Speaker For The Dead "I Hope You Have Fun While You Sleep" Album Review

     Under normal circumstances, Speaker For The Dead is a solo project of Worcester, MA local self proclaimed “folk-punk/hired-gun/community-organizer/fledgling poet/queer/DIY-idealist” Greg Mckillop who usually plays acoustic folk music. Although he seems to have changed things up a little for his newest record “I Hope You Have Fun While You Sleep,” beginning the record with instrumental track “Journal” which falls somewhere between post-rock, emo, and folk. The rest of the record follows suit as with songs landing in various spots of the music spectrum between folk, emo, post-rock, and indie, including a great cover of “Pile of Dirt” by Allenby Beardsly. I asked him about his reason for the recent genre jump and he said “Ever since I first started playing guitar everything I ever worked on was meant to be full band. All the bands I listened to were rock bands and come to think of it I never really intentionally listened to acoustic music. Most of my earlier stuff is actually full band songs recorded acoustic because that is really all I had access to. But then as I played more and more by myself I ended up playing with more and more solo folk players and my music got introduced to that line of songwriting. So surprisingly, by the time I got to my later albums and started playing full band, the songs were all written to be solo folk songs, but with other layers thrown over it.”
      Overall, I would give this record a 4.5/5 simply because I wish there was more of it! I also got to ask Greg about other aspects of his music career, and he is wonderfully enlightening to talk to. When I asked about his reason for becoming such an active advocate of his community music scene, he said “I started getting involved with booking shows and open mics because point blank, growing up NOBODY would book bands that I was in. It was incredibly hard. Hell, even up until last year I had a hard time getting gigs. I don't think it should be that hard if some kid has a band with 4 songs and wants to play a show for ten of their friends. So I started booking shows. If the cool kids wont let you sit at their table, build your own table, right?” He spends nearly half of his time on the road, touring all across the U.S. Living an almost nomadic lifestyle. He makes his entire income off of his cd sales and donations. A bold lifestyle that requires true dedication and willpower which not many people seem to have anymore. Greg is both an amazing musician, and an amazing person. You can listen to his new record “I Hope You Have Fun While You Sleep” below.