Theory Therapy 93: sleepdial
Underwater currents from Denver
I’m really pleased to welcome Denver-based producer sleepdial onto the series. Recorded almost immediately after the ask, his mix leans into instinct – pulling tracks together through mood and feel. Expect long overlaps, blurred edges, and sounds folding into each other over time.
Hey Luke. How are you today?
I’m doing my best to stay sane during a truly chaotic era!
What was the last song you listened to?
“Touch the Pond” by Lucy… Nothing else like it (:
Where do you most enjoy listening to music?
Right now, in a bath with my ears underwater, lol.
What’s the best music discovery you’ve made recently?
I found a copy of “Music for the End”, the first record by Orchestra of the Eighth Day, at a secondhand shop recently. It’s deeply moving!! I also love how dedicated to finality they were at the start of their career. Their second record is titled “At the Last Gate”, but like, we were already at the end, which was also the beginning…
Is there an artist or album you listen to often that people might not expect based on your own sound?
I’m a huge Prefab Sprout fan <3
Tell us a bit about your musical background – what was the first album that really stuck with you, and when did you start exploring electronic production?
I didn’t grow up in a super musical household, I took piano lessons as a child and that felt more like a disciplinary thing, but I vividly remember having a camp counselor play “Images and Words” by Dream Theater when I was 11 years old… “Metropolis pt. I: The Miracle and the Sleeper” has this wild synth arpeggio early on in the track and I couldn’t understand how that sound was possible. A couple years later I had some mall-goth friends in middle school who switched me on to cybergrind, and I think that’s when the concept of a drum machine clicked for me. One of them helped me crack FL Studio in high school and I have been sucked into the DAW ever since!
How does your creative process usually begin – is it driven more by texture, rhythm, or a specific emotional idea?
Every track is so different, and not having a super fleshed out process definitely means it takes longer to give the care and attention I feel the music deserves… The emotional impulse definitely seems to inform the bulk of it though.
Are there any non-musical influences that consistently shape your sound?
Loneliness </3
Tell us a bit about RV Lights and how that release on West Mineral came together.
Those tracks were produced between 2020 - 2023 and were super inspired by the whole c- nexus that was active in Kansas City at the time. They put on festivals each year, and getting invited to play those really pushed me to develop a deeper and more textural palette since that whole community was laser focused on a very specific sound. I met Brian at the final c- fest in 2023 and was very generously invited to release on his label after playing together in Denver that same year!
The album feels like a world in itself – was that something you set out to build, or did it come together naturally from individual tracks?
The intention was definitely to try and create a world within each track and I didn’t consider how they would flow together until the very final stages… I didn’t want to force or rush any part of production since that sort of pressure used to be a large and unhealthy part of my output. Giving them space on their own as opposed to constantly thinking within the context of an album was a first for me and I am surprised they work well together given some of the tracks are years apart!
Talk us through your Theory Therapy mix – where it came together and what kind of space you were in mentally or musically.
I recorded it in my living room about 10 minutes after you hit me up! It’s been a confusing year and so it feels important to make every second count. Part of me is always chasing some experience of catharsis and I want to relay that in anything I share with the world. A lot of the tracks are in relative keys and, as with all the mixes I record, come together as a product of idiosyncrasy. I love hearing a quirk in one track which reminds me of another, then doing the same with the following track, et al. Matching based on atmosphere is more important to me than matching based on rhythm, and the longer I can play multiple tracks at the same time, the better I feel it aggregates the miracle of sound which brings us all together, and how anything can work in the right context!
Where would you recommend listening to it?
In a bath with ears underwater <3
Tracklist:
Ring - Rotation 1
Susumu Yokota - Gekkoh
Max Buzone - Isotropic
Cancer House - Camera Obscura
killd by - hopeless [222]
1000 Eyes - The Frightened
Kissen - Tijuana Fog
Davorama - Stress Test
DJ Birdbath - Uncertainty Dub
crops - crop 2
emer - Shell
Mike Midnight - fLUXus
Cousin - Toad
Bowery Electric - Fear of Flying
Loop LF - Stepping Back
Nueen & Defled - Talkless