#syncs stuff

[emmster]

that one tiktok trend

[royalarchivist]

Tallulah: tio pac and fit are so Perfecta by Miranda coded 🥹💕

Phil: This is Pac and Fit? [Dramatically zooms-in on the fanart and makes them "sing" along to the music]

Chat: he's LITERALLY making a ship amv right now

Tallulah: How things got weird 😞

Make sure to show love to the artist who drew this fanart!

[ Full clip ]

[checkthebox]

thing I made to test out my dinky microphone

[mrcheezzz]

Dirty Mind - 015 animation meme !!

I have 015 brainrot…. oh also this has suggestive lyrics !!

[samijey]

perfect synchrony

[mortalscience]

#twinning

[lunarhobbits]

idea credit goes to @demonbarberofbeepbeep. inspired by this mr. darcy proposal powerpoint

[journey-to-the-attic]

for the anon and @aomiaocao who requested it, and anyone else who might want them - transparent gifs of the gang rolling!

procreate's done something weird with some of the dust clouds but idk how to fix it so... hopefully it's not too much of an issue ^^;

original animation here

[physzoo]

I keep hearing this song and I had to make the animation

WIP!!!!!!

[moonchild-in-blue]

I come crawling on my knees bc who better to ask this than the number 1 Espera fan. 🥺 I've just been thinking about Sleep Token (what a surprise lol), and I'm curious if there's any info on how Ves and the Espera ladies met? Everyone in this band seems so close, so I've been questioning how they all became colleagues and friends. 🥺❤️

AAAAAAAA Crow!!! Thank you sooo so much for this question!!! This is something I've been wondering myself for a long time now, but somehow never really delved into it - this gave me the perfect excuse to do so! 💙

I'm gonna preface this by saying we do not actually have much info about that. This is simply me connecting dots with what little information we have publicly available.

So! We can't really talk about Espera, without talking about Exploring Birdsong. As we all know, they were the opening band for Sleep Token on their first headliner ritual, the infamous St. Pancras Old Church ritual, back in 2018.

This is the first time Exploring Birdsong comes in contact with Sleep Token, and they would be their staple opening band up until January 2020. From there on forward, only their lead singer Lyns and the backing vocalists Paige and Mattie (later known as the collective group Espera) would continue to be performing with the band as live backing vocals (as of 2023 they seem to be permanent live members, as before they didn't tour with them every time).

Now, how did they meet? That's the big question here.

Exploring Birdsong were founded when Lyns, Matt and Jonny were studying music in Liverpool (in LIPA to be precise), back in 2015/16 if memory serves me right. Starting in 2017, they released a couple of singles and started to perform live (with the other 2 Espera girls, before they were a thing). Most (if not all) of their shows at the time were set in Liverpool, Manchester, or around that area.

Sleep Token at the time was playing shows mostly in London and around the south, opening for other bands and such. Quite the geographical difference, so it seems unlikely they would've met then. Even in terms of music, Sleep Token was more involved in the UK metal sphere at the time, while EB were very much in the prog-rock side of alt. music.

In fact, there's this one 2020 interview of EB, right after they finished touring with ST for the last time, that mentions that difference in public between EB fans and ST fans. Here's that excerpt:

To further emphasise that EXPLORING BIRDSONG are making waves they were hand picked to support the enigmatic SLEEP TOKEN on a handful of UK dates which gave them the ideal chance to test the waters and see how their offering would fare in a more metal focused environment.

“The reception was very warm!” Lynsey exclaims. “The crowd were really receptive to our songs. We’re not in a totally different vein to SLEEP TOKEN but I was intrigued to see how we would get on with a more metal oriented crowd. There are definitely elements of our songs which are similar but I was apprehensive how they would react but people came up to us afterwards telling us how much they enjoyed it so I’m really glad.”

Every publication dating 2020 and back that mentions Exploring Birdsong and Sleep Token together, references the fact that EB were hand-picked by ST to open for them (again, they were the staple opener for Sleep Token during that 2018-20 period, save for a couple of dates where schedules didn't align). Which again, is a bit odd given they were in very different scenes, both geographical and musical. As far as I know, none of them (EB) have any connection to any of the guys' past projects, so that can't be it either.

HOWEVER, back in March 2018, Exploring Birdsong announced they would open for the Welsh prog-rock band Godsticks in May 2018, in the Camden Assembly (London).

As far as I can tell from their FB page, this would be their first time as a band performing in London. As we all know, Sleep Token have performed in Camden in the past (Camden Rocks festival in June 2018 actually!) In fact, Camden is a known spot for alt music and culture, so it would make sense for locals (musicians and fans alike) to frequent these places and get to know bands that way.

