“Somewhere in between before the past and after the future.”It feels like time is running more than ever but the berlin based band “Sultans Court” is perfectly capable of capturing and digesting the overflow of emotions and informations we are confronted with on the daily. Get ready for a skin deep Sit In On Friday with the boys.
First of all, of course, we want to know from you what True Identity means to you?
Julius: For me, it is about getting to know what your place in the world is. But also while discovering this, always following your intention but also trying to listen to the people that understand you deeply. In the end it has to feel right. After all we are always carving brand new traces in this fabric of life.
Tell us something about „Good Enough“ What does the song name mean to you?
Konstantin: For me it’s pretty simple. Stay positive! It was hard to get that song finished, but in the end it turned out pretty well for my taste. Therefore I think we shouldn’t have put that much pressure on us while we were making it. Songwriting can sometimes get mentally unhealthy.
J: Also it was a deep debate with the pressures we put upon ourselves rooting in our ideals and vision. To not get caught up in that too much but rather focusing on the joy that expressing yourself through music can bring. It started with overcoming a blank paper anxiety and ended with a statement to others and ourselves: we are good enough.
Why did you start making music?
K: I had my first guitar lessons in 3rd grade of primary school. I begged my mother for weeks if she could buy me a guitar so I could have lessons, I don’t really remember why. Probably because I was watching those Nu-Metal and College Punk bands on MTV at that time and thought they were pretty cool. Since then I’ve never quit learning and playing music, although it took around 7 years until I got to a point where I could actually play the instrument, so it was a tough start. Since I was a little kid music had a special attraction to me, it takes me to a place where nothing else can get me. I think that’s the reason why I didn’t quit. Also because my mother forced me to stick with it since I begged her so much in the beginning. When I got to a point where I could play the music that I liked and write my own songs, a day just didn’t feel complete if I didn’t play the guitar or made music in some kind of way. From that point on I didn’t want to do anything else.
J: My father really is a music addict like myself, spinning disco records at parties and working at a local Hi-Fi shop back in the days. He gave me my first stereo when I was like 7 years old. I remember clearly him giving me that sorted out burned CD of his (I later found out it was Bruce Hornsby) and I listened to it like a maniac. Eventually i started to write down the lyrics, in this really bad german spoken word gibberish so I could sing along. So I sing for as long as I think. Also, when I was 16, I founded a metal band with some friends where I had issues communicating my then guitarist what I wanted to happen musically. So I started to teach myself guitar, just to be able to show what I mean.
What inspires you most about Berlin? And what did the city add to
your individual sound?
J: I moved to Berlin directly after graduating high school and immediately started studying at the university of arts there. It was a big change in my life as I never really felt accepted before but being surrounded by so many sensible, amazing people made me feel like there are like minded people for the first time in my life. For me that is the greatest thing about it; you can be whoever you want to be and there will be someone understanding you. Musicwise, when i moved there 8 years ago, I was listening mostly to indie rock, maybe some indietronica. I didn’t really get all that fuss about techno and absolutely disliked it. My first roommate was a huge electronic and techno fan and showed me some really great stuff. But the spell was finally broken when I first went to Stattbad Wedding (which sadly does not exist anymore). There I was deeply falling in love with techno and its culture of respect and equality for the first time.
K: I’ve lived in several cities all over the world and Germany, the most exotic example would be the 5 years that I lived in South America as a child, but compared to all the spots, Berlin is a special thing combining the good aspects from a lot of places I’ve been to. I like Berlin because it’s not just one thing. You get contact to so many different cultures without having to go to another country or city. Since the city is so big, you also don’t get bored of it. I’m living here for over 10 years now and went to school here, but I’m still finding new places and spots and I’m still meeting new people. It just stays fresh and life doesn’t hit you with monotony that hard. What I also really like is that everyone can build his own world in this city. I think that is the main reason why it’s so fun to be an artist here, because you can really express yourself as an individual.
How do you think your journey has shaped you so far?
