It's been a few years since I've covered Don't Sleep on the site. For those of you who might not be up on the band yet, the quintet is comprised of vocalist Dave Smalley (DYS, Dag Nasty, ALL, Down By Law), bassist Garrett Rothman (Junction), drummer Jim Bedorf, and guitarists Tom McGrath (Very Americans) and Tony Bavaria (The Commercials, Very Americans).
So, yeah, there's a lot of hardcore punk pedigree within the group's ranks. But more importantly than that, Don't Sleep pen fantastic songs.
Their debut album, Turn the Tide, arrived in 2020, and doubters who worried it was another vanity project from a legendary vocalist from the hardcore scene were silenced by the record's abundance of melodic hooks and driving guitar riffs.
Now, after working up new material in their rehearsal room (and a Tom Petty cover), Don't Sleep are gearing up to release their sophomore album, See Change. The 9-track collection was co-produced by the GRAMMY-nominated team of Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland (August Burns Red, Silverstein) and will be out this summer.
Today, I'm honored to help premiere the Josh Nesmith-directed music video for "Promise Made," a track from See Change:
The clip depicts a fictional band called Fear of Failure preparing to play a big gig in their hometown. The fictional band includes Evan McGrath on guitar, whose father Tom McGrath plays guitar in Don’t Sleep, Garrett Rothman’s son Theo on bass, and Izzy Howard on guitar, whose father Josh Howard plays bass in legendary punk band The Virus.
The "Promise Made" single will be out this Friday (April 14th) across all streaming outlets (pre-save).
See Change will hit stores on June 2nd via End Hits Records on limited colored vinyl with two different cover options (one for North America and one for Europe/UK). The digipack CD version will contain 8 bonus songs that have not been available on compact disc before. Pre-orders are available here.
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Tagged: dont sleep
