City Sleeps History

All it takes is a few seconds of Hotel to make the truth clear: City Sleeps is poised to shock the world. City Sleeps Picture

Not since Queen has there been anything quite like this wash of voices, delicate at first, then billowing into plumes of harmony, organ, and harmonized guitar, leading in just a few seconds toward the explosion that kicks off track two, "Prototype."

All of the fury and joy and catharsis released on Hotel have been building through years of hard work in the suburbs of Atlanta. The first connection was between guitarist Adriel Garcia and drummer John Whitney, who have been making music together since middle school. They were the foundation on which an early incarnation of the band, Smugface, took shape.

The induction of Elliott Sharp was the spark that set this foundation on fire. Somewhere around early 2004 they embraced the name City Sleeps. They made their debut at Vinyl, before a sold-out crowd that had been tracking the band's progress through its formative period. "Then," Adriel recalls, "out of nowhere we get an email saying, 'My name is John Feldmann. I'm a producer; I did Story Of The Year and the Used. I'm the lead singer with Goldfinger. Are you signed yet?' And we were like, 'Oh, shit.'"

Holed up at Feldmann's home studio in Bel Air, they cut two songs. Four or five days later Feldmann burned the songs onto a disc and dropped them off at Maverick Records.

"The next day," Adriel says, "we had a record deal."

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the band was adding its two final members. Reveille alumnus Steve Miloszewski signed on as lead guitarist. Mars Davlan came in from St. Louis and was rewarded with the bass gig. With all the pieces in place, they flew back to Bel Air in the summer of '04 and, in an intense series of sessions, nailed the rest of the album.

"It was a weird process", Elliott admits. "Everyone was wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Everybody was passionate. It was a struggle, in a lot of ways, but obviously for a good cause."

City Sleeps: History