Sharptooth: Life on the Razors Edge

SHARPTOOTH have quietly been building up as one of the most exciting new hardcore bands in America. A band with something to say and they don’t care who they upset, there is something so vital about them right now. And now with their second album Transitional Forms they’ve taken a huge step forward and are ready to step out of the underground. Make no mistake though, SHARPTOOTH are doing this for themselves.

At the centre of SHARPTOOTH is vocalist Lauren Kashan, her perspective is all over this album and she brings such an important perspective to everything. “Introspection is such a critical part of my personality that everything I write about is going to come from that place. My hope is that, in diving deeper into that and being a lot more explicit about all of those feelings, it encourages introspection in others. I think that’s an absolutely crucial element missing from our public discourse.”

There’s a nuance to her views on this album that seems to be missing from a lot of discourse now. “Our culture has gotten very good at pointing fingers, but is absolutely fucking awful at productive introspection, whether that be to cultivate empathy or deconstruct your own biases or address your own behaviours that have been complicit in upholding unjust systems or even unhealthy relationships and friendships. I truly believe that might be the most ‘political’ and radical thing that you can do today: to introspect, rather than to project. I also think that every song on the record does have it a more broader, more global or more socio-political point, because that’s just the way I feel about life in general: the suffering you are experiencing internally is virtually always mirrored in the world around you at large; and when you work to end the suffering of one, you must mirror that to end the suffering of all.” This introspection really comes through on some of the standout tracks on the album such as The Grey.

The timing of this album also lines up with a lot of what is going on in the world right now. SHARPTOOTH have always been a political band so this is nothing new to them but this will no doubt make this album resonate more with a lot of people now. Lauren sums this up saying, “honestly I don’t think the socio-political climate has actually changed particularly dramatically, I just think that at this point, finally, a significant portion of the population is being forced to pay attention. One of the only differences for me at this point is the fact that maybe a few of our viewpoints won’t be seen as ‘radical’; we’ve been calling for people to burn down their local police stations since 2014, so frankly it’s refreshing that more people are coming around. But with tensions so high in so many different facets of our society right now, it feels more important now than ever to really push people to keep acknowledging these problems, to keep these things on the forefront of the public’s mind. That’s the only way real change is made.”

Guitarist Keith Higgins adds, “it’s sad that we’re considered a ‘very political band’ at this point. Punk and hardcore have always been political, the bands I grew up listening to always had a lot to say and used their platforms to address issues and try and fight for change. As far as the current climate goes, I don’t think things are super different other than just being more visible, everything going on right now has been going on for years (/decades/centuries) so nothing’s different in my eyes other than less people are ignoring things.”

Despite being a hardcore band, SHARPTOOTH have started to find themselves as outcasts in the scene. Despite their clear knowledge and love of the genre, they found themselves targeted by a lot of hardcore scene online when this album was announced. Lauren sums this up best saying, “at this point, I have a really hard time doing anything other than laughing at, for example, some 22 year old white dude who thinks all his exes are ‘crazy’ having literally any ‘opinions’ about my band being ‘corny’ because we’re empathetic and earnest and passionate. These people are just children having temper tantrums, who very obviously don’t know or understand anything about hardcore or its history. I guess maybe you wouldn’t know about any of that if you showed up to the scene for the aesthetic, or to have a place where you can just be violent without getting arrested, but I’ve been around for about a decade longer than a lot of those people, and I’m inclined to think that any of the forefathers of the genre would spit in their faces for caring more about aesthetics than making the world a better place for everybody.”

Guitarist Lance Donati follows this up talking about how it’s cool not to care in the scene. “We’ve kind of (and literally in some cases) been the weird kids that sat at the lunch table. Kind of the kinds from Stranger Things or something. We don’t really have a niche anywhere and can make the cool kids uncomfortable with how outwardly unapologetic we are about it. And it’s just basic when you break it down. Again, with the grade school analogy. We’re just here, being ourselves, and not caring. Because we know what we’re doing is productive in our community in order to make a difference.”

Despite all this, it seems like nothing is going to stop SHARPTOOTH on Transitional Forms. When this current global situation that is shutting the industry down is over and they can unleash these new songs live they are going to be unstoppable. They are one of the most exciting bands around and want to make their scene a better place. Lance closes out the conversation talking about what he hopes people will take away from this record. “I hope they take away that they’re not alone in all this crap going on. And that there’s a group of kids (overgrown kids) that are going through the same thing. It’s not ideal, it’s not the dream, it’s not how it should have been. But it’s what we got and it’s all we have to work with. Just know we got another album, and we’re gonna work on it just as hard, and do everything to make the next one just as good as an experience.”

What would you say is the main emotion of your new album? 

Lance Donati: Perseverance and overcoming for me. This band has been through a lot over the years of trying to somehow ‘prove itself’ somehow. When in reality over all the time, we don’t have anything to prove to anyone. So going back to not really having expectations and just focusing on just being ourselves and just doing our own flavor of music has done us the biggest favour. I’m proud of that.

