Praise for Beauty Sleep
“Dream-pop synths, fuzzy bass and delicate vocal lines” – Hot Press
“Beauty Sleep’s somnambulist sound has a gorgeous yet lo-fi aesthetic sense” – CLASH
“An infectious, glistening energy…will easily become your sound of the summer” – Get In Her Ears
“Far-reaching synth pop…it’s big music, big production, fun, vivid, melodic” – The Last Mixed Tape
“Dreamily melodic, boy/girl vocal-topped indiepop…excellent” – Irish News
“Upbeat, joyous and melodic dream pop music” – Nialler9
Fresh from their appearance at SXSW London, Derry “radical alt-pop” duo BEAUTY SLEEP will release dynamic double A single ‘BIG + BAD’ and ‘Unfamilar’, taken from their upcoming highly-anticipated second album, The Whole Damn Cake.
For those yet to be introduced to Beauty Sleep’s particular larger-than-life brand, the Derry duo, comprising producer/songwriters Cheylene Murphy and Ryan McGroarty, serve up a maximalist blend of bewitching synth-pop and guitar-driven indie rock that’s sure to set your heart racing.
Their lavish soundscapes and dizzying songwriting have drawn comparisons to New Order, St Vincent and Japanese Breakfast, so far achieving over a million streams and performing at festivals including SXSW, Electric Picnic and Other Voices.
To date, the band has seen sustained buzz from tastemakers in Ireland and the UK including Hot Press, CLASH, The Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, Nialler9, Chordblossom, The Last Mixed Tape, Get In Her Ears, and many others, plus radio plays from Phil Taggart (BBC R1), Amy Lamé (BBC 6music), Stephen McCauley (BBC Radio Ulster/BBC Radio Foyle), and Dan Hegarty (RTE2fm).
A celebratory, larger-than-life explosion of queer joy and the value of community, ‘BIG + BAD’ takes its title from The Four Tops—“Are you man enough, big and bad enough? Are you gonna let ’em shoot you down?”.
Commenting on the track, McGroarty says: “The concept came from navigating the online swamp, incensed by the algorithm that sees you as little less than a statistic. Endless gendered online ads and podcasts pedalling harmful toxicity and irresponsible narratives. People are beautiful because of our nuances and individuality, influencers widely broadcasting toxic masculinity should not be normalised.”
“For queer people, community, feeling seen and support are everything to us. To be really ‘BIG + BAD’ is to act in defiance, to act responsibly in opposition to those harmful ideas. It is a celebration of identity honouring the wonderful people and forces for good.”
The track comes with an official video shot in a vintage, artsy, boutique B&B called Harrison Chambers of Distinction where the band embodied ‘BIG + BAD‘ energy in various lavish settings.
“Melanie, the owner, was very kind to let us run around her gorgeous location all day in various states of dress,” says McGroarty of the shoot. “We just wanted to show off feeling confident and expressing ourselves loudly, because that is the energy and emotion we want the song to evoke in listeners.”
By contrast, AA side ‘Unfamiliar’ is a previously unreleased new cut from the album about restlessness. “It’s a feeling that plagues me,” says Murphy of the track. “It’s the most honest I’ve ever been about that, to myself even, so it feels special. This song is the oldest on the album. It nearly made it onto the first album, but we recorded this overproduced version that lost the magic of the song, so we cut it from the tracklisting.”
“We’ve still always played it when we see a piano and we play it live often, and it’s been a fan favourite for years, so we gave it another go for this album, keeping the production minimal, with hard autotune and vocoders, and we love how it turned out. It feels like it was always meant to sound like this. A sad robot who doesn’t understand their emotions—a perfect encapsulation of how I feel when I’m so restless I can’t breathe.”
The two partners in crime released their mighty debut album ‘Be Kind’ in 2019, deservedly shortlisted for Best Album at the Northern Irish Music Prize.
The band have since ignited a surge of new fandom, as excitement for their new album builds to fever pitch.
Recorded in their own custom-built studio during the daytime with coffees, focus, energy and time—“rather than trying to record 3 songs between 8pm and 5am when we could access the studio for free, which is what we did with the first album”— ‘The Whole Damn Cake‘ is a triumph of maximalism in every which way.
As official editorial playlist support from Spotify’s Discover Weekly, New Music Friday, Pop Hits, and more continues to build with each release, the next 12 months are sure to see Beauty Sleep continue on their skyrocketing trajectory.
Further live dates and details of the album will be announced over the coming months.
LIVE DATES
21/08/2025 – Hastings – Stade Hall (Queer Ass Folk Showcase)
20/11/2025 – Belfast – The Empire (album release show)
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