Premiere: The Sleepyheads team up with Connor Brooker for new single, Nihilist

A couple of years ago, The Sleepyheads felt like a band on the verge of becoming Australia's next breakthrough artist; an act teetering on the edge from becoming a local favourite to a full-blown festival favourite. Since their emergence back in 2016, the Launceston group has played nearly every event underneath the Tasmanian sun (from triple j's One Night Stand to Falls Festival) and become a go-to for captivating Australian punk in its most glorious form, something they've shown with releases including their 2017 EP Cold Hands Hold It Together.

Across the last year or two, however, things have been a little quieter for the group, as they keep their heads down and focus their eyes towards writing new material, and venturing outside of what they've shown us with the singles and other releases across the last five years. Oh, and there was also... everything that we won't talk about... going on at the same time, which as we've learnt time and time again, threw artists into a period of unpredictability, no matter how promising or potential-filled they seemed.

It's something broken down on their new single Nihilist, which marks the first new material from The Sleepyheads in about two years and with it, welcomes the return of a long-time favourite finding their place once again. "Nihilist was written in mid 2020, it’s a bit of a tongue in cheek observation of just how completely f**ked the world was at that point in time," says vocalist Pat Broxton on the single. 

On Nihilist, they channel that frustration and chaos into one of their heaviest singles yet; a rough-around-the-edges three-minutes-thirty that descends into this punk-inspired rush to their more-often jangly and melody-rich sound. BUGS frontman Connor Brooker hops up to join in as well, as Nihilist becomes an ode to bands that had their glistening future robbed away from them, and are now only just finding their footing once again. "Once we got into the studio in early 2021, I really felt like the song needed a bit of a change in the second verse, that was when I hit Connor up and he was absolutely great at adding his personality to it."

The end result is an incredibly exciting return that re-arms The Sleepyheads with the title of a band on the cusp of something brilliant; something we have no doubts will continue to show as the group share everything they've written over the last two years or so.

In the meantime, Nihilist is the first taste of that, and comes with tour dates throughout Australia's east coast over the next little while. You can find those tour dates and the single as it premieres below, but otherwise, keep your eyes on The Sleepyheads as they re-introduce themselves as one of your favourite Australian acts:

Tour Dates (with Semantics): 

Friday, 6th August - Black Bear Lodge - Brisbane, QLD
Friday, 5th November - Worker's Club - Melbourne, VIC
Friday, 13th November - OAF Gallery - Sydney, NSW

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