Happy 2013 + "Storyboards" Vinyl!

Hey guys! I can't believe today is the last day of 2012! What a year. I sincerely hope that your 2012 was incredible, but I hope 2013 will be even more amazing for you and yours!

2012 was a crazy and excellent year for Sleeping At Last... If montages were possible in email, I'd be all over that. But let's do a text montage instead...

2012 Sleeping At Last Highlights:

Went on 2 wonderful US tours (Huge thanks to Christina Perri & Jars of Clay for having me out!), Got to collaborate with one of my favorite folks in the world, Jon Foreman on his upcoming solo record, Got to co-write some songs with some of my dearest and most talented pals (David Hodges, Matt Hales, Mariah McManus, Mia Maestro and Angie Correa!), Had a few songs in a few TV Shows/Movie (Grey's Anatomy, So You Think You Can Dance, Bones, Fun Size!), Got to score 20 minutes of instrumental music for a NYC charity festival (feat. Foo Fighters, Neil Young, Black Keys!) called "Global Festival," and lastly, but not leastly, I Announced my upcoming project, "Atlas" - an ongoing series of EPs starting in January 2013!!

I'm so grateful for such a wonderful and encouraging year! And I couldn't be more thrilled to dive into the new year with "Atlas" - cannot wait for you to hear these new songs!!

Oh and we JUST began Pre-Orders for my 2009 album, "Storyboards" on VINYL for the first time ever!! Pre-order the first pressing here and save $2. (Ships Feb!)

Thank you SO much for such an incredible year, guys. I am so blessed to be able to do this. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, for listening, for encouraging and for supporting me in so many ways throughout the years.

Happy New Year!! Farewell 2012! How lovely to meet you, 2013!

Tons o' love, Ryan - Sleeping At Last

Here's a list of things I love right now:

1. Root Beer (it's my thing these days, as it turns out...) 2. Re:new Project (order lots of things from here! DO it. it will make life a little better!) 3. Blackberry Market (if you live in IL, go to here. it's delicious! glen ellyn, IL!) 4. Downton Abbey (team bates! season 3 can't come soon enough..) 5. The New Year (beautiful and symbolic... it's a do-over. let's start from scratch! may 2013 be the finest year yet.)

Merry Christmas!!!

Dearest Friends, I wanted to wish you the merriest and most beautiful Christmas and holiday yet!! I hope it's absolutely wonderful for you and yours!

Just wanted to send over 2 quick little reminders...

LAST MINUTE GIFTS?

If you're still looking for a last-minute Christmas gift idea (as I usually am), Gift Passports (Subscriptions) to my newly announced project Atlas are available right now!! Sign your friend up to receive 28+ new songs periodically throughout 2013! Digital versions and CD+Digital versions available!

To order, just click on the Passport version you want, select the "Gift Option" from the menu, check out, print the Gift Certificate attachment that immediately gets emailed to you, and Ta-da! Christmas has been saved! All in a matter of minutes. :)

Order "Atlas" Gift Options Here!

(Read all about Atlas here.)

FREE CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

2. If you're still adding songs to your Christmas and Holiday playlists, now's the last chance to grab this year's "Christmas Collection" before it goes into hiding 'til next year! Featuring 11 traditional Christmas songs, along with my original Christmas song "Snow" all for FREE thanks to the lovely people at NoiseTrade! This is my musical version of a Christmas card!

Download the "Christmas Collection" Here!

Thanks for reading guys! I am so grateful for you!! Be safe and have a wonderful holiday!! You are loved.

Much Love, Ryan - Sleeping At Last

Paste Magazine Holiday Sampler

hi there! just a quick note to let you you know about paste magazine's brand-new 2012 holiday sampler! i have the privilege of my original christmas song "snow" being a part of this lovely collection of holiday songs! such an honor to be in such great company: sufjan stevens, great lake swimmers, correatown, rosie thomas, etc. all have wonderful songs in this 21-song collection too! it's free, so that's awesome... anyway, grab it below! oh and if you don't already have it, my "christmas collection 2012" featuring 12 christmas songs is ALSO free and available below!

much love, ryan

"Wilderness" & how it was made.

