Sleep Station
Encyclopedia
Sleep Station is an American
indie rock
band on Eyeball Records
from Bergen County
, New Jersey
that revolves around frontman David Debiak. While some Sleep Station albums have been recorded with a full band (After the War, The Pride of Chester James), others have essentially been David Debiak solo albums (Von Cosel, The Blood of Our Our Fathers), featuring very little, if any, instrumentation other than David Debiak's own guitar playing. Sleep Station is known for its concept albums; to date, all Sleep Station releases have been concept album
s, and have been called "rock operas" by some critics. David Debiak himself, however, has stated that he is not trying to tell a story in his songs, stating in a MySpace bulletin "Every record I have done as Sleep Station has been thematic in its nature, not trying to tell a story but just create a mood." Unconventional love affairs and war are common lyrical themes in Sleep Station's music.
, a doctor who fell in love with a dying tuberculosis patient, and proceeded to live with her body after her death.
In 2008, Sleep Station returned from hiatus with the album The Pride of Chester James, an album about a fictional circus drifter who shows up in a small town.
Later in the year, Sleep Station released The Blood Of Our Fathers as a free download on the Air and Sea Battle website, an album whose lyrics loosely revolve around two brothers fighting in an unnamed war.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band on Eyeball Records
Eyeball Records
Eyeball Records is an independent record label based in Northern New Jersey, formed in 1995 by Alex Saavedra. They have released albums by artists such as Thursday, My Chemical Romance and Murder by Death....
from Bergen County
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
that revolves around frontman David Debiak. While some Sleep Station albums have been recorded with a full band (After the War, The Pride of Chester James), others have essentially been David Debiak solo albums (Von Cosel, The Blood of Our Our Fathers), featuring very little, if any, instrumentation other than David Debiak's own guitar playing. Sleep Station is known for its concept albums; to date, all Sleep Station releases have been concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
s, and have been called "rock operas" by some critics. David Debiak himself, however, has stated that he is not trying to tell a story in his songs, stating in a MySpace bulletin "Every record I have done as Sleep Station has been thematic in its nature, not trying to tell a story but just create a mood." Unconventional love affairs and war are common lyrical themes in Sleep Station's music.
Anhedonia
Sleep Station began in 2001, with David Debiak having the intention of producing a movie. Unable to obtain funds to do so, he opted to write a soundtrack to the nonexistent movie instead. The result was the concept album Anhedonia, released on Spot The Genius Productions in 2001, which chronicles the life, death and subsequent trip to hell, of a serial killer and rapist.Runaway Elba-1
Following Anhedonia, Sleep Station signed to New Jersey-based Eyeball Records. In 2002, Sleep Station released its first album on Eyeball Records, Runaway Elba-1. The album tells the story of a cybernetics engineer who builds a female robot, Elba-1. Elba-1 and the engineer fall wildly in love, but must flee when the engineer's employers are determined to steal Elba-1.Von Cosel
The following year, Sleep Station released the Von Cosel EP as a free download on the band's website. Although previous Sleep Station albums had featured several David Debiak acoustic solo songs, Von Cosel was the first release to completely abandon the "band" format and exclusively consist of David Debiak playing solo. Von Cosel tells the story of Dr. Carl Von CoselCarl Tanzler
Carl Tanzler or sometimes Count Carl von Cosel was a German-born radiologist at the United States Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida who developed a morbid obsession for a young Cuban-American tuberculosis patient, Elena Milagro "Helen" de Hoyos , that carried on well after the disease had...
, a doctor who fell in love with a dying tuberculosis patient, and proceeded to live with her body after her death.
Hang In There Charlie
For their next album, Hang In There Charlie, Sleep Station once again adopted a "band" format. Hang In There Charlie tells the story of two astronauts who arrive at a space station to discover it has been hugely neglected. When the astronauts protest, they are punished by NASA by being abandoned and left in the space station to die.After The War
In 2004, Sleep Station released its arguably most successful album to date, After The War. Recorded using mostly instruments and equipment from the 1940s, After The War tells the story of a soldier fighting in World War II, while occasionally interspersing stories from other characters. The album features interludes of 1940s audio recordings of soldiers reciting poetry for their wives and girlfriends.Hiatus and return
Following After the War, Sleep Station went on hiatus, with David Debiak starting a side project, New London Fire, with his brother Jason.In 2008, Sleep Station returned from hiatus with the album The Pride of Chester James, an album about a fictional circus drifter who shows up in a small town.
Later in the year, Sleep Station released The Blood Of Our Fathers as a free download on the Air and Sea Battle website, an album whose lyrics loosely revolve around two brothers fighting in an unnamed war.
Albums
- Anhedonia (2000)
- Runaway Elba-1 (2002) (re-released in 2003)
- Hang In There Charlie (2003)
- After The War (2004)
- The Pride of Chester James (2008)
- The Blood Of Our Fathers (2008)