Xtreme Music: What’s your feeling about Sleepytime Gorilla Museum live performances and what has the crowd reaction been like? Pretty melodies stacked on top of sludge. I would love to think I’m thinking about really minimalist bashing, world-ending sludge-rock and also really involved classical music. guys like Messian and bands like The Swans. Matthias Bossi: Well, twentieth-century classical music.

Xtreme Music: Where do you find your inspiration musically for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The Swans! They are the end all be all for me right now in terms of where I want to go, how my writing is going, my contributions to the band and what I’ve been hearing. Xtreme Music: Who would you say have been your main musical influences and how have they shaped your musical direction? It was rock music with a major punch! They had the two drummer thing going on, in a way my role is the same but it is a lot more involved with this band (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum). really edgy pop music! It had time-signatures, pretty consistant meters and tempos. Matthias Bossi: Well, Skeleton Key was popular. Xtreme Music: How do you feel the music from Skeleton Key differs from that of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum? I was willing to do that and they just freaked out! They really did! rally back and forth with a band touring a month here, and then me touring with the other band. We would all sit down and think about a way to work things out for a schedule. I was offered the drummer’s chair in Sleepytime and they were very clear that they didn’t want to disturb my band. A terrible divorce in which both sides felt they were justified in their positions. Matthias Bossi: It was a bad breakup and not necessarily acrimonious, but it was pretty bad. I’d like to start the interview by asking about your work with Skeleton Key, how did that finish? Xtreme Music: I’m here with Matthias, the drummer of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, outside The Tonic in New York City. Vincent from Xtreme Music interviewed Matthias Bossi of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum on AugNew York (NY), The Tonic. Their next album will be released on Trey Spruance’s Mimicry Records. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s debut album “Grand Opening And Closing” is co-released on Seeland and Chaosophy Recordings. A band truly worthy of more than the cult status they have already achieved. Sweet lullabys and auditory orgasms are combined to explore haunting themes of insomnia, life, death and history in a conceptual dream context. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum will happily provide the soundtrack to your worst nightmare or that favourite bedtime story. Throughout the night, Sleepytime continued to perform an extreme combination of sonic dreamscapes and interwoven artistic melodies. After their first tune, the band removed their face masks to reveal abstractly painted faces which were as disturbing as they were appealing. Everybody seemed to get straight into the darkly beautiful vibe of this theatrical group. The siren faded and the theatrical group kicked into their first song. Slowly they made their way through the audience and onto the stage. Spotlights searched the crowd until they landed upon various members of the band wearing farmyard animal masks. The grand opening featured a deafening siren which was a suitable cue for everyone to secure their ear plugs. The terrifying assault performed by these highly talented musicians is not for the faint-hearted. Included is a fully equipped arsenal of home-made instruments and percussion based weaponry. Staff members include violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat Trio, Charming Hostess), guitarist/vocalist Nils Frykdahl (Idiot Flesh), bassist/instrument builder Dan Rathbun, drummer Frank Grau & multi-percussionist Moe! Staiano. The museum concluded their 32 date tour of the U.S.A by showcasing a special exhibit at the Oakland Metro. SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM is an avant-garde performance art prog-rock band from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sleepytime gorilla museum