SHARPENED.LIVES AND THE DEFINITION OF HEAVINESS

Stade / Mainz. Everything is connected. Life imitates art, art imitates life. With the pandemic rippling through societies and exposing the malfunctioning cooperation between nations to collectively solve a problem, an idea first formed in 2018 took shape in Groningen in 2020. The notion of redefining heaviness turned into sharpened.lives, a project that would combine aspects of journalistic life, queer perspectives and intersectional perceptions of society in experimental music.

I recently discovered the song O.R.A. by sharpened.lives. My interest was immediately aroused. I got in touch with singer St//tches (Alex Loeb) and we decided to do a telephone interview. In the interview, you can find out about the background stories of his project sharpened.lives, his opinion on the music scene and much more. Watch an exclusive video of sharpened.lives on my Angrabyte.Journalism YouTube channel, which I have linked below this interview.

AN INTERVIEW BY CHRISTINA ANGRABEIT

CA: „You speak fluent American English and you are half American?“

St//tches: ,,Exactly and I actually think more in English and grew up bilingual.“

CA: „Were you born in the States?“

St//tches: „I was born here in Mainz and lived in the USA for a year. My father is US-American and 80 per cent of my family live over there.“

CA: „Then I don’t need to ask what brought you to Mainz. Then you’ve apparently come back to Germany.“

St//tches: „Yes, I came back again (my family moved). And I also lived in the Netherlands until recently, so to speak.“

CA: „How many languages do you speak in total?“

St//tches: ,,Twelve, more or less – I am a polyglot. Fluent in German, English, French and Dutch. And then Spanish, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Luxembourgish. But from beginner level to conversational.“

CA: „How did the sharpened.lives project come about?“

St//tches: ,,That’s a very interesting founding story. It was the case that I had a band here a long time before. In its final form, so to speak, it was somewhat similar to our more electronic stuff now. The project was called Another Timelapse. My best friend was in it, I’ve known him since I was four from kindergarten. The band broke up in 2018. But there were still two song ideas lying around and I said to the drummer, what are we going to do with these song ideas or how are we going to approach this with music? And he said back then: „Yeah, keep them, maybe they’ll come in handy and we can do something with them at a later date.“ These songs are called Fear and Loathing in DC and the other one was called Almost There. In any case, I did that and went to the Netherlands for my Masters and then in 2020, just before the elections in the USA, I recorded the final version of Fear and Loathing in DC. But it’s since been revised even more, which was three years ago. In any case, it was the starting point for the project, but I didn’t have any musicians with whom I could have played it live. And then it was more of a solo thing that I put off for a year or two while I was in another project where we did acoustic pop. Singing with harmonies, so it was very different. (laughs) In any case, when I moved to the Netherlands, ideas kind of manifested themselves and I wrote some songs, but never knew where to put them and how they could manifest themselves in gigs, or basically, in songs at some point. When I came back from the Netherlands in 2022, I first needed a lot of time for myself for personal reasons; then I started writing songs again and teamed up with my best friend. His name is Freddy and he’s also the current drummer of sharpened.lives. That’s basically the founding story. Last year in September, I met Niklas at a wine festival and talked about whether he would like to join. It came to me as a spontaneous idea, as we had wanted to do something together for years. We’ve known him since 2012 or 2013 and he immediately said yes. Since then, we’ve been working on projects and ideas and are ready to release the EP later this summer.“

CA: „Does the name sharpened.lives have a meaning?“

St//tches: ,,The name has no meaning at all, it was a play on words. It referred to sharpened knives, so to speak. And I thought to myself, that’s just too ‚try hard emo‘ in terms of the name and then I considered how it would be if we did this typical pun that I already do. I have a running joke with a good friend of mine from seventh grade that I swap the consonants at the beginning of words. In any case, I turned knives into the word lives and suddenly the whole word took on a completely new meaning that can’t be pigeonholed. And I think it’s also a good sign of where we’re moving musically and thematically. It can mean anything from a sharpened perspective, or how things are more dangerous because there are rough edges and it’s sharp. It can mean a lot of things and I want to leave it up to each person to form their own opinion and interpret it.“

