The Sick-Leaves release fourth album ‘Breaking Away’
Artist: The Sick-Leaves
Album: Breaking Away
Release date: 23 January 2012
Website: www.thesickleaves.com
First radio single: Catfights in Bushes
Label: Independent / The Sick-Leaves through OMTD
Published by: Sony/ATV music publishing
Twice SAMA nominated alternative rock artist The Sick-Leaves digitally releasing long-awaited fourth album Breaking Away on 23rd January 2012.
Johannesburg, South Africa. 23rd January 2012 - Breaking Away is a jubilant, victorious, uplifting experience.
Breaking Away was originally conceived to be an EP but once completed clocked in at an explosive twenty-nine minutes following the inclusion of the most recently written song and first radio single Catfights In Bushes. Catfights In Bushes is by far one of the most energetic songs The Sick-Leaves has ever recorded. Songwriter Eksteen Jacobsz describes the lyrics as being “a metaphor for how often we get caught up in a tangle with other people and how opportunities are made or lost with respect to how you react to those encounters.”
Over the course of 2011 six tracks off Breaking Away were tracked at SABC’s M5 and Openroom studios with Darryl Torr and the remaining two tracks were recorded at Sting studios with Matthew Fink. Matthew Fink, who had produced The Sick-Leaves SAMA nominated first & second albums, mixed and produced Breaking Away. An extra track, Crying (Roy Orbison cover) was recorded during this period but is not included on the album. This cover is available as a digital download from The Sick-Leaves website.
Sergio Pereira of Music Review (www.musicreview.co.za) has said of the album: “Immediately noticeable is that Eksteen has turned up the energy levels since The Last Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, because Breaking Away reverberates with a far more straight-up, brisk Brit-alt-rock production sound and vibe (it’s a genre that Eksteen, undoubtedly, appreciates and understands).” Sergio cites Breaking Away as being “Conclusively, The Sick-Leaves’ strongest album”.
The natural progression is for Jacobsz to produce the next Sick-Leaves album due to the experience gained through the recording process for this and the previous three Sick-Leaves releases. Jacobsz reflects on how as a solo artist it was, quite frustrating to get the sounds, arrangements and mixes right for the demo album in a relative short amount of time, but then the recording and mixing process took many months to reach completion.
This was the first album where Jacobsz had the album title ready before any of the songs were written. The phrase Breaking Away represented to him escapism.
What motivated Jacobsz when he wrote this set of songs was that there would be no constraint placed on the songs as to whether they should be short enough for radio play, whether any record label would be interested to pick it up or whether it would make sense to mainstream critics compared to previous releases. A big criterion was that the songs would be allowed to follow their own path to completion during the songwriting process.
With the album title, Breaking Away, playing around in his head, Jacobsz searched for images to personify the words and make a bold, powerful statement. He stumbled across the cover photograph online and immediately knew it was exactly the image he was looking for.
Jacobsz explains his excitement at finding the photograph, “I couldn't believe my luck that the photograph hadn't been used before apart from in National Geographic's Space issue. Space and especially the space shuttle program have always fascinated me. I knew the Space Shuttle program was coming to an end at the time and that it would be an even more iconic and historic picture to use for a Sick-Leaves album cover.”
The striking album artwork features a photograph of space shuttle Endeavour blasting off from Kennedy Space centre, Florida on March 11th 2008. It was captured by US photographer James N. Brown (www.ov-103.com) in fitting with the power, boldness and energy of the songs on this fourth release.
The photograph has been featured in the special National Geographic "Space" issue of November 2008 (http://bit.ly/tn6OW9) and is one of the photographer’s personal favourite photos to date with no post editing having been done at all.
Brown was very happy for the photo to be used as the album artwork for Breaking Away, saying, ”It's a good feeling to have someone think so much of my work as to want to use it for the cover of his CD. I was fortunate enough to photograph the Shuttle program for 23 years. It was a big part of my life. I wish Eksteen and The Sick-Leaves much success with the album.”
After turning the volume dial a notch down on ‘Last Dance Of The Sugarplum Fairy, Jacobsz felt that he wanted to record an album that sonically combined all the elements of the previous three Sick-Leaves releases. “Breaking Away might very well be the loudest set of songs I’ve recorded thus far. It was my full intention when I went into the studio and I’m so pleased with the variety of tones and the feel that came to be for each song. This might be due to the fact that recording went on for such a long time compared to the shorter time spent on recording for LDOTSF”.
Jacobsz asserts “Breaking Away is for me a culmination of the past 7 years' experience I've gained through recording music, playing it live and living.
For me it is the most enjoyable Sick-Leaves album to listen to and also the most representative of the sound I am after. It also closes a chapter in my musical career as I feel that on the next album I will go for a totally different direction and feel than the previous four. I don't want to fall into the trap of repeating myself consequently I have set myself the challenge to re-invent my own sound and to experiment with other alternative genres. If it takes a few years or even a decade to find it, then so be it.”
Breaking Away is the first Sick-Leaves album to only be digitally released, in line with world wide trends, and is available for sale on all major digital stores such as iTunes, Amazon, locally on Rhythm MP3 store, Look & Listen MP3 store, O Music store Band Camp as well as through The Sick-Leaves website.
Third album Last Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy was independently released in March 2010 following on from the SAMA nominated first & second albums Tunnel Vision and Stone The Crow in 2007 & 2009 respectively.
The Sick-Leaves is the solo project of Eksteen Jacobsz, who wrote all the songs for Breaking Away and recorded all the vocals, guitars and bass.
Wayne Kennith Pictor laid down the drums, as was the case for the previous release.
For all press enquiries, to receive a media copy of the album or to arrange an interview with Eksteen or for high res photographs, please contact Linda Thompson.
The full press release is available from the press resources page on The Sick-Leaves website along with the high res album artwork for Breaking Away and the artist biography: http://www.thesickleaves.com/media
You are welcome to feature this release on your blog or website, if you do please let us know.
Website: www.thesickleaves.com
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Issued by:
Linda Thompson
Email: Linda@thesickleaves.com
Cell: +27 72 240 9433
Office: +27 11 783 8732
Album release information:
Album title: Breaking Away
Catalogue number: TSLCD004
Music & lyrics composed by Eksteen Jacobsz
All guitars, vocals and bass performed by Eksteen Jacobsz
Drums performed by Wayne Kennith Pictor
Produced, mixed & mastered at .45 by Matthew Fink
Tracks 1-3 & 6-8 recorded at M5 and Openroom Studios at SABC, Auckland Park, SA January - March 2011.
Tracks 4 & 5 recorded at Sting Studios, Johannesburg, SA September 2011.
Guitar overdubs for tracks 1-3 & 6-8 recorded at .45
Album cover photograph by James N. Brown
Album artwork layout by Sean Brand
Tracklisting:
- The other way
- I know your name
- Fanning the flames
- Breaking away
- Catfights in bushes
- No doubt about it
- Not unlike you
- They died with their boots on
