Producer, composer, and singer-songwriter Ryan O’Neal shares his creations with the world under the name Sleeping At Last. Though a fairly unknown artist, his songs have been featured on popular shows and movies, such as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1”. He has also worked with many notable musicians, such as Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Along with these collaborations, he has shared the stage with many celebrities (Christina Perri, Alanis Morissette) and has worked very closely with the film industry as he has scored an entire documentary and served as the composer for the TV show, “Kid President: Declaration of Awesome.”
He released his first album Ghosts in 2003, and then three years later came out with Keep No Score. After his third album Storyboards he decided to go a different direction in regards to how he released his music. Consequently, he began the Yearbook project, in which he put out three songs every month for a year. The “yearbook” was offered as a subscription or as sets of EPs. On a similar path, he embarked on a longer concept spanning multiple albums called Atlas. So far, he has two albums under the umbrella of this concept. Before releasing the second Atlas album, he made an album filled with ten covers of well known and loved hits. He also covered solely Christmas songs on his album Christmas Collection Vol. 1.
All of his albums have beautifully crafted instrumental backgrounds with soft, rich vocals, which can only be compared to the calm swelling of ocean waves on a cloudy beach day. They’re beyond aesthetically and musically pleasing, and this music is truly enchanting and such a pleasure to listen to.
Along with creating music, he also makes a podcast that describes the process of how he makes his songs in detail. He has a very interesting creative process; for example, he wrote a song about the eclipse in 2017 that’s the same length as the actual eclipse and, in the second Atlas album, he has one song for every personality on the Enneagram personality test. He builds each of his albums and even specific sets of songs around a single concept, such as planets or directions. His music is truly very unique and it’s fantastic how creative and precise his vision is.
For those with Spotify, I recommend starting off with the “Introduction” or “Everything” playlist off of the Sleeping at Last artist profile page. If not, I recommend the following songs of his: “Clockwork,” “Heart,” and “The Projectionist.”
Listen to “Birthright” (feat. Jon Foreman of Switchfoot)
(Sources: Sleeping At Last, ORBITER)