CA: „You are also a journalist. Are there areas where you combine journalism with storytelling? For example, in the lyrics of your music?“

St//tches: „Yes, there are actually many, many examples. One would be Fear and Loathing in DC, for example. It’s a song I wrote about the two-party system in the US and especially the way mainstream reporting, CNN and FOX News as examples, or MSNBC, how they report on domestic and foreign conflicts and on the individual parties and their representatives. And then, conversely, the alternative news media landscape on YouTube, also known as the Alternative News Network, is basically made up of YouTubers who organise their channel like a normal news programme or something like that, but for example represent much more radical viewpoints and report much more emotionally. The interesting thing that I found out through the research for my master’s thesis is that there is still a bit of truth in it somewhere, because it is far removed from what you only ever hear on normal television or something like that in the USA.
That just gave me this perspective that the way the media works in the US, in particular, is simply this binary two-party system – this black and white thinking, good or bad, Democrat or Republican, conservative or progressive – is only ever played off against each other, with the two parties that theoretically represent these values being ‚two sides of the same coin‘, so to speak.
Because it’s all still very much intertwined with the lobby and yes… I could go into a lot of detail about that now. In any case, this song was a point of view on that. It wasn’t a political song per se, I would rather say it’s a socially critical song in relation to media use, media impact and also media creation from the 2000s onwards.“

CA: „Do you think the American media is different from the German media? Or from the European media? And if yes, in which way?“

St//tches: „What I would say is that the US media is very much aimed at frontal attacks, which means that you wouldn’t see ten adverts from the AFD, the SPD or “Die Grünen“ or anything like that in Germany. And in the USA, this is more or less bought in. The Democratic adverts for the candidates run on CNN and those for the Republicans on FOX News. It’s actually so banal that we’re even at the point in this country where, despite the digital natives who are growing up here, who can get their information from anywhere, it’s still such a dominant concept. That just shocks me sometimes. Because I also know from my family and from people over there how polarising topics are there. If you’re no longer able to sit down at the dinner table somewhere and talk normally without it turning into politics and people shouting at each other, then it’s somehow no longer an exchange. There’s no conversation, just the buzzwords, whether from those who see themselves as democratic or left-wing or from those on the far right. It’s drifting further and further apart. I see this as a major problem when there is no longer any dialogue at all.“

CA: „What sounds have influenced your music? What is particularly important to you when you write songs?“

St//tches: „There are all kinds of influences. I’ve even linked them as highlights on our Instagram. Under „Inspos“. You have to imagine that Freddy, Niklas and I come from very different backgrounds when it comes to music. Both in terms of the music we’ve made, the music we listen to and the concerts we go to. Niklas, for example, used to be in an indie rock band and is, I think, more influenced by the post-punk thing and other music like that, but also listens to heavier music.
Freddy and I grew up with the very first band, the Backstreet Boys (laughs) and I Want It That Way was just an absolute blast when we were three and four. We were in the living room with sunglasses on and danced to it. And a short time later we got musically dirty when Freddy’s dad showed us Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy, even when we were about that age. In any case, as a native speaker, I always asked myself: „Oh Thomas, what are you actually saying? I don’t even know that word?“ And he would just reply: „Snap my picture“. I believed that for years until I was able to google it myself. (laughs) That’s a little anecdote. (laughs) That was kind of the beginning and that’s when I realised, okay, I like a lot of different things. I like melodic things as well as chaotic and electronic things. It didn’t take long for me to get into my teenage phase or pre-pubescent phase at ten or eleven, when I started with Green Day and Billy Talent, then I quickly moved on to System of a Down, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Muse and Enter Shikari, and later also Deftones. And a lot of that formed the big influence of what we do. I would mention a few other projects to contextualise that:
The roughness and the aggression is very much influenced by Loathe or Code Orange. The electronic parts that combine synthesiser and guitar parts are clearly influenced by Enter Shikari, because I just love that band more than anything else. And that’s been the case since 2009. And in 2016, the Deftones were definitely added as a major influence. I think you can also hear that we like
to create very shoegazy melodies in our vocals that don’t follow a normal melodic sequence. And we’ve definitely copied that from people like Chino from the Deftones. Our music is very influenced by many different music genres. For example, EDM, electronic dance music, especially Drum ’n’ Bass and Rominimal. This is a style of music that comes from Romania. It is the origin of minimal house or minimal techno. That’s kind of the birth of it. So it’s something that will definitely become visible in the long term, which has an influence on the music. Apart from that, grunge, nu metal, alternative and even indie and progressive rock.“

