Pop three-piece SHARKTANK releases its second album, “Acting Funny” (Humming). After their debut breakthrough – the band crashed out of the studio and into the charts in 2021 – 450,000 people are now listening every month on Spotify. MARCO KLEEBAUER, KATRIN PAUCZ and MILE have thus cracked not only the FM4 formula, but the whole indie equation. They rap because they can. And write songs for which radio formats were invented.
Two-thirds of SHARKTANK are sitting in Café Kriemhild in Vienna behind the concert hall, Stadthalle, on a January afternoon. KLEEBAUER skips out, while the others sit in. “Because we all say the same thing anyway,” says MILE and grins with a wince. In the mood for the conversation? Kind of. He and KATRIN PAUCZ conduct it anyway. It turns out the way their album sounds. Quite good indeed.
Congratulations, you have made an antithesis album to the crappiness of the present moment!
Katrin Paucz: Thank you! We exaggerate our sound. The production is a happy one …
Mile: While the lyrics are actually serious.
Katrin Paucz: Because they are never about the outer world.
Isn’t the inner world also …
Katrin Paucz: A product of our environment? Yes, of course!
So you act differently than you feel?
Katrin Paucz: In reality I would never approach things the way I describe them in the songs. They are a release that you otherwise don’t have in life.
How do you mean that?
Katrin Paucz: I hate confrontation. Nevertheless, the anger has to come out somewhere. In my lyrics I find an outlet for it: “Fuck everything!”
That’s the release?
Katrin Paucz: Some people beat themselves up for it, I write about it.
Mile: I actually see myself in our lyrics. Sure, some things I would never say in conversation, but that’s why they’re in our lyrics!
Katrin Paucz: Miles’ mother tongue is English, mine is German. So I have to change my thinking and I can hide behind it. That doesn’t mean I don’t say what I want to say, on the contrary: when I write in English, I think more than in German. Still, writing in another language is a shield.
Mile: In the sessions, things also come up that I otherwise never think about in a focused way. When we sit in the studio, a lot of things happen intuitively.
Katrin Paucz: Afterwards we feel better than before.
Mile: Others go to psychotherapy, we make music!
It doesn’t sound like psychotherapy.
Katrin Paucz: How does it sound to you?
The opposite: you are exaggerating something.
Katrin Paucz: I never analyze what I write. That’s why the idea behind it always arises afterwards.
Nevertheless, a topic touches you in a particular moment: it affects you.
Katrin Paucz: Of course, it’s inside me; it has an importance.
Mile: It depends on what vibe we’re into. We are very interdependent in that.
Katrin Paucz: In the meantime – and this is the difference to the first album – we know each other better. We dare to address topics that we probably wouldn’t have addressed before. So the inhibition threshold has fallen – we relate more and go into depth.
Do you deal openly with your feelings?
Mile: We’re vulnerable, yes. If I wanted to build an image that portrays me as a strong person, I wouldn’t write such lyrics. But I never want to create a feeling. It comes from the moment and makes our band what it is – that’s why we are relatable!
Katrin Paucz: Yes, we trust the process and try to keep it going until there is a spark. Even if it feels like you’re making the biggest crap – you have to push through.
Because one has developed a basic trust? After all, it has worked before.
Katrin Paucz: I have confidence in us because I know we are good songwriters. It just depends on the vibe.
Mile: It’s like carpenters, they can just do it; whether they make a square table or a round table, the table is going to be good.
You know the next song is going to be good?
Mile: Because we trust the moment. That means: we don’t change too much afterwards, otherwise we would destroy the vibe. Not everything has to be perfect. Staying in the moment is more chill!
Katrin Paucz: Well, having a self-critical streak is important. Just because something has happened, doesn’t automatically mean it’s good.
Or: Not striving for perfectionism doesn’t mean you don’t have standards.
Katrin Paucz: Before I made music with Marco and Mile, I was self-critical. Through them – two musicians I consider good – I get instant feedback. I realize then that it’s good. I just have to follow through with it. It’s in moving on that you come up with new things. You can hear that on the record.
