Early Years; Capture, Ghosts, and Keep No Score (1999–2006) Sleeping at Last was originally formed in 1999 in
Wheaton, Illinois, and consisted of Ryan O'Neal, his brother Chad O'Neal (drummer), and Dan Perdue (bass guitarist). Their first album,
Capture, was released in 2000. The group built a significant local following and opened for bands such as
Kill Hannah and
Plain White T's, attracting the attention of
Billy Corgan, who got them signed to
Interscope Records in 2002. Their major label debut,
Ghosts, followed in 2003. National touring ensued, first opening for
Switchfoot, then for Billy Corgan's side project
Zwan,
Yellowcard,
Something Corporate,
the Format, and
Bleu. They received airplay on
Fuse TV and their song "Quicksand" was featured in the third season of ''
Grey's Anatomy''.
Departure of Chad O'Neal and Storyboards, Yearbook (2008–2011) On November 29, 2008, it was announced that drummer Chad O'Neal would be moving on to pursue other interests. In 2009, the band independently released their
Storyboards album, which featured a guest orchestral arrangement by the legendary
Van Dyke Parks. On July 15, 2010 the band announced via their website that starting on October 1, 2010 until September 1, 2011 they would be releasing three songs on the first day of each month for one year, a project they named
Yearbook. The songs were released on their website in twelve separate
EPs named after the month in which they were released (e.g. January, February, etc.). As of December 8, 2011, all 12 EPs became available in one
Yearbook box set for $45.00. On May 22, 2011 it was announced that bassist and keys player Dan Perdue would be stepping down to pursue other interests, with the band continuing with Ryan O'Neal as the only permanent member.
Yearbook songs "Homesick" and "Watermark" were featured in the
ABC television show,
Private Practice in Season 3 (2010), followed by
"Yearbook" songs "Emphasis" and "Wires" being featured on
Private Practice in Season 4 (2011). "Tethered" (also on
"Yearbook") was featured in season 8 (2012) of the
ABC television show ''
Grey's Anatomy.
"From the Ground Up" from Yearbook: December
was featured in the season 7 finale of Bones''. On September 26, 2011 it was announced that a new Sleeping at Last song will be featured in the film,
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, with a song called "Turning Page", written exclusively for the film. "Turning Page" and "Turning Page (Instrumental)" appeared exclusively on
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, released on November 8, 2011. On June 6, 2012, Sleeping at Last released an
8-bit remix
EP entitled "8-Bits". The EP is composed of one song from each of the last three Sleeping at Last studio albums and one song from the Yearbook project. The songs were remixed by Michael Carroll and Steven Padin from
The Reign of Kindo. The EP was released for free on
NoiseTrade.
Atlas project (2013–present) O'Neal teased his latest project on his blog in late 2012, showing an image with the date "12.12.12" on it. Two days before December 12 that year, O'Neal revealed the details of
Atlas, what he described as "an ongoing series of [EP]s". In the blog post, O'Neal said that the artwork would "play a very special role in [the] project" and that he had turned to Geoff Benzing to "paint one painting for each of the 28+ songs". On July 8, 2014, Sleeping at Last released
Atlas: I, a compilation of the previous year's six extended plays. In 2014 the song "Light" from the album
Atlas 1 was used on the OST of
The Little Death. On February 18, 2015, O'Neal announced, via his Facebook page, that
Atlas: II would be coming out in the spring of 2015. On April 2, O'Neal recorded two covers, "Today Has Been Okay" and "
Chasing Cars", that were both used in the eleventh season of ''
Grey's Anatomy. On May 18, the subscribers of Atlas: II'' were able to listen to the first two songs, "Overture II" and "Life". It was released on iTunes on May 26. On June 13, O'Neal recorded an OST for the new upcoming movie
Many Beautiful Things that was available on Spotify. On August 13, the artist’s single "Countdowns" was the feature song at the end of the next to last episode of
The Astronaut Wives Club – The Dark Side. It played as the wives held their breath for
Apollo 8 going around the back side of the moon and as the wives go their separate ways in life. On September 18, the first EP of
Atlas: II,
Atlas: Life, was released on iTunes and Spotify. On August 10, 2021, O'Neal announced on his blog that the first song of
Atlas: III, "Overture III / Awake" would be coming out on the 24th of that month for those with subscriptions. It was released officially on iTunes on September 10. In a blog post on that date, he also announced that Elicia Edijanto would be doing the artwork for all of the songs in
Atlas: III. The release of "Overture III / Awake" included an instrumental version, and an acoustic version of "Awake" arrived the following month. Each subsequent song in
Atlas: III would have instrumental and acoustic recordings as well. "Asleep", a companion to "Awake", debuted in April 2022. On June 11, 2024, O'Neal announced via newsletter that he would officially be ending the hiatus on
Atlas: III, and that his new song "Bloom (Eros)" was now available for recipients of said newsletter. This song would be the first in a series inspired by the seven Greek versions of love. "Bloom (Eros)" would debut publicly on June 28th, 2024. ==Discography==