Since releasing Let’s Cheers To This in 2011, Sleeping With Sirens have experienced a disorienting abundance of milestones, including nonstop touring, multiple stints on Warped Tour, and going platinum with the album’s crown jewel, “If You Can’t Hang.” Toward the end of September, they’ll hit one more. The band will embark on a nostalgic anniversary tour with Holding Absence, ending at Las Vegas’ When We Were Young, where they’ll play the album in full to thousands of true blues. It’ll be a real feather-in-their-cap moment — one that’s likely to live in their minds for a long time as the final note of the title track stretches out.
The post-hardcore giants have gone through many shifts in the years since their 2010s breakout and come through a stronger, more well-rounded band. Perhaps frontman Kellin Quinn says it best: “This is the record that really changed everything for this band.” Indeed, Let’s Cheers To This — their second and greatest LP — marked a time of intense growth and transformation for the Orlando crew as they saw their crowds get bigger in real time, physically reacting to their new songs and committing them to memory. Sleeping With Sirens had erupted into mainstream consciousness, and for good reason. The album boasted the rawest parts of 2000s emo (think Pierce the Veil and the Used, both of whom they’d later tour with) while capturing pop punk’s neon glow and experimenting with emo’s metalcore crossover moment via crushing breakdowns. The result was profoundly catchy, heavy-hitting, and, most essentially, emotionally resonant.
Read more: Every Sleeping With Sirens album ranked: From worst to best
As the band gear up for that anniversary tour, Quinn and longtime bassist Justin Hills took us through their favorite memories, touring stories, and configuring their When We Were Young appearance.
What sticks out to you about Let’s Cheers To This, both the final album and the recording process, all these years later?
KELLIN QUINN: I immediately just feel the sense of excitement we had going into the album. We felt free to be whoever we wanted to be as a band. We weren’t thinking about how the record would do, what it would sell — we were just excited to make music that lit us up.
JUSTIN HILLS: This was still very early on, so to me, it still felt like a lot of fun. Obviously, we were a little unsure how it would do, but I don’t think we really cared that much back then. We were so young and excited for anything to happen. It felt like the first real making of an album. The first record happened so fast, and Let’s Cheers was full-on planned out, and we knew we were headed to Oregon, and we knew we needed to bring songs, but I didn’t know it would be this nostalgic to our scene like it has been.
What happened in the recording process that allowed you to push yourselves further than you’ve ever gone at the time?
QUINN: I think the environment pushed us, for sure. The studio wasn’t anything to write home about — it was located in an area that wasn’t ideal. There were no distractions — just us and the music. That was our focus.
HILLS: I think, for me, it was just the uncertainty of what would happen was my favorite part. Being young and inspired by seeing the world for the first time was huge to me.
What did you admire about working with producer Kris Crummett?
QUINN: Kris didn’t let you cut corners. If you couldn’t sing or play a part that you had in your head, it didn’t go on the record, so we had to dig deep. He made us all better at our craft.
HILLS: I really enjoy how real those songs still sound to me to this day. When I close my eyes, it brings me back to that time in my life. It was when a lot of the digital stuff started getting popular, but he did a great job of making it all fun to play and real-sounding.
This album inspired a couple of hugely memorable music videos — “If You Can’t Hang” and “Do It Now Remember It Later.” Can you share a memory or two from filming, and do you still own any of the props from those visuals?
QUINN: I just remember we spent a ridiculous amount of time getting a slow-motion shot of my boot slimming the water [for “If You Can’t Hang”]. There was a ton of water, and we were all soaked by the end of it.
HILLS: I don’t own any of the props or visuals now, but back then, I actually owned and daily drove the white tour van we drove in the “Do It Now” music video. Beautiful automobile she was. Learned a lot about fixing vehicles from lots of practice on that van.
Do you have any favorite touring stories from this era of the band?
QUINN: I think we noticed a huge jump in our fanbase during that album cycle. It’s the first time that we saw people actually showing up to see us on support tours.
HILLS: I remember a lot of the traveling — just being in pure shock, like, “I can’t believe I’m in a band, and we’re on the road and playing shows.” I used to take so many videos of the mountains on my phone, and when I’d watch them back, it never did it justice. When we were writing this record, we were living in a storage unit in White City, Oregon. I actually built the storage unit out to be insulated with 12-inch thick foam walls and a thick piece of plastic liner for the ceiling. It was winter, so we used a kerosene heater to heat the foam-lined storage unit. When it got up to temp, the ceiling would inflate from the warm air, and we had a big blow-up inflatable writing/chill/living quarters. Turns out kerosene and no ventilation is bad for your health. Eventually, we opened the door. Oops!
You’re heading out on a Let’s Cheers To This anniversary run later this year, which culminates with the band performing the album in full at When We Were Young. What are you most looking forward to about those shows and festival set, given the company you’re surrounded by, and have you started rehearsals yet?
QUINN: We’re excited to play an album for anyone that grew up listening to it! It’s going to feel very nostalgic. We’re super lucky to be where we are and honored to share this experience with the people that got us to where we are! Forever grateful.
HILLS: We haven’t started rehearsals yet, but we have played the set once through for a show a while back, so I think just finding a cool way to write out the set and make all the songs flow together is going to be a lot of fun. It’s cool to put a new twist on old songs and give them new life and a new dynamic. Maybe reworking some songs would be cool to try.
