Markland Starkie discusses Sleeping States 'reunion' ahead of anniversary shows

Having most recently started another venture under the name Carriages, Starkie is returing to Sleeping States for three shows in Bristol, Glasgow, and London in November to mark his terrific debut album - a record which saw him sign to Bella Union and draw critical praise from press and fellow musicians alike, notably Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear.

We spoke to Starkie to find out the reasons for bringing back Sleeping States.

I know a 10th anniversary is an obvious landmark but would you have revisited Sleeping States without it?

Markland Starkie: "To be honest, I don't think so. In many ways my life has moved far from what it was when I was really active with Sleeping States, career-wise and also my approach to a creative practice. As I've gotten older I've understood better the bits of making music, or being creative in general, that I truly get a buzz from and the bits that don't interest me so much. I really love the process behind making a new composition or playing music with others, but the drive to then go out and perform for an audience isn't there so much these days. Having said that, it has been really fun preparing for these gigs and awakened memories and a connection with playing songs that hasn't been there in a while. So I'm glad I have done."

Ten years on, how do you feel about the album?

"Yeah pretty proud of it. In some ways I remember at the time it felt a little like this anchor dragging me that I couldn't shake - for various reasons it took quite a long time to be released, and so I sat with it for a long time. By the time it came out I had changed the arrangements of a lot of the songs to fit the band I had assembled to play live with and also to keep my interest in the songs, and I ended up with a live version of the album that was quite different to the recording - louder, and just more band-y I guess. In general I was pretty impatient about moving on to the next record. Coming back to it now, having not really listened to it in a few years, I've been able to appreciate what I was trying to convey originally, that more intimate connection."

Can you still connect with it? Would you change anything?

"Actually for this record I don't think I would change anything. It's far from perfect but I think the imperfections add to the atmosphere of the record. At the time I was staunchly in favour of evoking an emotion or set of thoughts over, say, getting the perfect take or engineering the perfect sound-recording and I still stand by that approach now. I suppose I might sharpen some of the imagery in some of the lyrics as I always trod a line between 'romantic' and schmaltz that, depending on your mood might be more or less successful ha. But I'm largely still really happy with it as a piece of work."

How do you approach the shows and the music now, will you be changing much?

"Well, going back to what I was saying earlier about having these different live arrangements when the album first came out, this time I feel more confident about playing the songs closer to how they are on the record. And some of the songs I never played live ever. So maybe weirdly, I'm changing things by playing them more like people probably expect them to be played. As a side note, I recently found a recording I have on cassette of an interview Philip K Dick made in the early '70s, and there's this section where he talks about his thoughts on what makes us human. I used this piece buried in the introduction to 'Contact Lunacy', which itself is a term coined by Dick in his novel A Scanner Darkly, and it's been a lucky coincidence I've been able to find it again in time for the gigs."

Can we expect anything special?

"Ha, well it's special to me at least, but joining me on stage will be Craig Gell on guitar, who played guitar live in Sleeping States from the beginning until after Open Spaces, and also Liz Hickson, who replaced Craig after I left London. One of the biggest enjoyments of being in a band was the community aspect, meeting great, interesting, like-minded people who became fast friends, and it's special to me that these guys can help me mark the anniversary too."

Is this a full stop for Sleeping States? Can you see a future for that project? And if not, what do you have planned?

"It's a cop out but can I say elipsis rather than full stop? It's true the gigs aren't about me restarting Sleeping States per se, but I have no grand intentions against doing something in the future either. Next up, I'm working on making an album available from my last band Carriages - we broke up before we released it but each of us members keep coming back to the recordings and feel it deserves to see the light of day. Then next year I'm planning to take some time off work to focus more on creative endeavours, so there may well be more music to come from that in the future."