CA: „What I also read in an article is that you also do Math Rock? Is that correct?“

St//tches: „Yes, exactly. These kinds of time changes or with just a bit of strange transitions that sound a bit off, at least in terms of rhythm, are a real favourite of mine and my drummer. It feels like we’ve been doing it ever since we were born and started making music. We’ve always had funny beats. It’s like a hobby that we can now finally live out together in this project. (laughs)“

CA: „How did you get into journalism? Is this your main job?“

St//tches: „I did my Master’s degree in journalism in the Netherlands. Before that, I studied journalism in Mainz. I’m a really big information and academy nerd. If it’s about a topic that interests me, I’ll sit down for hours in the evening and watch YouTube documentaries or other things that I can find through my own research. I think that mainly comes from my music journalism, which I’ve been doing since 2015. I used to write for another magazine and now I have my
own newcomer blog called The Draft Media. I’m interested in new talents, underground artists and also perspectives that I can then also express in English and not just in German. That’s relatively liberating for me. I also do a few interviews. But that’s basically more of a hobby. I’m very interested in investigative work and social media management. Something which is also good
to say: We are a DIY band, or rather a DIY project. We really only have our members and one producer that we work with. At the moment we have The Mixing Mine, who I can really recommend because Phil is a great producer and he knows exactly what he’s doing. He gives the bands creative freedom.“

CA: „And the studio is located in Mainz?“

St//tches: „No, that’s in North Rhine-Westphalia. So we work remotely with all the ideas. Because I started this project like this and I want to continue it in such a way that it’s desktop artist-like, so that we work on everything ourselves and rehearse it ourselves, pre-produce it ourselves, develop sound design concepts and then give it to the producer as a finished package so that he can make something out of it. But we don’t just go in and say: Here, I’ve got a beat and this guitar riff, make a song out of it. It’s a very closed process for us, I would say. Because all three of us know where we want to go music-wise. Which things we want to test out, as we are more or less polygenre or genre fluid in our approach to writing songs.“

CA: „As you already mentioned, an EP is being planned. Do you already have a title for it? What can the listener expect and when is it expected to be released?“

St//tches: „The EP is called st//tches, just like my artist name. It summarises the musical and private experiences I’ve had over the last six to seven years, so to speak. It’s kind of the first statement and we’re already working on the second EP with songs that we didn’t want to put on the first record. The EP is expected to be released in September, but there will be more information about that later.
We’ll be playing a show with Lyink from Wiesbaden on 7 September 2024 and that’s probably when the EP will be released.“

CA: „Will there also be a tour then? Or can’t you say that for sure yet?“

St//tches: „Yes, tour is an elastic term, I would say. We are of course DIY and try to pick out all the stuff. We’re in the process of booking, so in the best case we’ll manage to get more dates in Germany this year. Maybe even in Belgium or the Netherlands, because I have a special connection to that and otherwise we’ll just see how the journey continues at the moment. We’re relatively relaxed about it. Let’s see what happens.“

CA: „What is the background story to the song O.R.A.?

