Unrelenting UK heavy-hitters, SLEEP IN MOTION, are braced to drop their stunning debut album, Existential, which is out on Friday 10th November. We asked vocalist and guitarist Ryan Brooks to give us an exclusive track by track breakdown of the album!
1. Dead to Me
I feel that as we grow older, we learn to disconnect with negativity a lot easier, and this is what Dead to Me represents. The song highlights letting a part of you go with whatever it is making you feel that way. Whether that is a person, job or any situation in your life that is creating a negative impact on your mental or physical wellbeing. Cut the tie that binds. It can be hard to escape the situation, but once you’re out, it’s a huge weight off of your shoulders.
2. Enemy
I feel as a human race we are constantly living behind our screens. With the power the internet has in the 21st century, it’s easy to get caught up in what you read and what is in front of you every time you scroll through your news feed. I think we are quick to believe the news without researching facts for ourselves. Enemy is really a song aimed at us as a human race as a reminder to stop feeding into organisations designed to divide us and create distractions from what is really important in our lives…which I believe is each other.
3. Terminal
Terminal represents my sometimes overwhelming anxieties around death. At first I really struggled to understand these feelings and struggled with how to deal with them. Now I use my own ways of positive thinking and I think a lot of these feelings were also to do with being in an unhealthy environment for me mentally. But I still feel that it’s a subject that as humans we don’t talk about or discuss enough. In my opinion, I feel this subject gets dressed up by religion, and we are given an answer of an afterlife or a heaven. No one talks about the nothingness of the end and as terrifying as the initial realisation is, I believe it’s important to discover and try to understand your own mortality, and it helps you to understand just how valuable each and every second on this earth is.
4. Another Day
I was told the news early in 2023 that someone I went to school with had passed away after a long illness for years. Even though we hadn’t spoken for a few years, I was left with this feeling of regret and emptiness inside for weeks. I just couldn’t quite understand why. I know there is never an answer for such a question, but I just kept returning to childhood memories of playing wrestling in the playgrounds as innocent eight-year-olds or growing up together throughout secondary school. I just hate that I didn’t at least get to have another day being kids, and wish I hadn’t taken those times for granted.
5. Tomorrow
This song reflects my impulsive decision-making. I know I can be very impulsive sometimes, and I will just do now, think later. So yeah, this song really just describes my head sometimes. ‘I don’t really wanna wait until tomorrow’ sums up my thinking of, yeah I’m gonna do that now no matter what you say and I’ll deal with the consequences some other time. It’s very tongue in cheek and almost sarcastic in the response of being told what to do. With the gang vocals, I wanted it to feel almost as if we were reverting to kids and we’re not listening to you, almost like a child rebelling against their parents. I think that comes through even without the context of the song.
6. The March
This whole song came as a concept of really taking away the glitz and glamour of how the media advertises the military through advertising campaigns which are especially aimed towards young people leaving school and feeling confused as to what life really means. I think that young adults looking for careers to begin their adult lives at school fairs and career evenings with no understanding of the fragility of life or very limited life experience, don’t truly understand what it can ultimately mean to join the Army. Also, there is still not a huge lack of support for veteran soldiers and previous employees who suffer lifelong injuries sustained while serving and also mental health issues such as PTSD. More needs doing around the support of people struggling after serving in the military all over the world.
7. Play the Victim
We’ve all been promised something that never gets delivered. This track really sums up the disbelief and anger of being used for the advantage of others. It hurts to think that someone can do that to you, especially when it was someone you really thought could call a friend. I wrote the lyrics reflecting back on the matter and trying to understand why it had happened and also questioning the facts. Sometimes the facts don’t add up and in those situations, you can really start to question yourself even if you feel you did the right thing. When someone talks badly about you and completely fabricates the narrative of a situation for their own personal gain, surely at some point the cracks will start to show. I think, for me, it’s important to keep your thoughts to yourself and remain true to yourself. The truth always comes out in the end, regardless of the lies that are told now.
8. The Edge
The question is does anyone really win in war? I personally can’t comprehend a win as the death of others. We are all human beings and while I feel we should stand for what we believe, should we really die for what others believe? I also feel that as a race, if we keep going like this there is only one way that this will end. I truly believe that humans will destroy each other in this world down to religion, money and power. It’s a sad reality we live in, fighting against each other for the gain of others. No one truly wins. ‘Forever the master of nothing’ really sums up my feelings on the matter. If you destroy everything, is the nothing you’re left with worth it?
9. Walk away
I like to reflect on past experiences when writing lyrics. Walk Away was very personal to me as I came to an important moment in my life, and I was scared to take the leap of faith into what’s next. Do you remain in a bad situation where you aren’t truly the best version of yourself, or do you walk away from everything you’ve known and leave your past behind? It’s a terrifying decision, leaving everything you’ve known behind and starting again, but for me, I can reflect now and realise it was something that had to be done.
10. Nothing Left to Say
My whole process of writing lyrics for this album was to reflect back and move forward. Leaving these feelings behind and become a better version of myself. This last track for me is kind of my summary of my journey in life so far, and it’s written almost like a counselling session. Just me talking things through. I like to think it resolves the feelings of anxiety within the topics in all of the tracks and ends the album in a calming and refreshing way. I like to think of this album as one big counselling session in a way. Letting out all of the emotions from frustration to anger to loss and all in-between. One by one they’re all released, and by the end, there’s not much more to say.
‘Existential’ is out on Friday 10th November.
For more on the band, see: https://linktr.ee/SleepInMotion
Pre-Save ‘Existential’: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/sleepinmotion/existential
Order ‘Existential’: https://www.musicglue.com/sleepinmotion/products/album-cd-preorder
