By Will Yannacoulias
Regina’s Roughsleeper will release their long-anticipated EP No Survivors on Friday April 12. No Survivors is a five-song serving of tight, bouncy pop-punk perfection, a sampling of which was offered with the March 8th release of the EP's first single “Drunks”. Fast, aggressive, melodic and memorable, singer/guitarist Rob White, guitarist Steve Safruik, drummer Steve McNeil and bassist Joey Gadica have collectively created a cohesive and distinctly cool sound for Roughsleeper’s debut. NSMZ spoke with White about the band, the single and the EP. Enjoy!
Roughsleeper impressed with their debut single “Another Blank Page” in February of 2022, a driving, energetic punk/emo gem with noisy guitars and drums irresistibly smooshed up against sugar-sweet hooks. The band originally started in 2017 with ebbs and flows in activity and several lineup changes, and felt finally ready to take things to the next level when the pandemic undid all their carefully-laid plans. “We recorded and released ‘Another Blank Page’ just to do something with the band, so it didn’t totally die off” White explained.
The current lineup of the band got together in July 2022 and began writing all fresh material, with the single “Drunks” being the first song to have come from those sessions. “I originally wrote ‘Drunks’ in 2019 and always had it as a demo” White recalled, “kinda rough with programmed drums and just thinking to myself ‘one day… maybe’”. When Roughsleeper’s current lineup finally came together the “Drunks” demo was the first project put forward, collaboratively fleshed out, and completed.
“Drunks” will take its place alongside four more tracks on April 12th when No Survivors is released. White spoke candidly about the excitement of finally sharing the album after investing so much time and passion into the project. “I’m really stoked to have it come out, we tracked it last June so it’s been a bit of a long road to get to this point. It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on a recording. Everyone else brought their best and so I really wanted to do a really good job with the vocals, get all my guitar parts down and layered, get the melodies right, sing everything on key. In the past I didn’t always have the most polished final product and sometimes told myself that there was a charm in that, but with this album I felt that wasn’t gonna cut it. The rest of the guys killed it, we worked our asses off and I’m so excited for people to hear it.”
“Drunks” is available on all streaming services. The five track EP No Survivors is scheduled to be released Friday April 12th. Roughsleeper is next appearing at June 14th at The Exchange in Regina opening for Authority Zero.
(Aaaand just for fun, Roughsleeper paid a stranger $100 to make a video for "Drunks" and filmed a reaction video. Good stuff!)