Funnily enough, Enter Shikari have performed in the Camden Assembly, one of the first bands signed to Basick Records - Sleep Token's first label.

It is very likely that Sleep Token (and I'm gonna go on a limb and say Vessel himself, given the similarity in music influences he has with EB, as opposed to ii and iii who come from VERY different, much, much heavier musical backgrounds) may have seen their opening set, and got in contact with Exploring Birdsong then. They were only announced as opening acts for the ST Pancras show in September, which gives them plenty of time to get acquainted with each other and have that first ritual together.

Exploring Birdsong were already set to be in London in October to support Godsticks again, so it's possible they took the opportunity and invited them to the inaugural ritual.

Now, what's really funny too, is that even though EB would only release their first EP in 2019, they had quite a few singles/repertoire ready (including a few vocal-only covers on their socials).

The most notable is actually their (Don't Fear) The Reaper cover, which was recorded right after their Camden show, and released later that summer, which was recorded in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral - that's right! They performed in a church months before Sleep Token did 😌

The cover itself is beautiful, the girl's voices are pretty much center stage, and the whole vibe feels both eerie and sacred, not unlike Sleep Token's (especially at the time). I've reccomended it here before, and really can't overstate how beautiful that cover is.

Would that maybe influence ST's decision to have them on board? Maybe 👀 This cover was also featured in Kerrang! Radio (which is a big deal given they don't usually feature covers), so you can say it definitely caused an impact.

This is honestly my best guess as how they came together. I can't find any more links between Sleep Token and Exploring Birdsong aside from this, and given their overlapping schedules prior to this, it seems unlikely they would've come across each other.

I think it's really sweet they heard this random band one day and went - "Yeah. These are the ones, this is it." And to see that friendship continue to exist (the girls now being a seemingly permanent part of their live acts; the guys still supporting each other) is really really cute.

Fun fact, although EB stopped opening for ST in 2020, they were actually all together in 2023, where both Sleep Token and Exploring Birdsong were playing Radar Festival. Given their history, and the fact that the girls were part of both sets, it's likely they were all watching each other and having a good ol' time 🥹💙

If anyone has any more info about how Sleep Token and Exploring Birdsong met, I would really appreciate that!! This is as far as I managed to gather.

I'm also gonna leave a link here to my Exploring Birdsong propaganda post, in case anyone is curious about their music and wants a place to start.

[kkisadorabubble]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dandp]

Sorry. Dan's example of people not knowing him well being someone giving him chocolate because Phil can't eat it. Daniel.

[v-albion]

Wishing you well in the tmnt polls!!

Thanks for all the treats!! Raph is very happy to made so many new friends @tmntaucompetition

@pigeonsgrame2 @addystuffs @kaysdenofchaos

Prev: Speakeasy | Part 7 | Next: Well Wishes

Masterpost

[haveihitanerve]

No okay but you guys don’t understand- the way SFTH bois are always always whether on purpose or not, in sync is everything I’ve ever wanted in life its so fucking cute-

Like when they’re doing expert, obviously the three are trying their best to be together, or mimic the same thing the previous person has gesticulated

But also- when they’re casually sitting in the wings, on opposite sides, watching the main stage, they’ll lean together in sync

They’ll cross their legs at the same time

Sam and Luke push back their hair together

AJ and Luke lean in the same direction when they laugh

Tom and Sam dip their heads to hide a laugh or disappointed at the same time

They follow hand movements, step backwards together, blend and flow around each other with such perfect synchronization you think its scripted

[bughumbuger]

I am ready for art fight guys (no I’m not (yes I a, (no shout out to shitty dollar store highlighters 🫶

Also wasp ladaay belongs to @sleaslug love herr and her failboyfriemb (Mato

[northstarscowboyhat]

Hey, I got another thing for ya

I like how their pony tail and poncho came out with this, and also their left hand since it just kinda vanishes for Star (it goes into his poncho, but his is bigger than Clover's so I had to find a workaround)

Also, how about them together?

They are unstoppable, they WILL bring justice to evil doers!

I WASN'T EXPECTING ANOTHER ONE OH MY GOODNESS-

YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOCKED THIS ONE OUT OF THE PARK this is so well done! I'm so glad you pointed out the ponytail and poncho as parts you were proud of because the movements on them are so well done and smooth!! My jaw actually dropped a little when I first opened this up!!

THEM SIDE BY SIDE MAKES ME SO HAPPY, THEY DO THE YEEHAW SNAP TOGETHER...... THAT IS SO CUTE You know Clover spent hours practicing to get it right. Thank you so so much for another wonderful sprite animation of my Clover design!! This is going right up on the metaphorical fridge in my computer for me to watch on loop for hours.