While She Sleeps have confirmed that they’re stepping back from touring for a while in their new mini-documentary The Paradox Of Progress.
The documentary showcases the Sheffield band’s 20-year career and gives the five-piece a chance to explain why they’re prioritising their own wellbeing over the pressures of the music industry.
“The industry wants more music, more often if we want to keep up with the rat race of streaming algorithms, which begs the question of what falls first, the sanity of the artist or the quality of their work?” said guitarist and vocalist Mat Welsh. “The documentary takes you on a lightspeed journey through the past 20 years, which is often how our career has felt.”
Welsh explained that the band have always opted to “push through, support each other and take the road less travelled to get to where we are” despite times when “we probably could’ve thrown the towel in”.
He described their next step as one of the “toughest decisions” they’ve made to date. “Sacrificing our financial lifeline of live performance, for the wager of what is possible when we press pause on the outside world and ‘rat race’ of the music industry.
“It’s so easy to spend all your time watching everyone else and think you need to adhere to the same pace, at the sacrifice of your own mental health. We’ve got where we are by doing things ‘our way’ and this is us doubling down on that approach.”
Guitarist Sean Long said, “The music is what brought us all together in the first place and will be the one thing that lasts forever. This is the paradox of progress; in order to move forward we must first take a step back.”
Drummer Adam Savage added, “This isn’t about us being a bigger band, it’s about us being a band forever.”
The full mini-doc is on YouTube, and you can check it out here.
The documentary and announcement come almost two years after the metalcore icons released their sixth album, ‘Self Hell’. They followed the album with a series of live dates, including a slot at Download Festival and shows across the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan.
They then toured North America last spring before playing European festivals, shows in Australia, Singapore and China, and finishing the year in Doncaster with a special ‘20 Years of While She Sleeps’ show.
Back in 2023, with the band looking towards a huge headline show at London’s Alexandra Palace, vocalist Lawrence Taylor told NME, “It’s turned into a thing where we just belong on a big stage,” and likened the show, which was announced a year in advance, to a marathon. He explained, “It’s fun to sign up for something you don’t know you can do. You might sign up for a marathon, but you’re not ready for a marathon.”
Welsh, meanwhile, stressed that intimate shows were still just as important to the band. He explained, “We try to keep things super ground level in the band with our audience. We’re still the band that plays in that sweaty room. That’s part of our culture, and it’s important to keep that alive and support those venues.”