seconds in, there’s a piano bit that happens – that piano part is really the foundation of the entire piece (songs 1 & 2) and everything else was layered on top of that small piece of music. it’s actually a piano idea that i wrote and demoed many many years ago. in those older versions it never quite fully developed. right around the time i was writing for the “june,” ep i stumbled upon those old, failed demos of that piano idea and decided to see where i could take it now, after all these years. i had assumed that it would lead me down a similarly failed path as before, so i wasn’t holding my breath that it would turn into much. just thought it might be fun to mess with. to my surprise, a few hours of playing around with it, i felt like i turned a key and uncovered all sorts of new directions and ideas for it. so not only did it end up working to revive this idea, but i felt like it needed to span over 2 tracks. it was a pleasant surprise to say the least. (usually, if an idea doesn’t work, or come close to working after spending a TON of time on it, it’s because the idea isn’t great, or least isn’t a right right. so, i was shocked that i hadn’t found these directions many years back.)
after playing around with those new directions, i decided that i wanted to make the first half (song 1) a gentler, moodier instrumental, using the choruses bits (the piano part i mentioned above) as the nod to what’s to come in song 2 (halve 2). after i wrote the final full arrangement (both halves), i finally had my foundation built and began to layer and layer and layer.
(sidenote: just like in the track “pacific” … i tried to write all of the melodies mimicking waves and the movement of the ocean – melodies that sway a bit. enjoyed writing with that idea in my head.)
soon after, i reached out to my friend and incredible violinist, laura musten (who recorded strings for several yearbook songs!) and asked if she’d want to be a part of this song. i sent her some ideas and she sent me back these brilliant performances (layering her violins) and misc. parts and it was perfect. i put the string pieces together, shaping each of the string parts to the song structure and it all fit together like… bread and butter? or maybe like cinderella’s slipper? like something that fit really well.-while laura was recording her parts/ideas in nashville (using only garageband and a small usb mic!), i wrote a cello line that i asked my good pal, jeremy larson to record/perform. he was kind enough to get right to it and did a fantastic job as usual. (i expect nothing less of jeremy.. he’s one of my favorite musicians!) – right around the same time, both jeremy and laura sent me the recorded string parts and i was so excited with how it all fit together. couldn’t have hoped for better.
Posted from: http://www.sleepingatlast.com/blog/atlantic-the-sea-of-atlas-how-it-was-made