St//tches: „The song was created during a trip to the Electric Castle Festival in Romania – an incredible 24/7 festival with 8 stages, music styles you’ve never heard of and a challenging continental climate. That’s why the song mixes different styles and contrasts as eccentrically as it did there. Electro meets metal, punk, trap, hip-hop and more. That’s exactly what we wanted to capture here in the sound that we unpacked on O.R.A.„

CA: „With which artists would you like to work together one day?“

St//tches: Fever 333 from the US, Wargasm, Enter Shikari from England and Every Hell from Brighton. Also from England.“

CA: „Oh, Brighton. A good friend of mine is from Brighton.“

St//tches: „Yes, Brighton is generally a super fascinating city for artists. My singing teacher is also from Brighton and he always tells me funny stories about how interconnected everything is there. That it’s basically like a village. Where everyone goes to the playground and writes songs together. I personally miss something like that in the city of Mainz, for example, or in Frankfurt. You get the
feeling that outside of England, the music scene is always so individualistic and tries to push its stuff through, but there’s no exchange between the artists or it’s very much underground. I even make most of my connections at raves. It’s really interesting what kind of people you meet there. You meet everyone from punkers to rappers to EDM artists, techno, drum n bass and hardstyle. Really every kind of music you can imagine. It’s a completely different course and it’s super super
refreshing to talk to all these people. About their approach, what music means to them, how they produce and what they produce. That always opens new doors. It’s just a super, super, super great experience.“

CA: „What has been your most emotional experience on stage or on the street so far? Because I’ve seen that you also enjoy performing on the street.“

St//tches: „Yes, I have to think about that for a moment. So there were very many
types of experiences like that. One example: I once went on a street music tour in
France. I organised everything myself with my old bandmate from Wing It,
Cahleo. It was really chaotic, but it was fun. I was in twelve different cities in
eight weeks.“

CA: ,,Wow!“

St//tches: „You often meet people on the street, for example in France, especially in the south of France, who sit down with you. Then they listen to your stuff for an hour and afterwards they take you out for a beer somewhere, to the beach or show you the city. These are experiences that nobody can take away from you, that you don’t really have if you just go to the city and check out the tourist
attractions instead of engaging with people who come from there, or have at least lived there for longer and want to show you the city. These are the most amazing experiences and also the most emotional, when you learn so much about cultures, opinions, interactions and customs. The list is endless.“

CA: „I read in an article on the internet that you also studied in Greece?“

St//tches: „That’s correct. I lived in Thessaloniki for a semester abroad in 2017 and that was actually the first time I experienced completely foreign music cultures up close. For example, Sirtaki or other Greek dances. If you go drinking there, for example, a white wine only costs 3.50 euros and you get 0.5 litres. And next door you have a live band with four or five instruments playing live music. People dance to it and there’s delicious Greek food everywhere. That was an amazing experience that had a huge impact on me musically. I feel very inspired in my identity as an artist and the way I make music, between these many places and cultures. It’s just a wild mix of US influences, French, Spanish, Mexican, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch and a few German and especially UK influences. But it’s all mixed together and I’ve slowly found a way to make it all make sense to me musically. But there’s still a long way to go.“ (laughs)

CA: „You’ve travelled a long way around the world. Was there a place that was your favourite place to live? Or where you found it the most beautiful?“

St//tches: „In principle, I would say I had a really cool environment during my time at university when I lived in Groningen. But that’s just a chapter that’s now closed. It’s a student city, you realise when you come back there that many things are just the same as they were three years ago. It’s really like taking a screenshot and going back to it a year later. If I were to say, „What’s actually happening in Groningen now?“, the answer is: relatively nothing has changed. But my time there was one of the most exciting and coolest I’ve ever had.“

CA: „I assume that you are a multi-instrumentalist. How many instruments do you play?“

