While She Sleeps Guitarist Sean Long on Winning Over American Metal Fans

As one of the fastest rising bands on the U.K. underground metal scene, Sheffield's While She Sleeps has already earned a perfect score review from the folks at Kerrang! magazine for their debut album, 2012's This Is the Six. Produced by Carl Brown (Fightstar, Rise to Remain), the album will hit North American shores on Nov. 6.

With so much hype surrounding the group, Noisecreep reached out to guitarist Sean Long to see what his thoughts were on While She Sleeps finally bringing their brand of explosive metal to the States.

Kerrang! bestowed a high honor to the band when they gave This Is the Six a 5K review. How much pressure are you feeling at the moment to carry that buzz over to the U.S. market?

Hmm... none at all. NOT! [laughs] Yeah, its pretty hard to live up to the hype like a 5K review, but I think we will do okay. We will just go out and do what we have always done! We are proud of the album and proud of what we are doing so we should be fine.

Music aside, what do you think is the most important asset a band can have to truly find success in the States?

Personally, I would like to say try and be as different as possible, but there are so many bands in the U.S. at the moment that all sound pretty much the same, not to say they aren't awesome just the sound is very similar with metal bands. I would like to say being different would give you a good shot! But then again, you did say "music aside" [laughs]. To be honest, I wouldn't really know as I have never been there!

Part of your success so far has been driven by your DIY work ethics. Now that the band is trying to expand its operation - so to speak - is it tough to relinquish some of that control over?

Yeah, definitely, but we will always hold on to a visually and musically DIY vibe as long as we are a band, because that's who we are. We obviously have to let it down to some extent with big videos and such, but then that's when we will inject the DIY and rough Sleeps inside of the high quality video, etc.

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How far ahead do you have the next few months mapped out? When can we expect the band to tour the States?

Actually, it's mapped out for like a year [laughs]. It's safe to say we will be coming over very soon!

Do you follow American politics at all? Do you have a preference when it comes to Obama or Romney?

Not really, but from what I have seen, Obama is a dude [laughs].