San Diego Songwriter Rebecca Sykes Delivers Debut EP, ‘Face to Face’
San Diego’s Rebecca Sykes has signed with Dusty Mars Records for her forthcoming debut EP, ‘Face to Face,’ set for release on November 21st.
The four-song collection showcases a powerful and emotionally raw arrival. The EP’s core identity lies in Sykes’s refusal to shy away from intense feeling. If the songs are an examination of emotion, they are not timid: ‘Face to Face’ is filled with introspection, the personal pain of situations… “When I wrote these songs, I quite literally had to look at myself face to face — dive into my emotions, look myself in the eye, and just be real with myself,” Sykes says of the record, which drops on Cara Potiker’s independent Dusty Mars Records.
A San Diego native, her early life was spent mastering the clarinet and piano, but an obsession with The Beatles and ’90s rock led her to the drum kit. She eventually became an in-demand session drummer for local bands, keeping her own compositions private until the pandemic hit. It was during this time of enforced isolation and mental health struggles that songwriting became her primary outlet. She moved from providing the backbeat to crafting the whole structure, finding the courage to share her music publicly only last year.
For ‘Face to Face,’ Sykes teamed up with producer/engineer/mixer Ryan Finch, recording the suite at Satellite in San Diego. The EP is notable for Sykes’s role as multi-instrumentalist, playing nearly every part herself.
The focus track, ‘I Am (Not),’ opens the EP with crystalline tension. Written during a period of exhaustion, juggling a difficult job and a draining metal band, the track contrasts its themes of giving up with its sonic texture: “I like the contrast between the gritty, heavier guitar strumming that kind of represents this feeling of wanting to scream at everything — and then the vocals are so soft,” she notes.
This delicate balance of sound and subject continues across the record: ‘When I Leave’ is a delicately gloomy missive concerning the difficulty of reciprocating unwanted infatuation, using a signature slow acoustic guitar strum that Sykes describes as a “vibration going through my soul.” ‘Your Mind’ offers the flip side of emotional entanglement, exploring the uncertainty and mixed signals of a non-committal relationship. The EP closes with ‘dysmorphia,’ a devastating meditation on body image that channels the hushed intimacy of a latter-day Nick Drake.
“’Face to Face’ is about looking at myself physically and mentally — and feeling everything,” Sykes concludes, offering a compelling summary of an unflinching debut.
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