It’s 4 a.m. and the ceiling is more interesting than the inside of your eyelids. The cyclical thoughts repeat, repeat, repeat. You’re “turning wheels in your brain,” as The Sadderdays put it in their latest single, “Song for Insomnia”.
Their addictively repetitive guitar and synth tracks perfectly mirror the pattern of attempted rest that has alluded us all at one point or another. Hayley Kempsell’s soft, yet determined opening, “I haven’t really slept in days,” feels painfully relatable.
Each honest lyric is crafted from personal experience. They started life as a poem written in the middle of the night. Each stanza exploring all the things that kept her up at night, blaming how she’s “wired” and being “angry at the moon.”
The frustration matches tonally with the staccato melody in the keys that picks away at the near lullaby notes that lace her voice. The duality of dreamy keys and vocal timbre against the bouncing counter-melody encapsulate the nature of insomnia.
As the band jokingly said about all the songs on their upcoming debut EP, including “Song for Insomnia”, “we slow rocked the shit out of that.” Every musical element blends into their sleepless vibe.
Stream “Song for Insomnia” below.
Ben is an advertising Madman who spends his days with words and music. When he’s not writing for his supper, he’s eating it at some of NYC’s most interesting restaurants.
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