COME CLARITY

KELLIN QUINN TELLS THE STORY OF HOW HE AND HIS BAND TOOK THE PAST FEW YEARS TO RECALIBRATE, REFOCUS AND GET BACK TO WHAT THEY DO BEST.

- MADDY HOWELL

For Sleeping With Sirens, 2019 was a chance to reset. With the release of their 2017 album, 'Gossip', the five-piece began to feel a disconnect. Marking a departure from their signature posthardcore-influenced sound into more radio-friendly pop territory, it was a record that failed to translate in the way that the band wanted, but allowed for the creation of something wonderful in its wake. Picking up the pieces and taking onboard the lessons they had learnt, two years later the Floridian band signalled a triumphant return to form with 'How It Feels To Be Lost', and headed straight back out on the road to celebrate... for a while. As 2020 crept around, musicians all over succumbed to feelings of defeat as everything ground to a pandemic-induced halt. Seeing firsthand how their new songs were connecting with fans across the world, it'd be fair to assume that frontman Kellin Quinn was one of them, but the reality was very different.

"I needed to go home and figure out how to be a normal person," he starts. "I was dealing with a lot of mental health issues. When you're busy on the road, it's a distraction from those deeper issues. Without that, my relationships got better, my mental health got better, and I fell in love with playing music again because it wasn't something that I was doing into the ground. As much as it sucks that we put out a record and didn't get to tour it, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to us." Used to leaving his wife and kids at home whilst constantly on tour, as the pandemic forced Kellin to stay put, he began to realise how little time he'd actually had to be present. Finding joy in the simple aspects of existence, the frontman reflected upon his position in the world.