Sharktank - Spoon Agency

HipHop meets Pop, Indie joins Rap: Katrin, Mile und Marco überwinden und verbinden im Zusammenspiel nicht nur Genres – als Sharktank öffnen sie »auf dem deutschsprachigen Musikmarkt eine Nische, von der wir bisher nicht wussten, dass sie existiert« (DIFFUS); wo verspielte Feel-Good-Beats und leichtlebige Instrumentals auf Conscious-Rap und melodische Vocals treffen, hat das Wiener Trio seinen bunten, eigenständigen Sound gefunden – jump in & swim along!

Bei knapp 10 Millionen Streams („Washed Up“) und Einladungen auf Festivals, wie dem Reeperbahn Festival, oder Eurosonic ist eines klar: Sharktank sind aus der Musikszene im deutschsprachigen Raum nicht mehr wegzudenken. Und spätestens seit ihrem Debüt „Get it Done“ (VÖ Juni 2021) wird gemunkelt, dass auch der internationale Durchbruch nicht mehr lange auf sich warten lässt. Mit „Acting Funny“ bringen sie am 24. März 2023 ihr zweites Album heraus und zeigen sich extravagant experimentierfreudig. Sharktank bleibt dennoch Sharktank – nur facettenreicher.

Vertraute melodischen Vocals, Synthie-Sounds, Rap und Rock bis hin zu Pop-Tunes verwebt die Band gekonnt und ganz ohne, dass dabei das Gefühl einer schlechten Snack-Mixpackung aufkommt. Federleicht beweisen sie dabei, was es bedeutet, gegen und gleichzeitig mit dem Strom zu schwimmen, ohne dabei auf der Stelle festzusitzen; Wiedererkennungswert, eine Nominierung für den Amadeus Music Award 2022 und eine Live-Session bei dem amerikanischen Sender NPR inklusive.

Der Sommer war dementsprechend breit gefächert und quer durch die Indie- und Tastemaker Festivals gab’s massig Applaus und Wertschätzung. Im April und Mai 2023 steht die erste eigene, richtige Tour im deutschsprachigen Raum an und bringt für das Trio, das Live um zwei weitere Positionen ergänzt wird, Band-Leben par excellence.

Not all was bad in 2020: Newly arrived band SHARKTANK made its first impact with “Washed Up” and
combined Indie and Songwriting moods with mellow late 90s HipHop vibes and alluring beats.
The track ended up gaining more than 5000 spins on radios across Europe in the fall of 2020 and more than 1,8 Million streams on Spotify without any editorial support. “Washed Up” went on to become Number 1 on the charts of highly influential Radio FM4 (Vienna, Austria) and a Top 3 song on the German College Radio Charts.

The trio came together when Mile (the bands MC) went into the studio of producer-guru Marco Kleebauer to record a few songs. Those were eventually released as “Dirty Leaks EP” in spring of 2020, while the producer encouraged Mile to continue working on new songs. Marco made headlines in the past years as one of the main cells of the rising Vienna independent scenes; producing Number 1 records for popular bands from the Germany-Switzerland-Austria-triangle and touring the world with his band, multi-award-winning band Leyya. When confronted with new songs from Mile, he suggested to add in a female vocalist he had known, to record for a track that eventually became “Washed Up”.

20 year old singer/songwriter Katrin Paucz turned out to be the missing piece of the puzzle: The three
immediately felt the magic they managed to create and decided that SHARKTANK would become a joint project. Within a few days they came up with a number of songs that ended up being the EP “Bad Energy” by November 2020.

Those seductive offerings included “Too Much”, “Bad Energy” and were followed by the single “For Myself” (Februar 2021), which is already building the bridge towards the bands upcoming debut album and again combining the best of these two worlds.

Thanks to the pandemic, the band didn’t have the chance to perform live in front of an audience, yet. Their shows are eagerly awaited though by a fast-growing fanbase. Their limited edition of the EP’s Vinyl edition featured three bonus tracks from a live session (http://bit.ly/SharktankLive) at Viennas WUK Art Gallery – the EP is already close to being sold out.

Katrin and Miles write their own parts of the lyrics; often as counterparts in a dialogue style. The everyday struggle of the hard times almost everyone had in a year like 2020 is an obvious driver for those stories that are closely connected to the authors real life. “For Myself”, for example, tackles the necessity of following oneselfs dreams even at the cost of a troubled relationship.

“Get It Done”, the bands first album, is going to be released in May 2021 through Viennas Independent
Label Ink Music.