‘Everything From Now On Is Just Kind Of Stupid’: Ocean Sleeper’s Journey From Gippsland To The World Stage

Thomas Jackson

Gippsland’s Ocean Sleeper discuss their new album Peace When I’m Dead, playing their largest headline shows yet and how the band is much bigger than they could have ever imagined.

Ocean Sleeper(Credit: Jonti Wild)

Ocean Sleeper

Gippsland metalcore four-piece Ocean Sleeper are reaching new heights as they embark on their biggest Australian tour this month, in support of their monolithic second album Peace When I’m Dead. This new era sees the band signed with major label BMG and Rise Records.

Although it appears to be a meteoric rise in 2026, Ocean Sleeper are not an overnight success story. Even after more than a decade, the band are still working their day jobs as tradies.

The band consists of four members: unclean vocalist Karl Spiessl, clean vocalist and guitarist Ionei Heckenberg, guitarist Stan Liagourdis and drummer Daniel Stivens. Formed in 2015, Ocean Sleeper have been slowly building a following since their 2019 debut Don’t Leave Me This Way. They’ve imprinted their colossal live performance across the country, leaving a string of sold-out shows in their wake.

The upcoming blockbuster tour - which at the time of writing is looking like another sell-out across the board - is supported by Tampa’s metal hybrids Nevertel, New Zealand’s alt-metal icon Vana and Australia’s Outloved and ends with a home state show at the Forum in Melbourne. It’s a far cry from the young band who were over the moon about selling out the 250-cap Workers Club.

“I know last year, when we did 170 Russell, I felt the same,” Spiessl reminisces from home in Sale, Gippsland, about two and a half hours out from the Melbourne CBD.

“The band is just much bigger than I ever thought it would ever kind of get to. So everything from now on is just kind of stupid and everything that goes on from here is just hard to comprehend.

“I'll probably fall over when we play the Forum, I'll just be like, oh this is too many people,” Spiessl jokes.

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Peace When I’m Dead builds on the sound crafted in EPs like Is It Better Feeling Nothing (2022) and Maybe Death Is All I Need (2024). A mix of electronic and atmospheric layers lifts the melodic leads and breakdowns, producing their biggest anthems yet.

Songs like My Forever Drug and Break The Cycle feel like they were created for stadiums with tens of thousands singing along. While Every Part Of Me, Punishment and Promise playfully experiment with these electronic elements, giving each song a distinct sound.

Lyrically, Peace When I’m Dead dives into the darker parts of life through the exploration of grief, guilt and regret. It traverses the ongoing battle within oneself and the endless inner struggle. Instead of fighting this struggle, it’s about accepting that conflict may always be part of the human experience. Spiessl shares that the lyrics - which are shared between himself and Heckenberg - are always the part that takes the longest to write.

“Most of the time we just are together; we'll just go through the songs and writing lyrics is probably the thing that takes us the longest… We like writing about dark things and getting that emotion out there. I know when I was a kid, I used to get really drawn to music that did that. So I like being able to hopefully give that to someone else.”

The themes are further explored through a three-part narrative across three dystopian music videos that Spiessl planned when recording in America.

“I started plotting this kind of dialogue loosely to the album, but how I was going to visually tell a story. I wanted to have three music videos that aren't directly connected; you can watch them in any order and not be confused or anything like that. They're kind of like their own thing, but at the end, like a Marvel video, they kind of refer to the one before it.

“Then the other thing was that the album is in sort of a time loop and then through the music videos, it kind of starts in the reverse order. So it starts in Break The Cycle, which is in this purgatory state, reliving all of his life but focusing on the bad parts. Going to Peace When I’m Dead, which is focusing on grief.

“Then My Forever Drug is the present time, losing his partner, and then going back to the end where he chooses to go back to the purgatory state. Basically, the whole story is he could choose to live a life without her and save her, but he just chooses to repeat his cycle constantly and just to not have to live without her.”