St//tches: Yes, I grew up with the drums. I actually started with our drummer Freddy. We used to be in drum groups. Then we were in a percussion group for a long time, where we mainly played Brazilian things and Samba etc. together. With an ensemble of ten to 18 people. After that, I started teaching myself acoustic guitar when I was 13 or 14. Or first the guitar and then the acoustic guitar.“

CA: „Don’t you normally learn acoustic guitar before you learn electric guitar?“

St//tches: „Yes, there was an electric guitar just standing around in my mum’s living room. It was a Marathon Stratocaster and I wondered for months: What is that? And how do you play it? And at some point I just picked it up. Then I ordered a guitar book from Billy Talent for Billy Talent III and learned the whole album, then American Idiot and after that I immediately thought, okay, I want to play a bit faster and harder stuff and I also bought books like that from System of a Down and Slipknot to teach myself. It was similar with the bass. I got into it when I was 15 or 16 because I worked in a music shop here in Mainz. I used to hide in a room and practise the bass in secret when there were no customers there. (laughs) That’s the story and for a long time I thought I might become a music teacher and took practical lessons as a piano teacher for about two or two and a half years. As a result, I taught myself synthesisers, programming, sampling, audio technology and editing programmes. That’s my rough explanation, so to speak.“

CA: „If you’ve seen the electric guitar at your mother’s, is she also musically active?“

St//tches: „Yes, my whole family has always been very musical. My father used to sing and play acoustic guitar and also wrote a lot of lyrics and poems. My mother is a teacher and has been singing all her life. She also used to play guitar and piano and my sister used to sing and play guitar too.“

CA: „Do you already have an album artwork for the EP? Are you working with someone or are you doing it yourself?“

St//tches: ,,No, for the graphics we actually have Fabienne, @brightxswan on Instagram. She does the artwork for us. She had already designed it for O.R.A. and also for Trenches. She will do something for us in the future. Other than that, we are completely on our own.“

CA: „If we go back to journalism. What do you personally think of Chat GPT and artificial intelligence? So that anyone can have a text created for them and the profession as a journalist might fade into the background?“

St//tches: „I am convinced that the whole thing is related to the keyword media literacy. So to what extent are we as individuals capable of using the internet, platforms and tools so that we can also get something out of it, so to speak. I’m actually against the idea of AI. In other words, simply drawing images or artificially generating artwork virtually everywhere. There have also been a lot
of scandals. For example, on the flight to France for this street music tour, I saw a lot about these monkeys and these images that were generated using AI and then sold via Bit Coin, so to speak. That was a huge scandal. While in the end it was all just fragments of images put together from things available on the internet to create „art“ in inverted commas. And I think if we get to the point
where we completely replace our art with AI and don’t give any input and say here’s a keyword, make me a music video – what authenticity does art still have? That’s the main reason why our approach to social media comes across as very, very raw and unfiltered, and because we want to get across the fact that there’s a huge gap between what people actually do and how they could actually edit or realise it if they were to do it themselves. And yes, juxtaposed with AI, how it works and how you can tinker with something…. I see it as problematic. From a journalistic point of view, however, I would say that you have to acquire the tools and can use them for research purposes, for example. For example, you can use it to export a data set from various locations to Google Maps and immediately write it down and list it in an Excel spreadsheet with various parameters using an AI tool. It can be useful for that, but not if we completely lose the creative aspect of the artist track.“

CA: „What can the reader or listener expect in the exclusive video for Angrabyte
Journalism?“

St//tches: „In the exclusive video, you can expect a short rehearsal room tour and equipment explanation.“

CA: „Finally, would you like to add anything to the interview?“

St//tches: ,,Yes, I want to thank all the readers for watching and listening and if you haven’t done so yet, please listen to the new single. It’s called O.R.A. I’m St//tches from sharpened.lives and I wish you a great start to spring.“

CA: „Thank you very much for the interview and of course for the exclusive video for Angrabyte Journalism.“

Links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharpened.lives/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554866143318

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sharpenedlives

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/1N2Ca3slwa5TWHco5EIJtc