Listen to Brain Leak's diary-entry debut single 'Trying'

Emotionally stripped and gamely accepting the stark risk of vulnerability, Manchester’s nu-riot grrrl newcomers, Brain Leak reveals the first harvest of deeply personal diary entry songwriting and recording sessions with the open-hearted release of Trying. Centred on the complex introspections of singer-songwriter, Tara-Gabriella Engelhardt, the band’s four-piece live make-up expands to become part of Peaness, Orielles and Working Men’s Club’s family tree.

A Cardiff-raised French/US national, making home in amidst the roaring weekends and disappearing, Victorian industrial relics of Manchester, Engelhardt’s growth into a semi-solo persona parallels her deeper and more profound personal realisations. Fronting up to unhealthy attachments, Trying reveals itself as a generous retelling of the blind alleys and sharp teeth connected with giving up to infatuation and overwhelming personal attachments.

Recalling the hazier, heart-on-sleeve moments of powerhouse guitar expressionists, Hole or Mazzy Star, Engelhardt, also a member of tipped trio, Adjustments, welcomes Orielles drummer, Sidonie Hand-Halford to the fold, alongside former Blanketman drummer, Ellie-Rose Elliot, initiating shifts to meet overlapping touring and recording commitments. Peaness guitarist, Jess Branney, and former Working Mens Club guitarist, Giulia Bonometti complete the line-up to form an indomitable, all-female Break Leak line-up.

Engelhardt says: “’Trying’ is a song about attachment and the extreme emotions that can come along with it. I feel things very deeply and the song instantly expresses that I don’t just feel a standard emotion, I tend to feel the amplified version of it.

“I remember writing the song almost in one go after a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where I’d talked about the feeling of being on a seesaw. I didn’t know how to just stay in the middle, didn’t have a clue what balance felt like, without a crutch. Challenging emotional situations without any kind of crutch was very unnerving and felt completely alien.”

Break Leak spent the final months and the New Year period emerging and honing their appearances at the heart of the North of England’s new music scene, playing at YES Manchester’s Hot Take night and already appearing with exciting, established peers such as Blood Wizard and Eades.