Chicago folk duo Sleeper’s Bell – consisting of musicians Blaine Teppema and Evan Green – are enamored with spacious bedroom balladry, the kind of ethereal folk-pop that feels weightless but can come crashing down on you like a ton of bricks before you can hum the next few notes. And on their upcoming album, Clover, the pair use their time to venture into the past, giving Teppema time to reconnect with her youth and glean some insight into the decisions that led her to this point in time.
“Looking through old journals and drawings and photographs wasn’t easy for me to see, but very necessary nonetheless,” Teppema says. “I tried to bounce between songs I wrote as a teenager and songs I wrote about being a teenager, pulling lyrics from the letters, assuring her that I forgive her, that I understand her, and that she has a beautiful life to look forward to.”
Their latest single, “Bored”, is a gorgeous and ruminative slice of acoustic wonder, glittering pedal steel harmonics and subtle piano architecture forming around Teppema’s dreamy vocals. Looking back to her younger years, she picks apart those tender aspirations and insecurities, hoping to find some way to bridge the distance and let that person know that everything will be okay. The song builds a deceptive momentum, an acoustic guitar rattling across gentle percussive flourishes while the world seems to disappear in a pastoral blur as years of memories go rushing by.
Listen to Bored” below.
Clover is due out February 7 via Angel Tapes / Fire Talk. You can pre-order it here. Follow the band on Instagram.