Lead single Break The Cycle was inspired by the band’s independent journey and the struggle breaking out of Gippsland into Australia and then internationally. Spiessl hopes their career can be a blueprint for other regional bands who don’t know how to take that next step.

“I think just being from [Gippsland], we haven't been a part of a lot of circles and things like that. So just trying to do all that was definitely really hard, and then trying to do that again but internationally was even harder again.

“Especially from Gippsland, and I'm sure every regional area there's so many musicians that are incredible, but they sort of just never do the music thing probably because no one in the area or community does it. So, they don't have anyone to really compare to.

“So, I think it's really cool doing what we're doing because I know for myself, it's like showing people from Sale, Gippsland that you can do music on an international level. They probably have never seen anyone from here do something like that.”

Never straying too far from their roots, the band chose to write most of the album in Heckenberg’s home studio in Melbourne. It was on these drives back to Gippsland from the studio where Spiessl managed to digest songs properly.

“Whatever we write, I'll just rinse the whole way home for three hours. So, usually by the end of that drive, I'm pretty aware of whether I'm really happy with something or not. Usually, when we write a song, I'll be listening to it most of the way home on repeat.

“We're super stoked with this album, like the ones that we wrote in America this time last year; we were listening to a bunch and like My Forever Drug, we've been so excited to get out for ages and Break The Cycle. It's good being able to show the world after you've been listening to it privately for so long.”

With the opportunities assisted by a major label, the band were able to travel to Los Angeles and Portland in the USA to work alongside Jeff Dunne (Make Them Suffer, Disturbed, Knocked Loose) for mixing and mastering and producers Jon Lundin (Falling In Reverse, Point North, Set It Off) and Curt Martin (Catch Your Breath, Kami Kehoe) for specific album tracks.

“Previous to this, we've done everything with Ionei. A few years ago, we did an EP in COVID, which we did sort of online with Ionei and Jeff, and he’s killer; he's so good at mixing and mastering and all that kind of stuff. We were just really stoked to be able to meet him in [person] and record there.

“So we pretty much wrote the album at Ionei’s and then when we toured America. We brought Point North to Australia and became good friends with Jon [Lundin, also the vocalist of Point North]. So we left to go to America a week early so we could spend a week writing with Jon. We had a studio day with someone else that fell through, and while we were at Jon's house he was like, ‘Oh, let's go to this guy Curt's house.’ He's like, ‘I don't know him, but he's a killer writer.’”

This combination entered a flow state and resulted in one of the biggest songs on the album, My Forever Drug, being written in only six hours without any overthinking.

“We wrote Break The Cycle with Jon and a song Taste that's on the album with Jon,” Spiessl continues. “Then on the last day we wrote My Forever Drug with Curt and Jon, which was super good because it was a super rushed studio day and we came out with something really good.

“Then, we toured and then we spent two weeks at Jeff Dunne's house at the end of the tour just kind of riffing through the album getting it sort of all in a piece that when Ionei was home, he could send Jeff everything that Jeff wanted and like the guitars in the way he wanted, and things like that. Then we spent another month I think at home finishing the album.”

Following the release of Peace When I’m Dead, it will be nonstop for Ocean Sleeper. Straight after the Australian run, they are embarking on a two-month North American tour with Nevertel, then they’ll return for the inaugural Hellbound Cruise before returning to Europe and England with Catch Your Breath.

“The cruise is going to be great. It's going to be very tight. We pretty much leave America, get to Sydney the day before and then get straight onto the cruise the following day. So hopefully we're all good. Don't get sick on the plane,” Spiessl laughs.

“Honestly, myself managing the band trying to make all those like International things, that was a lot of work. Now that they've got this really great team around us, like our agent in Europe and the UK, she's amazing. Our agent in America. He's great. It’s really cool that we can be out touring Europe, America, Japan every year. It’s just really good that we've gotten to that point.”

Peace When I’m Dead is out now. The band’s national tour is on sale now. You can secure your tickets here.

Presented by New World Artists and Fireball AU