K: It has been very exciting so far. We already have collected some experiences that we were dreaming of a few years ago. I think we’ve gotten more experienced in the whole process of releasing and performing music and everything that comes with it. The overall vision seems more clear now and we are on to new steps.
J: I learned a lot about myself and what it means to be a team no matter what. Before I have never been quite a teamplayer but this project taught me what value lies in having a constant dialog with your partner in crime. What it means to be reliable and putting all these visions into word and music.
When do you feel most creative and most inspired to make music?
K: When I solved all the little problems from daily life and therefore I can feel free to do whatever I want. Also at night, because you have no distractions during that time.
J: It really depends, I guess it is hard to boil down on a single pattern. One I have observed seems to have something to do with coming from very noisy places and going into this void of silence afterwards. When coming from a party or just a great talk. When I am absent from making music for more than one day, my brain automatically starts to spill melodies or drum patterns in calm moments. So I am often followed around by it until I have the chance to record it either into my phone or at my home studio properly.
We have all been isolated since the middle of March. How has the
Quarantine treated you so far?
J: I’m sure this has a difficult time for all of us. Right now, as more and more regulations are lifted I’m not too much in the quarantine headspace as I have been a few months ago. The isolation and restricted lifestyle really made it hard to stay mentally healthy for me. Thankfully we still had to do some music production work so it was a welcome distraction for us. We were able to at least forget a bit about the crisis that time around.
K: It’s hard to not be able to play shows. Especially as a new artist you want to expose your music to new audiences, not being able to play festivals is therefore throwing us back in some way. On the other side the isolation helped us to get some songs done, because we were able to just focus on our work in the studio. So everything has its ups and downs and you have to try to find the good aspects in it to stay positive.
And how does the current situation influence your creative process? What are your musical or creative goals for the next few years?
K: It hasn’t really changed that much. If we write songs we try to follow our emotions and do what feels good. So if it has affected our creative process, it must have happened subconsciously. For the future we always want to keep developing. This project is very exciting because there are no particular limits. I think our music can’t be broken down into one particular thing, therefore it’s easy to experiment and to evolve, we always want to keep moving.
J: I want to get better at transporting my emotions through the music. Sometimes working in the box can really make you lose focus on what really matters. And it is really important to take a step back and look at it from a different perspective from time to time. I wish to give myself more time in the future to do just that.
Was there a musical experience, a concert or a performance that touched your soul?
J: Last year, during a festival where we also played, I went to see Ätna for the first time. I was listening to their stuff a lot throughout the years and was really excited seeing and meeting them. During the concert an overwhelmingly sublime feeling took hold of me and I was so stunned by the music that I literally couldn’t move. It sucked me in and demanded the focus of my every sense. Afterwards I was lost for words and when my friends debated over the concert I started crying just like that. That really changed me in a way.
K: I think the concerts that touched me the most were the first ones I went to as a teenager, when I decided by myself to go there. From one moment to the other, my “heroes” were standing in front of me doing the thing that I love. I remember the first concert that I bought myself a ticket for. I was 15 years old and went to see Velvet Revolver because Slash was my first big musical idol. I just couldn’t believe it to see him on stage and I got tears in my eyes. I knew that someday I wanted to do the same thing. This is just one many stories where music touched my soul.
If you could speak to yourself in the past, what would you say to him?
K: Be more self confident, don’t waste so much money on partying and everything is going to work out.
J: Stop overthinking and start doing! Do what you actually feel you want to do, even though it might feel dumb in the beginning. And stop treating yourself like shit. You deserve better.
Let’s dig a bit deeper: do you think that you can ever be aware of your
True Identity or that self-development is a fluid process that doesn’t really stop?
J: I don’t think we can ever be completely aware of our true selves, as we are also our infinite potential at the same time. Every version of your past self is you as every future you. Our minds are not capable of fully understanding ourselves. But isn’t that wonderful in a way? We will never cease to surprise ourselves.
