In January 2023, Sleep Theory’s first song (“Another Way”) hit 500k views on TikTok within 36 hours of its release. But what seemed like an overnight success was years in the making. Since retiring from the US Army several years ago, vocalist Cullen Moore’s dedicated his entire life to carving his own path in the music industry. Officially starting Sleep Theory in 2019, the current incarnation of his musical journey began as a studio project to fuse his love of hard rock, funk and R&B. Now a four-piece band, Sleep Theory’s first two tracks both reached #1 on SiriusXM’s Octane, played their first run of shows to massive crowds, and signed to Epitaph Records for the release of their debut EP. Combining metalcore-like breakdowns with bluesy grooves and a pop sensibility made for modern radio, they’ve also racked up 13M global streams in 6 months and saw “Numb” crack the Top 40 on the Active Rock chart.
Many bands might not be so keen to rip it up and start again, especially when they’re on to a good thing. Finding yourself with a Number One album and selling out arenas is enough for some to repeat a winning formula. Architects however, are that shark that dies if it stops swimming. “It was definitely validating and felt really cool for like a day,” recalls drummer, producer and songwriter Dan Searle of hitting the top spot with ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’. “For a lot of the bucket list things you reach in any career, there’s a momentary gratification then you’re like, ‘What next?’ You just move on. By the time the album came out, my head was already in the mindset of ‘Broken Spirit’. That was where I was at.”