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Committee of Sleep are a four-piece lo-fi pop band from the North. Their dreamy compositions exist between shoegaze, bedroom pop, and DIY experimentation, touching on themes of love, loss, renewal, and quiet gratitude with an atmospheric haze. Their latest single, ‘Space Time’, is out tomorrow, the next step towards their debut EP, Ruling Overturned (out April 10). I asked the Committee ten questions to get my head around their oneiric bureaucracy.

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THE ARGUS FAR FIVE

How would you describe the sound of Committee of Sleep?

Olly:

Chill lo-fi beats to study to.

Jack:

Throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

What are your biggest non-music influences?

Jack:

Being friends for 20+ years and still not ripping each other’s heads off.

Olly:

YouTube Shorts.

Jenny:

Greggs caramel shortbread.

Sam:

Train beers.

If you had to cover any song and put a Committee of Sleep spin on it, which would you choose?

Olly:

‘Making Plans for Nigel’

Jack:

I’ll agree with Olly, because we only want what’s best for him 

What is your earliest memory of music?

Olly:

My mum playing ‘Rio’ by Duran Duran in the car.

Jack:

Recording a cover of ‘Californication’ with Sam (guitarist) when we were 10.

Jenny:

Teacher in Year 4 showing us Joni Mitchell singing ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.

Sam:

Whilst not the earliest memory, we were still in primary school when my dad took me and Jack to see My Chemical Romance.

What does 2026 have in store for Committee of Sleep?

Jack:

Endless content making, long therapy phone calls along the A19, new single ‘space time’ out April 6, an EP coming out on April 10. We’re currently all in a cottage in the Lake District recording our second EP now, so expect that in a year or so.

Jenny:

Me becoming social media manager for the band.

Sam:

More stage jumping, and will take a short break before we start shaping whatever comes next.

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THE COMMITTEE OF SLEEP FIVE

How did you come up with the name ‘Committee of Sleep’?

Olly:

It’s stolen from the book Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. It’s a metaphor for the unconscious and how so often dilemmas are overcome by ‘sleeping on it’. 

How does the North of England inspire your music?

Jack:

There’s one motorway in the North that is symbolic for the Committee. It’s where all the music videos have been shot and all of our creative concepts are made. It’s more of a backdrop for the music as opposed to an inspiration. 

What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?

Olly:

I write down all my dreams if I remember them. Recently, I had one where we recorded the whole of this next EP we’re working on and it all went well, then I realised we forgot to use the one expensive microphone.

How did you settle on your very distinct visual style?

Jack:

The visual style is a constant battle between the medium being the message and trying to not bow down to the algorithm. Currently, the algorithm is winning.

How has frontman Olly Lightfoot’s 2022 cancer diagnosis informed the band’s lyrics and sound?

Olly:

I didn’t start really writing songs, with words and singing my own lyrics, until I thought I might die. Or, more like realised that I was going to go at some point, sooner or later.

So without the diagnosis, there was no songwriting. After I started to get better, it just stuck.

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