Blaine Teppema has been uploading recordings to Bandcamp under the moniker Sleeper’s Bell for nearly a decade now. Earlier this year with bandmate Evan Green, released new music via Fire Talk imprint Angel Tapes.” Today, Sleeper’s Bell have shared their new single, “Bored,” a track off their debut album, Clover, available February 7th on Angel Tapes / Fire Talk.

“Bored” marks the final Sleeper’s Bell single of 2024. The track combines the hushed delicacy of early Sleeper’s Bell tracks with crystalline layers of pedal steel, piano flourishes, and swells of saxophone. “I wish I had dressed well, or tried hard in high school,” Teppema lilts, “or gave myself willingly to some kind of cause, cuz’ I’m stuck in the mud and I miss you.” Penned nearly 8 years ago, the current version of “Bored” is imbued with wistful urgency, as a 26-year old Teppema unveils her teenage musings. “I am so afraid of time’s careless passing,” she confesses, “and I’m bored.”

The 9 songs on Clover began as therapeutic exercises of Teppema, who works as a children’s librarian by day. Conceived as a practice in writing letters to her younger self, Clover responds to Teppema’s adolescent experiences with the wisdom and kindness that could only come from living through it. These 9 snapshots are captured through a youthful lens but colored by time, as Teppema has poured over lyrics, reshaped songs, and recruited collaborators to help actualize her intentions.

The project includes Recording engineer Jack Henry (Friko, Horsegirl, Free Range) stood in on drums; Green welcomed roommate Leo Paterniti to assist on both mixing and additional production; and Gabe Bostick (aka Plant Matter) helped produce, contributed piano, and performed additional vocals. Rufus Parenti offers traces of saxophone that appear throughout Clover, and Umarell engineer Max Subar returns for guest spots here on 12-string guitar, pedal steel and bass. Mastered by engineer Chris Gelin, Clover is an assemblage of chosen and real family, with Blaine’s dad, Jeff Teppema, lending his fiddle skills to its first three tracks.

“Looking through old journals and drawings and photographs wasn’t easy for me to see, but very necessary nonetheless,” Teppema says. “I tried to bounce between songs I wrote as a teenager and songs I wrote about being a teenager, pulling lyrics from the letters, assuring her that I forgive her, that I understand her, and that she has a beautiful life to look forward to.”

Pre-order Clover by Sleeper’s Bell HERE