Sharktank surprise themselves – fm4.ORF.at

There are no guitars, just brutal samples, oppressive synth bass and distorted vocals. Not only does their new EP “Bilndside” surprise us, but the new sound has also surprised the trio Sharktank themselves.

from Andreas Gestetner-Brügger

It surprises you from the first minute: the powerful, nervous and brutal sound of “Boogieman”. Shark tank. After touring extensively over the past two years, the trio decided to bring that huge live energy and good on-stage mayhem into the studio and try something new.

“We smashed our guitars on stage, destroyed them. They don't exist anymore,” says guitarist Katrin Pouch with a sly smile. The songs on the new EP “Blindside” actually work pretty much without guitars. But Katrin, rapper Mile and producer Marco Klebauer They didn't have a real concept when they went into the studio.

Catherine: “Of course we thought about it, but in classic Sharktank style we didn't think too much about it, we tried to take the live energy with us. At first that led to absolutely brutal samples, or terrible drum recordings from Marco or huge bass riffs that I recorded. We just tried to make every Something as simple and brutal or as extreme as possible.

“Boogieman” is a perfect example of this. Everything here feels hectic, turbulent, and over-the-top. After all, “Boogieman” is about the biker inside. The “stress maker” for whom nothing can happen well or quickly enough. Even if you push it away, it shows up at night and makes you jump awake in a sweat.

Catherine: “At some point you'll discover that you can't escape the Boogieman. Because in reality, you are the boogeyman—the one within you. Only you can control yourself.”

Breaking habits and social media

Reinventing yourself is part of Sharktank's DNA. The first single “Get It Done” was created in just 13 days from a fun and carefree place. The subsequent song “Acting Funny” was recorded with similar ease, but with more experience and planning, and there were breaks and psychedelic synth excursions.

After the two albums, I felt like I had said and produced everything that gave me this primal, fluid and unconventional attitude in life. Live experiences with Giant Rooks, among others, encouraged Sharktank to take their theatrical strength to the studio. Marco and Mile met in “dark” sessions where there was a lot of screaming, Mile tells us. Catherine Bausch also replaced her usual guitar grip with “fiddling” on the production instruments. So she often came to the studio with a clearer idea of ​​the sound.

Largely due to the new and brutal sounds, the lyrics also changed. Mile raps on grunge electro banger “clay” He transformed his experiences of being checked by the police often and turns his anger into a political song. Title track “stunned” It surprises you, as the title states, with krautrock loops that seem to be running in double time and the vocals are so isolated and picked up and chopped up by effects that they sound like their own instrument.

It seems as if Sharktank wrote an album for Tik Tok users looking for the latest and wildest sounds for their videos. But Sharktank is well aware of its capable algorithms. One could interpret “Blindside” as a critical work that uses the conditions of social media to illustrate how it accelerates and raises fears or dependencies.

But the trio does not aim for a social-philosophical discourse. Catherine, Mile and Marco are simply doing what they think is important and artistically correct. The top priority here is freedom. If someone asked: “Are they allowed to do it this way?”, Sharktank would probably answer: “I don't know, we'll just do it.” In this way they once again succeeded in surprising not only us, but also themselves – this is the life elixir of art and music.