75 Bands in 75 Days – Day 51: SleepyPilot
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, to 75 Bands in 75 Days, where we’re showcasing some of the best talent that the Pacific Northwest has to offer, at least one band per day, leading up to December 31st, to ring in a new year. This list is in no particular order and it is not a chart or a countdown. It’s merely a list of bands or musicians that we feel are worthy of checking out. SleepyPilot is the band for Day 51, check them out, they have a sort of psychedelic rootsy blues sound and will get you moving!
The band SleepyPilot started in the mind of multi-talented guitarist/ singer Sean Van Dommelen while he was holding down lead guitar duties in local favorites VIII Days Clean. An entry and subsequent selection as the Grand Prize Winner in the 2010 John Lennon Songwriting contest allowed Sean the freedom to make a full length album and give life to the music he’d been writing as SleepyPilot. Even though VIII Days Clean was flying high at the time Van Dommelen decided to part ways and start on his dream of building SleepyPilot. He played all the instruments on the fantastic debut release but he wanted a band.
Sean recruited Jason Bair for his creative vision of music and innovative drumming perspective, his close friend Greg Magee for his funky basslines and the first incarnation of SP was set. After numerous shows all across the northwest over the period of a few years, the extremely talented Paul Uhl of the Deborah Page Band joined forces with Sean. With Paul on guitar and keys it adds an element to the band’s live show by freeing Sean up to focus more on vocals. Aaron Ellsworth recently replaced Magee on the bass and the band is set to soar higher than ever before.
With this vision of SleepyPilot, the new members are bringing to life a project that was once just a thought. The album in which VanDommelen wrote is a mere starting point for the group and they are quickly expanding on the style of the album. SleepyPilot just signed with Maurice The Fish Records and they look forward to a very busy 2015. We’ve seen this band several times and highly recommend seeing them live and grabbing their music.
Check out SleepyPilot on Facebook and their WEBSITE
Get a free download of “I’ll be Home For Christmas” HERE