[Cover photo credit to Alice Teeple]
NYC-based Post-Punk duo Frenchy and the Punk have revealed “Temple of Sleep” a slow, atmospheric track from their newly released album Zen Ghost. The song pits “emotional angst against sleep” and an accompanying video was shot entirely in upstate New York, capturing an autumnal feel.
Frenchy and the Punk consists of vocalist, percussionist, and lyricist Samantha Stephenson and guitarist-composer Scott Helland, who co-founded Outpatients and Deep Wound (with Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and Lou Barlow). The duo lean in to Post-Punk and Dark Folk influences.
Samantha Stephenson explains:
When I wrote the lyrics to ‘Temple of Sleep’, I was literally having trouble sleeping. Sleep used to come easily to me, except perhaps as a teenager when I was afraid to succumb to it because of recurring nightmares and sleep paralysis. But during these last few years, sleep has often evaded me. I also think about what it must be like to be in your early 20s at this time, trying to make plans and dreaming of the future and how it is probably so different than when I was that age. There is a dystopian cloud that seems to hover over everything these days. The everyday of life can be poisonous and make restful sleep hard to attain, which is so instrumental to a healthy life.
I have always found that the return to nature for nurture and the calming of the waters of the heart and mind are essential to well being; an anecdote. I find the allure of the dream state to be very seductive and a welcome escape. The theme of sleep felt like the perfect subject for Scott’s beautifully lugubrious riff progression on this tune.
TOUR DATES
Feb 4/5 Manchester, CT – Stupid Cupid Steampunk Festival
Feb 18/19 Gettsyburg, PA – MythiCon Festival
April 01 Galveston, TX – Galveston Steampunk Festival
April 8-9 Baltimore, MD – Between The Worlds
April 15/16 Chicago, IL – Chicago Steampunk Expo
April 22/23 Apex, NC – Festival of Legends