"wilderness" is the opening track of the "july" EP in the "yearbook" series. this song is a bit of a time capsule.. while working on writing yearbook, i knew that at some point in the project, i wanted to return to my young roots as a songwriter and write a song that would have fit in stylistically with my older albums, like "ghosts" or "keep no score." as i was playing around with different ideas in that vein, i remembered a demo i had made sometime around my "ghosts" album in 2003. at the time, i got distracted with the songs that made it onto that record, that i never had time to finish it. when my next record "keep no score" was being put together, it didn't have a home there either, so it was left unfinished.

so i brushed away the cob webs on this song and i was so excited to have new ears for it because the entire direction and concept suddenly made perfect sense to me, and was exactly what i was hoping to achieve with a song inspired by my musical past.

the music in that old demo, was fairly arranged musically.. but the lyrics and vocal melodies weren't working.. and though there was a general arrangement in the song, it had some holes there too. so i went to work right away and discovered all sorts of directions and ideas that i would have never thought to try back in 2003 when it was first demoed. it was so fun to hear those old sounds in tandem with my new, current sounds and ideas.

i ended up keeping several of the recorded elements from the original demo in the end - some of the electric guitars remain, a few little keyboard bits, etc. but i knew that a key instrument here would be drums. so i called up my good friend, jacob marshall (mae), and invited him to be a part. he kindly accepted and with engineer help from mark padgett (mae) jacob recorded his drums in NC and it sounded fantastic right out of the gate. was so pleased!

lyrics for this song were tough to write. if i remember correctly, i caught a pretty bad flu virus right around the time of writing these words… so the process was a little slower than other yearbook songs. i wrote this song about my new little niece, who was born shortly after this song's release.

these words are about the sacredness of new life. about the importance of welcoming it into our world. in spite of how wild and broken life has made us, as adults. this brand-new, fragile, beautiful life rests on the shoulders of that overgrown wilderness in us. in this song i wanted to examine the contrast of new life being entirely helpless and delicate, and some how is entirely dependent on the selfish, rough edged, dangerous world we call home.

when i write "dear wilderness" - i am talking directly to the parent, who represents the most important the role in that little ones' new life.

all in all, i really enjoyed writing this song (in spite of getting the flu in the middle of it!) - it was incredibly fun to visit the past for a bit! feels good to pick up that electric guitar from time to time.. on my next project, perhaps you'll hear a little more of that sort of thing. we'll see.

much love, ryan

listen:

lyrics:

WILDERNESS

dear wilderness, be at your best. her armor is thin as the fabric of her dress. i know the rules: the weaker trees bend. but make her immune when your temper storms in.

when she gains her balance, be as still as you can be. when she’s climbing branches, be the feathers underneath.

when she regains her balance, be as steady as she needs. when she trusts you blindly, be her worthy lock and key.

though it goes against every grain of your sand, like turning wolves into lambs, be your best for her, your best for her.

when she holds her balance, be as gentle as she needs. when she shines her brightest, let no dark cloud intervene.

"December" EP's 2nd Birthday!

wow! i can't believe it's already december. i think i say this every year, but 2012 has been the fastest year i've ever seen. is it possible for years to have variable speeds? if so, i nominate this one as the quickest yet!

though it only seems like a few months ago, exactly 2 years ago today, my "

december

" ep was released. since it was written, i've been working my way through writing blog posts about each of the 36 yearbook songs, and how they were made. to learn how each of the 3 "december" songs came to be, click on the titles:

1.

accidental light

2.

from the ground up

3.

snow

this particular EP features my first ever original Christmas song, "snow." when it was released, i asked you fine folks to send in video clips of winter/holidays near you.. and we got videos sent from around the world, which turned into the community-made "snow" music video. i thought today, on the birthday of the "december" ep, it'd post it for those of you that haven't yet seen it! this fun video project was made possible by wonderful friend of mine named

bob davidson

, who helped me out in compiling all of these videos together.

(side note: there will be many more projects like this, requesting contributions from you, in the very near future! can't wait! lots of fun ideas to come!)

i hope your december is absolutely wonderful!! thanks so much for listening and reading!! happy december.

much love, ryan