People love to ask questions about the mysterious and massively successful British metalcore band Sleep Token. For instance: Are they metal? Sleep Token don't like to answer those questions directly.
The band's members are anonymous, and they wear masks. Supposedly, the group is the duo of two people named Vessel and II. That's pretty much all we know.
But now, there's another guy who claims that he co-created Sleep Token. Sleep Token themselves beg to differ. About a year ago, someone on Sleep Token's subreddit pointed out a YouTube reaction video from Kardavox Academy, which bills itself as an education channel for metal vocalists.
While preparing to react to the Sleep Token song "The Summoning," Mark Garrett, singer for bands like Kardashev and Viraemia, says, "Fun fact: My business partner, the person who does all the behind-the-scenes stuff of Kardavox Academy and basically the main dude in our Discord server, he was a co-creator, or I think the co-creator, for Sleep Token, when back when they first got started. He helped do a lot of stuff, helped co-create the whole thing." That Redditor did some digging and found that Garrett's Kardavox Academy partner is a guy named Tom Quigley. On his LinkedIn, Quigley bills himself as the "Co-Creator & Lead Designer" of Sleep Token, writing that he and "a singer" basically worked together to come up with every aspect of Sleep Token's presentation but that he hasn't been involved with the band since 2018.
In interviews, some of the people who worked with Sleep Token over the years mention Quigley as someone who helped introduce the band around. On Threads, one Sleep Token fan account describes Quigley as an "ex manager who was fired back in 2018," claiming that Quigley helped figure out some of their "original aesthetics" but that it's a "massive stretch" for him to call himself the band's co-creator. Last month, Quigley launched a new project, Arcus, where he once again billed himself as Sleep Token's co-creator.
On Sunday, Sleep Token shared a message on their Instagram story. They didn't mention Quigley by name, but they did say, "Sleep Token has no outside affiliation with any musical project that invokes this name, nor with anyone who uses it to promote one." Sleep Token have grown into an enormously successful enterprise. Last year, they got a #1 album, a Grammy nomination, and a coloring book.
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