Torn trousers inspire Sleepwalkers’ new song

Sleepwalkers musician Esko Teppar told ERR’s Terevisioon that the band’s latest song, “Ainult sinule” (“Only for you”), was inspired by a wedding where the groom ripped his trousers just before the ceremony.

Teppar said Sleepwalkers do not perform only at weddings, although the band played many of them before the coronavirus pandemic and at one point was “living from wedding to wedding”. The group now performs at a variety of celebrations.

“Tule ja jää” by the Estonian band Kõrsikud is a popular wedding song, guitarist Andres Ants Mikk said, adding that Sleepwalkers often play it as the couple’s opening song. Teppar said newlyweds also request personal favourites, including songs by Metallica. Sleepwalkers perform in Estonian and English, and have also sung in Danish.

Teppar wrote “Ainult sinule” after recalling a wedding where he and Mikk played acoustic guitars under a tree during the ceremony. Instead of the usual 10 minutes while guests gathered and the couple arrived, they played for an hour because the ceremony was delayed.

They later learned that the couple was waiting around the corner. As the groom bent down to tie an undone shoelace, the seat of his trousers split. His mother-in-law then arrived with a needle and thread and began sewing the trousers back together.

“I thought then how great it is to be part of a couple’s life on one of their most important days, to be chosen by them,” Teppar said. “We owe this song to those torn trousers,” Mikk added.