By: Lindsay Moscarello
Life is full of defining moments, some result in pride, some in disaster and others are a happy medium. For a group of Chicago based punks, collectively known as Sleep On It, embarking on their first headlining United States tour supporting Pride & Disaster, raised the question of which it would be, while hoping for the latter. Sleep On It released the new full-length album in September through Equal Vision Records in September 2019.
While they are touring veterans, Zech Pluister, Jake Marquis, TJ Horansky and Luka Fischman, were in new territory with this tour, appropriately named ‘Pride & DisasTOUR.’ Highlight Magazine had a chance to talk with Guitarist and Vocalist, TJ Horansky, while out on the road.
“We had no idea how it would go, but we’ve been humbled by the incredible response so far,” Horansky said about ‘Pride & DisasTOUR.’ “We’d really like to celebrate the songs by bringing the album to life in a live setting.”
TJ Horanksy
Despite the worries of cancellation arising midway through the tour, due to global health concerns; Pluister, Marquis, Horansky and Fischman; still gave every show their all. In between the release and headliner, Sleep On It did just that, incorporating new songs into live sets.
“We’ve played the 3 singles: ‘Under the Moment,’ ‘After Tonight’ and ‘Hold Your Breath’ quite a bit since the fall,” Horansky said.
The band debuted ‘Fix the Dark’ at their holiday show and according to Horansky, “the response was awesome, so we put it on the setlist.” He noted those four songs remained on the headlining set list, “plus a few other deeper cuts from Pride & Disaster.” He shared that the majority of songs on Pride & Disaster were written “with the live show in mind.”
Lead Singer, Zech Pluister spoke in a previous Highlight interview about the goal of Pride & Disaster being “to portray the thought [that]there are still good days.” Horansky spoke on how he and his bandmates, may showcase that thought throughout the tour, on and off stage.
“There are both good and bad days on tour,” Pluister said. “Sometimes it’s just out of our control. A lot of our songs talk about hope, and I think showing up and putting on a great show every night is the best was to showcase that.”
Zech Pluister
Horansky described “Take Me Back” as a track most closely reflecting “pride” and “disaster.” The track “sums up a lot of the sentiment was tried to convey on the album.”
“It deals with a lot of inner turmoil and desire to grow. We have loved playing it on the tour,” he said.
Individually, Horansky described “definitely experiencing my fair share of growing over the past couple years while writing and recording the album.” While he opted not to delve too deep into details, he did share how “writing this album definitely helped put some things into perspective.”
Horansky chose that track and “Under the Moment” as his favorite songs to play live. He described seeing “fans singing the words, to not just the singles, but all of the songs off of ‘Pride & Disaster’ has been awesome.”
Sleep On It puts on a stellar show, one this writer attended earlier this month in Atlanta. Unfortunately, following The Masquerade tour stop, Sleep On It announced the postponement of the remaining dates, due to growing national health concerns and risks.
During the hiatus, Sleep On It has made all of the “Pride & DisasTOUR” merchandise available for purchase through their web store here.