“It’s in moving on that you come up with new things.”
How?
Katrin Paucz: The three of us have become more secure in ourselves. At the same time, we trust each other more.
Mile: Because we realized that it could be nice.
So: Risk?
Mile: There’s no risk in the studio. You make music in your space. If it turns out bad, you don’t have to release it.
I mean rather: you could fail. That can be good …
Katrin Paucz: I just wanted to say! You would never know that it could also go wrong: How can you distinguish if something is cool? For me, everything works out on two days, and nothing comes together on the third. Nevertheless, you learn from it because you find out what doesn’t work. Failure doesn’t exist – only a process of elimination.
And the discipline to always keep going.
Katrin Paucz: In the past, when I was more insecure, I gave up faster. If a melody wasn’t exactly how I imagined it, I discarded the idea. Through the direct feedback from Marco and Mile, some things can stay now, because they also hear – something that I may not have heard before.
Mile: Conversely, some things we might not use, even if I thought it was cool. If two are against it, we don’t do it.
“IT’S NEVER TOXIC, ALWAYS POSITIVE.”
Katrin Paucz: The chemistry has to be right for that.
Mile: We’ve just been lucky.
Katrin Paucz: It’s never toxic, always positive.
Mile: Yes, we work together for the cause – it may not be the best song in the world, but we all want to make it the best it can be! That attitude keeps the egos down.
Requires that you scale back your ego, right?
Katrin Paucz: Exactly, that’s not a given! Still, if we only wanted to push our egos, we’d have solo projects.
Mile: I learned to deal with it before our project. That’s why I think: We were lucky and came together at the right moment, because there were also phases in my life when I had more ego. In the meantime, I appreciate the abilities of others more. I can still remember one of the first sessions. Katrin sang, I just thought: Great voice!
Katrin Paucz: Thank you!
Mile: You sat there and wrote super nice lyrics.
Katrin Paucz: Thank you!
It’s important to be able to accept compliments.
Katrin Paucz: Before Sharktank I never sang in public. Backings here and there, but otherwise … Sometimes my Imposter Syndrome comes out because of that.
Mile: That’s why I tell you when I like it!
Katrin Paucz: I still think to myself: When I sing the next song, they’ll figure out that I can’t really do this!
To question yourself a little bit can be good, can’t it?
Katrin Paucz: But it can quickly become destructive for me. If I keep telling myself that I can’t do it, I only preoccupy myself with myself. As a result, I neglect everything else – I walk around with tunnel vision and don’t realize that something else is happening, too.
What can you do about it?
Katrin Paucz: I don’t want to say that one needs constant self-affirmation, but it helps.
“Everyone is watching you, yet you feel free.”
It feels good when others tell you that what you’re doing is good.
Mile: It would be weird if you play a concert and afterwards everybody goes home without clapping.
Some might over-clap, lose steam …
Mile: You don’t know that and it wouldn’t matter. I just like to be on stage. When I’m up there, I’m freer than I am now, for example, in this conversation.
Why?
Mile: Because as an artist on stage you can do many things that you couldn’t do alone on the street.
Katrin Paucz: Also, you’re standing above the others, physically, on stage.
Mile: Everyone is watching you, yet you feel free.
“At some point I realized: It’s all in my head.”
Katrin Paucz: I often thought too much on stage: How do I look? Will this come out well? At some point I realized: It’s all in my head. But that means you’re never a band, you’re always just ego. Fortunately, that has gotten better from show to show.
You think that the others think that you …
Katrin Paucz: Look dorky, that’s right!
Mile: I have that every day.
Katrin Paucz: Everybody has at some point, right? Only Mick Jagger stands up and says: “Fuck you, I’m …”
Mile: “… so much better than everybody”
Katrin Paucz: Yes, one needs a certain amount of “fuck-it” mentality.
Alright, thanks for that!
Christoph Benkeser
Translated from the German original by Arianna Alfreds.