Keith Higgins: I think it’s more of a journey (self-realization/actualization) than a thematic emotion.

Peter Bruno: If I were to describe my reading of Lauren’s lyrics on this record in one word, the mood would be ‘resilient’.

Are there any other factors on this album that you feel make it significantly different to the debut?

Lance: Our first album was largely a collection of old songs that we had just completed at the time really. An advanced demo of sorts. In contrast to the new material, it’s much more mature. Much more refined and more specific. We had a clear motive and direction when we created it. So that played a huge part in it’s creation.

Keith: Clever Girl was kind of just a collection of songs we had been playing for a while at the time, it wasn’t written as a cohesive album the way that Transitional Forms was. We also self released that album before Pure Noise picked us up and put it out, so this is really our first ‘signed band in the studio’ album experience. The entire process felt drastically different from the start in that regard. Sonically we’ve evolved and really focused in on a different sound that I think really fits and feels right as well.

Bruno: Apart from its lyrical content, I personally think Transitional Forms is much heavier and more diverse than Clever Girl. For the most part, the songs are much, much faster.

Matt Hague: I think the production really suits our songwriting this time around. Brian McTernan is my favorite producer and I can’t believe he worked on a SHARPTOOTH album.

Some of the songs here have been in your live set for over a year now. Were there any set backs you had with the album or did you just decide to take more time with the writing and recording? 

Lauren Kashan: We actually recorded the album back in March/April of 2019, but we were being extremely deliberate about the release, and we were not content to release the record on a tour that I didn’t feel was reflective of the band’s ethos and values. So we spent a lot of time waiting and hunting down just the right opportunities to come to fruition… only to have the entire planet go into quarantine. At this point I’m just grateful we recorded our music videos when we did; we recorded Say Nothing exactly a week from when Boston (where I live) went into lockdown. So, it could have been worse!

Lance: The recording process was pretty clear cut and simple really. Everything was written clearly in the writing process and Brian Mcternnan kind of let us just go off and do our thing. He kept us honest and kept the musician ship in check. Told me when he thought it needed to be redone as such. It was a pretty seamless process, and I’m very thankful for that. Brian and Paul Leavitt really we’re great to work with.

Keith: We have had this record finished for about a year now, the release got rescheduled due to COVID as well as a few tentative plans falling through. I’m very excited it’s finally coming out!

Bruno: The record has actually been finished for quite a bit of time now, but its release kept getting pushed back for a variety of factors (all of which are mostly boring). Still, I think solidifying a new lineup was the most important factor in waiting to drop it.

Do you still find people can have a negative reaction to SHARPTOOTH’s politics? And do you hope you can reach through to these people and convince them otherwise?

Lauren: There are always going to be people who hate us: I’m a woman with opinions! That’s the only fuel some people need! But my biggest priority always, is using our songs and live shows to create space for marginalized people, their voices, their lived experiences. If members of those groups call upon me to check myself, or criticize the way we do our political and public discourse, then it is my job to educate myself and deconstruct my bullshit so that I am better able to do right by those people. That’s what’s important to me. All the other haters are really only noteworthy in that sometimes their actions have a negative impact on our ability to do good in the world. So if you hate my band, that’s cool, but please sit down and shut the fuck up and get out of our way, because we have ACTUAL serious work to do that doesn’t involve being fake-woke on Twitter.

Lance: Of course. And that’s to be expected. We’re challenging peoples norms. We’re telling people to look at the world around them and examine their thoughts and behaviour. And through that kind of struggle you bring the hard questions to surface, which is desperately needed during times like this.

Keith: People definitely do, and there’s two sides to it. There’s the people who think ‘don’t sexually assault people’ and ‘treat people with respect regardless of the things about them they didn’t choose’ are political ‘liberal’ ideas that shouldn’t be in music and there’s the people who think caring and talking about social issues is ‘cringey’ or not cool enough. While it would be great to reach some of them I don’t particularly care what either of those groups think.

Bruno: I think it’s fair to say that we wouldn’t be doing this band if we felt like we were just preaching to the choir. We certainly play shows for lots of folks who want their punk rock to be purely escapism, which is a shame considering the histories of these counter-cultural musical movements. In some ways, I don’t have any illusions that one of our sets will convert a person into any sort of radical politics, but I do hope that we can inspire people to either question something, or to gain the courage to speak up if they haven’t previously.

Matt: I think people want escapism which is why they’re so quick to get mad about ‘politics in music’ which is goofy for a million reasons. But I love the idea of someone listening to SHARPTOOTH because they like breakdowns going on and googling shit like the southern strategy or anything else Lauren is talking about on either record. We can only hope!

Transitional Forms is out now via Pure Noise Records.

Like SHARPTOOTH on Facebook.