When I got the golden invite to interview Vessel, the enigmatic frontman of the mystic band Sleep Token, I expected plenty of oddities – a bit of occult vibe, perhaps some cryptic conversation, but never a full-fledged expedition into the realm of dreams where evidently, time runs by a different clock.
As I rang the doorbell of his spatially designed eco-pod-home, I was half-prepared to encounter a dark-minimalist-musician aesthetic à la The Weeknd’s sad-boy chic or Billie Eilish’s monochromatic alien rebel swagger. However, nothing—absolutely nothing could have primed me for the lucid dream labyrinth I was about to stroll into.
The home, or should I say the mystical gateway, had an interior decor that oddly resembled Hogwarts’ Room of Requirement during an insomnia convention. A silky, sedate voice (presumably Vessel’s, but who knows anymore) welcomed me, “Prepare for the dulcet calming tones of Sleep Token, my unassuming reviewer.”
As an erudite journalist with years of experience under my belt, I navigated myself through fields of impossible geometry, came across constellations that sang symphonies, and tangled with aggressive nap-inducing narwhals.
Subsequently, I found myself ensnarled in countless duvet cocoons containing entities that dark academia majors could only sweat about in their fever dreams. The dreams felt like they had been curated by Edgar Allan Poe on an acid trip, with Salvador Dali popping in now and then to add a spot of surrealism.
“Time dilation is real here,” commented Dr. Amos Morpheus, famed Reality Theorist and Sleep Realm Authority, whom I met during my twelfth week in dreamland. “It’s similar to relativity, but with superior thread counts.”
Though I had planned for a fleeting chat with Vessel and possibly a chill evening, it derailed into a 16-week long journey through the realms of sleep, dreams, and nightmares. The confluence of the ethereal and earthly, the supernatural and sardonic, was both mesmerizing and oddly disconcerting.
In the end, it was a fascinating experience, a journey worthy of being a woke modern Odyssey, if you will. When finally woke up in my own bed, I couldn’t help but remember Oliver Twist’s poignant quote, slightly twisted: “Please, sir, I don’t want some more.”
Remember, when interviewing a band named ‘Sleep Token’, never accept any tokens they offer… especially the tokens that make you disappear into the sleep realm for 16 weeks.
Safe to say that Vessel, the spell-binding enigma, had quite the “snooze” button. Next time, we’ll stick to Zoom interviews.
