Sleeping States

When we speak in early March, Markland Starkie is excited. He has the next weekend off – his first in a long time – and he plans on doing very little, maybe some washing. Such are the small joys of the busy man, one who combines the bill paying day job with freelance film sound design and a rather wonderful musical moniker. “I'm never going to make a tonne of money out of it and I don't necessarily want to make a career out of it,” Markland says of the latter lo-fi brilliance of Sleeping States. “It's a hobby, and a really enjoyable one. I do it because I like trying new stuff and if people want to buy it that's really cool.”

Ragged Words have bought into Sleeping States hook, line and sinker. So much so that, speaking personally, when first listening to There The Open Spaces (our 7th best album of last year ) on a September night, I was unable to stop until work insisted so the following morning. Sleeping States’ second LP – the follow up to 2004’s self-released Distances Are Great – is full of such stark beauty that, evidently, it demands insomnia. And for a record that flows so effortlessly, it surprisingly wasn’t designed that way.

“It was more of a scrapbook,” Markland admits. “For previous album and EP’s, I'd written for each project with an idea in mind and built a record around that. There… was more a collection of songs that didn't necessarily sit on any of those EP's. I got a lot busier in my normal life outside music so the rate at which I wrote slowed down and there were greater gaps but I still think it flows together quite well as an album.”

While the record’s subject matter is more varied than on Distances Are Great, it still exudes the lonely, stark feel of big city life. With the culture shock of growing up in Stratford Upon Avon and studying in Norwich before moving to London very specifically informing his debut, Markland admits last year’s record was more comfortable with the notion.

“Whereas the first album was starting to deal with that, I’m beginning to reach conclusions with this record. I've been in London for six years now so I don't feel quite like the tourist in my own town that I did before. I wouldn't say all the record is this country/city divide but it is still quite important to me.”

There The Open Spaces captures this landscape primarily through the sparse, discordant sounds that litter the album. It’s what Burial’s Untrue would sound like if played on detuned guitar. The approach – to use open rather than conventional tunings – came about more out of frustration than fruition.

“When I first started Sleeping States, I found it really, really difficult to write stuff because I'd done music theory and knew exactly what cord progressions I was coming out with, what cadences I was using and I'd think nothing I was coming up with has any originality. I overcame that by detuning my guitar so I didn't know what I was playing and it became much more intuitive and I was learning my own theory if that makes sense.”

Does a musically academic background (Markland went to music school and more recently completed a degree in sound art) therefore oddly make the process of writing songs harder?

“It does make it more difficult but the end result is more satisfying because you know what's gone into it. Also I think the studies I did with my degree really helped in terms of contextualising my music, just thinking about the production. It's a really lo-fi record and all of my stuff generally has been and it's not necessarily because I'm a lo-fi freak (laughs). I just prefer the documentary process of recording music rather than making everything as professional and perfect sounding as possible.

Although admitting, if given the chance, that he’d rather buy some nice equipment and go somewhere more interesting to record than throw loads of money at a random producer, Markland is intrigued by the manner Brian Eno approaches his studio compositions. It follows on from a previous interview where he nicely summarised his influences as those that “have a great understanding of music and ways to experiment with it whilst still being able to write great songs.”

“Yeah, I wonder where I said that,” Lunapark6, how quickly they forget. “To clarify though, I'm also really excited by the whole naivety in music and the punk rock 'I don't know how to play a guitar but I'm going to bash out a song anyway. A lot of the people I listen to do have a more academic background. I think doing the degree opened this world of more experimental music and composition. I'm loathe to say it has directly influenced my music as yet because the songs on the last album were already written before and during it.”

What’s next should be equally intriguing then. Having released a spilt 7” with Fanfarlo earlier in the month, the next Sleeping States release, planned for later in the year, will be a studio recorded EP (a first) featuring evolved full band versions of old material. Before work begins on the next album though, a number of other projects require focus.

“I'm going to take a little bit of a break from Sleeping States, I've got some other music projects to get on, just a few other ideas and other people that I want to work with. I was doing a project last year with a friend of mine who is more of an experimental guitarist (the similarly monikered Music For One). We were doing more ambient, guitar instrumental music and we’re having a reunion session next month.”

“With Sleeping States, I want to keep it more song focused rather than keep everything under that moniker. I'm aware that not everybody would be into everything that I want to try out. Sleeping States is a project in itself and I'm very happy working within that medium and set of boundaries, and I don't want to stretch them too much for now at least.”