Beauty Sleep

Beauty Sleep is a Belfast, Northern Ireland group working in dream pop and noise. A second act with the same name is an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York, active from 2004 to 2006.

Brooklyn indie pop band

The Brooklyn group starts in 2004 when Annabel Kaplan and Tony Larkin, both old college friends, meet again at a show in New York City. The pair share similar influences, including Rilo Kiley, Built to Spill, The Kinks, Grandaddy, and Masters of the Hemisphere, and soon develop a distinctive sound built around sweet indie pop, rock, and melancholy melodies.

The line-up later includes Rob DiCaterino on drums and Brian DiFeo on bass. Kaplan handles vocals, guitar, and keyboards, while Larkin sings and plays guitar. Kaplan is originally from Anna Maria Island, Florida, and has sung and played piano since childhood; she begins guitar in college and later forms the acoustic pop duo The Slight in Tallahassee, Florida. After moving to Chiba, Japan, she teaches English in the suburbs of Tokyo and starts Nico Desu with three Japanese friends, releasing a four-song EP with songs in English and Japanese.

Larkin is originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He finds a Lotus electric guitar in a dumpster at the age of ten, repairs it, and continues playing from then on. His earlier projects include the experimental lo-fi Florida band The Return of the Ice Cube Trays and Ry Black and Tonely, a collective of film score composers.

DiCaterino is originally from Belleville, New Jersey, starts imitating Ringo Starr on a toy drum kit at the age of three, and is influenced by classic rock, old pop, 1990s alternative, and novelty songs. His former bands include Rhexis, Rim, Fuzzy Daupner, and The Greylocks. DiFeo grows up near the Jersey Shore, goes to college in upstate New York with guitar and percussive instruments, and later gets a used Rickenbacker bass. He plays in Solpatch, which later becomes Walk Shakin, and also plays bass in the college jazz orchestra. His influences include Rick Danko, The Flaming Lips, Fela Kuti, and the jazz of Monk, Mingus, and Miles Davis.

The band records in a slanted Brooklyn apartment. Its EP Nature vs. Nurture is released on Skipping Stones Records in 2006, and it also records an unreleased full-length album. The group splits in November 2006.