Tell us your real names, country of birth, date of birth and childhood experience.
All the songs are written by David Carter and Carolina Carter. But, David goes by Baylor and I (Carolina) like to go by my maiden name of Kehoe. We were both born in Montana and grew up in Livingston, MT. We were both drawn to music and met while Bay was drumming for a community theater production and I was singing in it.
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Tell us about your music career, your band name, musical background, experience and skills.
It wasn’t until Bay moved with me across the country to Boston, MA that we decided to be in a band together. I had moved to go to the Berklee School of Music in Boston and due to a wild Craigslist transaction we both ended up living with Ben Deily (ex-Lemonheads) and Lisa Deily. Ben and Lisa were extremely supportive of our musical career and Ben was a little confused as to why I needed to go to school to be in a band. So, after one semester the prompting from my newfound friends and a sincere lack of funds caused me to leave Berklee and go on a West Coast tour with Ben and Lisa’s band Varsity Drag and my band I started with Bay under the name Carolina’s War. The name did not last long however, and we tried on a few before settling on The Sleepless Elite.
Bay plays drums but, he can play anything. I play electric ukulele and I’m not very good at guitar but my love in life is singing.
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Tell us about your genre, concept and idea behind your music video and the song.
I have been told by many people that we are pop punk but I feel like we are somewhere in the realm of Indie Rock and Pop Rock. The song Bad Boys was written while I was driving home from work. I had asked myself to write a song like I was writing it for another artist. Just to get me out of my own head, and Bad Boys was written.
Bay’s long time friend Michael Boise started Soundcolor Studios who did the music video for us. Bay and Mike have been friends for so long that it has been a long running joke that they will each leave their partners and run off together eventually. So, that is where the music video idea came from. On the day of the shoot we brainstormed and the ideas that made us laugh were put in the film.
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Tell us everything that we need to know about you as a musician and the ups and downs you have faced in the music business.
The hardest thing is to put music first day after day and year after year and keep the spark alive. Because putting music first means missing out, disappointing people and putting it first when you don’t want to or aren’t inspired. When we recorded the album “Lights” we had to miss a dear friends wedding. Before we left to record the album we had an acoustic fundraiser show planned, the day of the show my grandfather passed away and I had to play through tears. Because music is so personal when you have success you feel it like you have never felt anything else but, when you fail, you feel like your heart, soul and body have all failed, that everything that makes you you has failed.
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Tell us about other members of your band, music producer, crew or music video director, how the song was recorded and how the music video was shot.
For the music video we had the crew from Soundcolor Studios help us create it. And we were extremely lucky to have our dear friend Alexandra Sammy visiting from Paris to play our leading lady, and the gentleman who saves her at the end is actually my cousin Shane Kehoe. They were so perfect together that Bay and I want them to star in the rest of our music videos.
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Tell us how long you have been in the music industry, your experience and your future goal.
We have been a band for 4 years. Our most exciting news has been that last year we signed with Spirit Music Productions for music licensing. Our goal would be to be able to make music our full time job. If we made enough touring and selling music to be able to focus only on it then I think we could both die happy.
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Tell us what inspires you to write, compose and sing.
For many of our songs inspiration strikes at random times. Maybe I got a triple shot in my latte that day, maybe the sun hit Bay’s face just right in the morning… But, when a song hits us it’s almost like we just have to open our mouths and it comes out. That being said when the inspiration is gone it is extremely hard to get it back and finish the song.
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Tell us the secret behind making a hit song.
I’m not sure we have written a hit song yet but, I would say the most important thing is to let a song be what it is. Don’t try to make it into what you think would be a hit because I think people respond well to honesty.
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Tell us the message you will like to pass to your fans out there.
I think that the most important message to send to our fans would be to be kind to yourself and be kind to everyone else. Our goal is to either make you laugh, smile or help you through if you are crying.
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Tell the kind of advice you will give to an upcoming artist.
My advice to an upcoming artist would be to do the work and have patience. We live in a world dictated by numbers, how many subscribers you have, how many views you have, how many likes your picture got, etc… I think for someone who is starting out those numbers can be disheartening. But if you ignore them and keep producing good content I think that you will succeed.
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Elaborate on your music careers, albums, songs, tours, recognition or awards you might have obtained.
The Sleepless Elite has gone on a few DIY tours out to the west coast. We have an EP, and album and a Christmas EP out and we are currently working on our next album. We are currently signed to Spirit Music Productions in LA.
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List Radio or TV Stations that are airing your songs and blogs that have featured you as well and send message to them via this platform.
Our songs can be heard on KGLT Bozeman, MT! Thank you KGLT we love you!
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Tell us how you write your lyrics, compose, sing and record in the studio.
When we are writing a song we pass the song back and forth between each other. Sometimes I will start a song and then show it to Bay and say, “Ok finish it,” and leave him with it for a while and come back. I think it is our way of keeping the inspiration going and not letting a song get “stale”. Bay’s strong point is melodies and mine is lyrics to together we can get through a song.
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Name five biggest artists that you look up to like idols.
Paramore, Phantogram, Blink-182, Lana Del Rey, Alabama Shakes.
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Name the artists you have collaborated with before in your songs or artists you are willing to collaborate with in the future if you have the chance to do so.
We have yet to really collaborate with anyone. But given the chance, we would love to work with some of our influences particularly Mark Hoppus. He’s funny and I think would be super fun to hang out with.
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Give us the links to your website and your entire social network.
www.facebook.com/thesleeplesseliteband
www.instagram.com/thesleeplesselite
www.twitter.com/theselite
www.thesleeplesseliteband.com
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Give us the links to your various stores for fans to buy your music.
Our music is available on:
iTunes: geo.itunes.apple.com/us/album/lights/id1250744041?mt=1&app=music
Amazon: amazon.com/Lights-Sleepless-Elite/dp/B0737XLYD3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508780483&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Sleepless+Elite-+Lights+album
On our website: www.thesleeplesseliteband.com/store
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Tell us about your happiest day and saddest day.
Our wedding day was our happiest day. In our time together we have both lost loved ones, I don’t think there is any day that can measure up to those days.
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