As I sat down he offered me what he referred to as Baozhong tea, and not being a stickler, I obliged the request. After prepping the recording equipment, ordering another fantastic tea, and getting our minds situated the discussion began.
D3COD3R: "What Originally got you interested in music?"
FS: "As far as pop rock music and playing for people is concerned, in 7th grade I had this friend who played Green Day's 'Holiday' in the talent show as a solo instrumental piece. After that everyone thought he was like 'the coolest kid on the face of the earth' and I was this awkward really skinny sixth grader that wanted to be cool so I thought I'd try to learn to play guitar.
D3C0D3R: "From there how did music affect your life?"
FS: "I had originally been in orchestra but it was not until sophomore year of high school that I really started to recognize I enjoyed music and felt confident to declare it. It was also at this point I started talking with my history teacher who was a huge music buff both listening and performance wise who introduced me to great artists such as The National, Bon Iver, and these other very cathartic artists. Of course, as I discovered my style it made me popular and really feel in tune with myself."
In the words of Garth, "I like to play".
D3C0D3R: "Now, it's funny you mentioned you were in orchestra as within your newest album 'Stay Quiet, Stay Ahead,' you actually have a few piano/synth parts overlaying your guitar and vocals what instruments can you play?FS: I play viola, piano, bass, guitar, and sing. I've fiddled around on drums before but there have always been a few big things in my way; One, drums are expensive and two, they are loud (chuckles). So, for those two reasons it makes it difficult to really practice drums. But looking forward I'm hoping to recruit a drummer to play some snare or brush sticks."
D3C0D3R: "Following up on recruiting do you consider yourself a solo act or and entity that can allow a multitude of members?"
FS: "Honestly, hopefully one day it becomes more than just one person but, the fact that I'm still in college, it's a very busy time for me so it's hard to find time to practice and perfect enough with others to feel comfortable we're playing at a high enough quality. I do feel though that people are still willing to accept you playing solo as I don't feel they are in the crowd thinking 'Man this would sound so much better with drums,' or anything like that.
As we continue talking I question FS his feelings on being back in his hometown after being away for a year studying in Ohio and which scene he feels he enjoys more.
FS: I of course say I'm from the Detroit area as that is known as it's own scene if I said I was from Troy no one would know where that is but, as far as that scene itself, I've done very little exploring as I have not had the opportunity though I've heard great things about it. I will say though that Columbus, Ohio does have some great talent and tricks they pull on music.
He then went into detail on how Columbus seems to completely throw genre limitations out the window to open an avenue of new musical discovery.
Insert shameless promotion here.
FS: They have a lot of weird spins on what we say is the classic singer/songwriter for example there's a group that has auto harp mixed with hip hop rapping which has it's own unique vibe to it which. It seems everyone is always collaborating together and putting out fantastic combinations of music acting more as melting pot of styles then specific people staying in their respective bands.D3C0D3R: "You actually do not like to thought of or brought on stage as 'Alex Paquet' you prefer your stage entity 'Field Sleeper,' can you tell where the name originated and what it means?"
FS: "'Field Sleeper' came from boy scouts originating from the real act of sleeping in fields, but I did not have a name till I sat down and thought 'I really need a moniker' but that did not hit me until I went to college. This was because I did not realize how much 'Boy Scouts' had effect my decision making process or social norms until I went off to college. There's that part to it and the theme of reflectiveness that I feel most people do not do until they are about to sleep with thoughts of the day circling through their heads. Its very much about how the past has lead you to where you are today as field sleeping has for me."
D3C0D3R: "Now for my readers and people you actually introduce your music to it has to be a little hard to nail down exactly what your sound is with them since you do have a pretty broad range of sound, how do you describe your music to them?"
FS: "When I was writing a year and a half ago I could see that pop music had a very grounded framework with the pulsing thumping bass drum, heavy guitar, etc while to counter that they had very airy ooh-ahh vocals. Well I wanted to flipped that on it's head with very airy guitar parts but have everything grounded in the vocals which for the longest time led my vocals melodies to have very little pitch change because I wanted to outline the chords but not go too crazy. If I had to pin it down though I'd call it 'Art Folk' though it's a strange term but if you were to strip away everything to the acoustic guitar I think you'd find it sounds very folk-like under the effects. But, I feel with the effects I use on the electric guitar and my vocal styling it sort of, spins it off into more original."
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