Asleep corrects course as studio session nears

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

The members of Asleep had an epiphany this year at South by Southwest, the annual festival of indie rock’s best in Austin, Texas.

“We were in a comfort zone in Youngstown,” said Nick Kloss, drummer for the four-piece prog-rock band. “South by Southwest is the place where people do what they do, and the record companies catch up to it.”

Asleep’s last record, “Between, Above and Below” (2009), was designed to nudge the musically dense act into more of a pop zone. It was made with the help of New York producer Mike Watts (Sevendust, Hopesfall) and was designed to reach the middle ground.

Big mistake, said Asleep guitarist Jon Dean.

“They never pressured us to sound like anything, but we were being marketed as an indie-rock project [by our management company], and they weren’t really associated with that scene,” said Dean. “We were being pitched to the presidents of record labels, and there was pressure to get a hit. ... If it would’ve worked, it would’ve been career suicide.”

Asleep, said Dean, are lifers when it comes to their music ambitions, and the “stardom or death” philosophy that comes with being a major-label act would not work in their favor because of the band’s decidedly nonmainstream sound.

The band is chalking it up to a learning experience. And they’re moving on now in a direction that will allow them to stay true to themselves.

Asleep will record in May with famed engineer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Jesus Lizard, P.J. Harvey, The Pixies) in Chicago. Dean noted that Albini is not a producer; in other words, he will not attempt to mold or shape the band into something that wouldn’t be natural for Asleep.

Albini is known for favoring old-school recording tech-niques (analog, not digital) to capture a band’s live essence, said Kloss. That’s why they sought him out.

Asleep is now a four-piece — Todd Kaden on vocals and guitar and Larry Serb on bass round out the roster. The band’s sound is now more guitar-based with keyboards being elminated. “It’s more ambient, but not as spaced out,” said Kloss. “Dean is playing the amp more than the guitar. ... There is more guitar, and it is intense but without being metal. It’s more raw, rock, noisy, with punk influences.”

Asleep has been playing a lot of shows in Chicago, where it is growing an appreciative audience. But it soon will go on a short hiatus of a few months to prepare for its upcoming recording sessions with Albini.

Upcoming shows include Friday at the Smiling Moose in Pittsburgh, Saturday at Cedars in Youngstown and Dec. 4 at Professor’s Pub in Kent.

The Youngstown show will be the last in the city for a while, said Dean.