Sleepy Vikings now serious for success

Julian Conner underrates his old band, Giddy-Up, Helicopter!, when he says its "strategy was to get drunk and play loud."

But he's got a point about the far more intense focus of Sleepy Vikings, his current band which features four-fifths of Giddy-up's final lineup.

"We decided to get serious with this band and see how far we can get," guitarist-singer Conner says. With the May 10 release of its debut album, "They Will Find Us Here," the band makes its intentions and ambitions clear.

The sound is meticulous, the result of sessions spread out over a year at Tampa studio Atomic Audio with producer Mark Nikolich. It was released by Tampa label New Granada and previewed at the label's South by Southwest showcase in March.

There have been favorable notices on blogs and attention from national publications such as Paste and Magnet.

There's a national publicity campaign (and a Kickstarter campaign to pay for it), and a coming tour that will take the sextet as far north as Boston and as far west as Cleveland.

It's a tall order for a band whose members all are either in school, working or both.

"The tour is definitely the hardest part, just getting time off from work," says Conner, who acknowledges that the balancing act is tough sometimes, such as when "you're driving home from a show when you know you have to work the next day."

"The good shows and the positive reviews always make up for it," he says.

Sleepy Vikings have had plenty of both. Its CD release party at Ybor City's Crowbar on April 30 was packed with an adoring crowd. School of Seven Bells' singer Alejandra Deheza praised the Vikings when they opened for her band at Crowbar in October.

Meanwhile, Paste praised the band for its "rich Southern shoe-gazy goodness."

Giddy-up, Helicopter! split after guitarist Nikki Navarro's departure after the release of its second album, 2009's "Something That Needs Nothing." Conner and the other members of Giddy-up, guitarist Nicole Schlief, bassist Sandi Streppone and drummer Ryann Slauson, added singer-keyboardist Tessa McKenna and guitarist Sandra Covin to form Sleepy Vikings. (The name comes from "The Simpsons," specifically Ralph Wiggum: "Sleep! That's where I'm a viking!")

Although there are similarities between the Vikings and Giddy-up, they're like those of the prototype and the finished piece.

"We gained a lot when we got Tessa. She's a real singer," Conner says. "There are a lot more harmonies and a lot more complex vocal stuff going on."

Not that they always get to hear it.

When told that his and McKenna's harmonies are one of the band's signature sounds, he laughs.

"We practice in a really small, loud, hot space," he says. "Half the time we can't hear vocals. Great to hear that's working out!"

cross@tampatrib.com

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