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Breaking Away (2012)

by The Sick-Leaves

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1.
Been told / many times / this is all you gonna find Whoever drove here / must have been blind Stand still / in line / this is gonna be fine I wanna run for miles I remember the day we hit the end of the line It was the other way It was the other way Switch kill / special deal / this is all you’re ever feel It was never meant to be real Hey man / they will call / some will settle others fall Down a landslide I remember the day we hit the end of the line It was the other way It was the other way The end / comes fast / so long / go home The end / runs in / before / it’s over Will you / stay young / and carry on? Will you / come down / and send back the weather? Will you / come down / the other way?
2.
The sound you make when you fly into my head / is a sound I never forget It rides on the scent of a summers day / it hangs onto what you say Yeah I wish we could slay that dragon / and I wish for your walls to fall I intend to spend a lot of time in the sun / there’s no reason to worry at all Yeah / I know your name Some will wait for what they cannot have / assume I was here before Assume I’m the one who’s coming to collect / coz I always want more Assume it’s sometime before I’m coming down /assume we have never met Assume there are lines that you just don’t cross /assume I’m the different kind Yeah / it was in seventy nine That you came / opened your eyes What did you ever stand for? What did you ever care for? Sonny got beaten like love on the rocks / by waves you’ve rarely seen before But we don’t call him down here where the city life lives / coz he might just want more Assume there’s a gator waiting in my lake / assume you won’t get out alive Assume I am the one who wish you all the best / I’m the one who made it right
3.
The way you walk / tells me I’m not alone There’s someone else / who’s not unknown The way you talk / reassures me That you are / safely on the ground I didn’t wish for this to happen To someone / to someone better I looked down / I had a choice The searing heat or two thousand feet I know our time ain’t over Clear a path / let me show yer Dropping through a hurricane The sky’s not for sale Who thought this up? Who brought us crashing down? Scarred our beliefs / fanning the flames I’ll tell you this / it might get loud Brace yourselves / for a different chase The way you walk / the way you walk with me The way you talk / the way you talk to me The way you walk / the way you walk with me The way you talk / the way you talk to me
4.
What would you do if I had a fever to tell it all? Would it make sense to listen to your every beck and call? You can expect a lot of trouble to land up here I recognize you are a souvenir I’m breaking away Soon I’ll be on my way I’m breaking away So set the date To pass you over was certainly a big mistake We mistook you for an insolent little fake The ball and chain you carried here / was irrelevant Unfortunately you weren’t innocent Come on show me what you’ve got
5.
Catfights In Bushes sometimes, it feels like I’m in your firing line wait up, wait for your squeeze on the side, alright high up, they’ll lean on your spirit to dig them a hole lounge back, it’s about to spiral outta control I don’t mind she said / before it expires come inside hold the line / Dear Whoever, who’s in charge? Step in / step out / cat fights in bushes come down, it’s not as if you have a bird’s eye view, from up there call in, but not if you can say I like the way that you are don’t think for a moment you have what it takes in the bag wake up, it’s a violent war that won’t end all the love you had / over powered you / brought you down all the tears / Dear Whoever, who’s in charge? Step in / step out /cat fights in bushes this time, cat fights in bushes won’t slow me down, let’s meet up tonight I found a way, to suck them right out of their holes, not again, I’ll fall for their kind hang on, whatever you do don’t let go / come on / settle in come on settle in x3
6.
Here’s the thing I know what you mean I can see A revolution I was taken with you I walked out With a crossbow A knuckle buster And a riot shield When they stormed / I thought of you One for you / ten for me It’s what you want / that doesn’t come for free Wake up / the end of the day is here I don’t think / there’s any doubt I don’t think / we’ll make it out I don’t think there’s any doubt / about it Come / back / and / see me soon All you have to do Is put one foot in front of the other Excuse me if I go A little overboard with my point of view For once it was all very proper and beautiful
7.
Soon I reckon there’ll be nothing left of what was before Give me something I can’t ignore When you are a trick of my mind Go outside and leave us behind It’s not unlike you / to let me in It’s not unlike you / to shake deep within It’s not unlike you / to know what you are It’s not unlike you I raised my eyes to the sky I felt fine Well / so / long Come on we’ve got to move, there ain’t much time left run from here / take what you can get There’s so much more / some won’t believe They were led on / they were deceived Horses / couldn’t carry me away into the distance One damn call and it’s all over You should have tried harder It’s not unlike you x4
8.
I’ve been waiting for You to come around It has been quite a while Since you’ve gone underground When you follow the signs Don’t cross that yellow line And come through to the other side and see me Going out of my mind Call on the night To keep us alive Remember the days When they died with their boots on And as the rain set in You disappeared They died with their boots on To never be seen again Running in With it all to lose A deafening sound brought some bad news Call on the night To keep us alive Remember the days When they died with their boots on Words don’t heal And bombs don’t feel I called your name A sniper took aim Coming out of the woods They died with their boots on Climbing over fallen comrades They died with their boots on
9.
Instrumental

about

The Sick-Leaves' 4th studio album, Breaking Away was released on January 23rd 2012.

Breaking Away is a jubilant, victorious, uplifting experience.

Breaking Away was originally envisioned to be an EP but once completed clocked in at an explosive thirty minutes following the inclusion of the most recently written song and first radio single Catfights In Bushes.

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.

According to Jacobsz the recording process for Breaking Away was definitely the most difficult to date. “The writing process was very easy and the songs were written quite fast, but recording took much longer than what I anticipated.” Tracking was done at Openroom Studios from January to March.

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.

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 (bit.ly/tn6OW9) and is one of the photographer’s personal favourite photos to date with no post editing having been done at all.

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.”

credits

released January 23, 2012

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

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about

The Sick-Leaves Pretoria, South Africa

The Sick-Leaves is the solo project of singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassist Eksteen Jacobsz.
The Sick-Leaves have released three albums with the first & second albums being nominated for South African music awards in 2007 & 2009 respectively.
Fourth album Breaking Away is to be released in January 2012 to follow from critically accliamed 2010 released 3rd album Last Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
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