San Fermin, the brainchild of composer and songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone, released its self-titled debut album in September of 2013 after Ludwig-Leone spent two months locked up at the Banff Centre, a secluded retreat for composers, tucked away in the Canadian mountains. He later assembled a group of highly trained musicians to record and perform his work, and by the time the album came out, he had already finished work on the sequel. However, after experience life on the road and performing his music in a live setting, he decided to rewrite the record. The result is the upcoming album Jackrabbit, which is due out in the spring. Along with the announcement, the band premiered their lead single "Parasites."
The frenetic track features a layering of sounds that build and jab with Allen Tate's stormy, baritone vocals contrasting new singers Charlene Kaye's and Rebekah Durham's sweet crooning.
The darker, manic sound heard on "Parasite" is a good indication of what to expect on the full-length, according to Ludwig-Leone, who spoke with Music Times' in September.
"It's definitely darker," he told us. "It's got the same sort of general instrumentation, but it's definitely darker. The last record, the general shape of things was slow-building songs, and this record is very different. It's, you know, very quickly changing -- big one minute small the next. Much more manic I guess."
As far as the themes and storylines on the upcoming record, he said the two characters have "changed a good amount on this record."
"It's less like an argument and more like they are trying to figure things out together," he explained. "It's a little bit less like a 'she feels one way he feels another way' and more like everyone's f**ked up about it. ...The first record was sort of like, 'Ok here we are here, what do we do?' This record feels like it's a little farther down the road, and there's this question of you know what you're supposed to do, but you don't know if you want that. There is a little bit more of a straightforward voice rather than the, 'Oh we are people, and what do we do with that?' sort of blank canvas thing that was on the first record. ...It just feels like they are stuck somewhere. They know taking the next step means something really significant, and they're not sure which direction that step should go in."
Jackrabbit is due out April 21, 2015.
Check out "Parasite" over at NPR, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
