Our Interview With Lauren Kashan of Sharptooth

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SHARPTOOTH’S LAUREN KASHAN DISCUSSES SEXISM IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND HOW THE 2015 BALTIMORE RIOTS HELPED SHAPE THE BAND’S DIRECTION

Upon first listen to Baltimore hardcore band Sharptooth’s debut album Clever Girl, you can’t help to internalize all the political and social motifs that permeate through the lyrics sung by Lauren Kashan – the band’s lead vocalist. The hardcore scene has always had its roots in politics, but Sharptooth takes it to another much needed IN YOUR FACE level. There is no running away from the messages they want you to hear, to understand, to educate yourself on and have constructive conversations about. They hold nothing back when it comes to discussing today’s political climate, sexism, misogyny, the treatment of Black and Brown lives and everything else in-between, which is so refreshing to listen to from allies in a music scene that may often seem unwelcoming to those who don’t fit the paradigm.

From the snippet of the 2015 Baltimore Protests at the beginning of “Give’Em Hell Kid” to when Lauren shouts, “trapped in a memory that I can’t escape; too scared to admit I was raped” on “Can I Get a Hell No” gives you chills. These are just a few of the moments that sonically define the importance of Sharptooth’s debut album Clever Girl. Lauren took a moment to sit down with us to discuss signing to Pure Noise Records, Baltimore’s impact and the future of hardcore music.

ongratulations on signing to Pure Noise Records, a successful debut album and being on such a stacked bill. What’s it been like touring with legends like Anti- -Flag? Well, this is just day two! Everyone has been so nice and so welcoming and everybody has just made it very clear that we are on this tour because they wanted us to be there, which is just the best feeling in the world. So if they feel like we are doing something right, I’m like okay I feel good about what we are doing. And Stray From the Path are literally one of my favorite bands of all time, so the fact that they back us is just like FUCK YES!

Do you still get a bit nervous being on the stage and going up before such iconic band such as Anti-Flag? Sure! I get nervous all the time. I am just a bundle of feelings always. I am never cool, calm and collected. Even like small shows and basement shows, I am getting up in front of people and I have a responsibility to be talking about certain things and giving them the best show.

Being from Baltimore, how has that city, with Ferguson nearby and 2015 Baltimore protests, inspired your songs and your political stance? We wrote a song called “Give’Em Hell Kid” about specifically police brutality because winter of 2014 was when all that stuff was going down in Ferguson and the Michael Brown case. I just remember how angry that made me feel, that there is anybody walking around worried to just fucking go out and exist in the world because of the color of their skin. I personally believe that unless you are taking an active stance against it then apathy is just like the worst fucking thing you can do. Like saying it doesn’t affect me or it is not my problem, it’s like yeah but as human beings, we have a responsibility to each other and to look out for one another. So, I don’t know I was just watching how much the people were struggling and hurting from this, and then when everything happened with Freddie Gray and the Baltimore uprising. When you’re angry and hurt and in those feelings, you’re not sitting down thinking what is the most rational and logical way to express these feelings. People don’t get to police how people feel, especially in the face of such egregious oppression.

The one thing I love the most about your music is that is always politically charged and speaks towards truly marginalized groups of people and movements like Black Lives Matter. What inspired you and the band to take the music in this direction, knowing that the hardcore scene is mostly cis hetero white males? People like to think that we live in a post-racial society and the last year has made it very clear that we do not. It’s up to people who aren’t necessarily those people [people of color] to confront our peers about it. It’s not just the job of Black people to have to explain to everyone else why shit isn’t okay. As a white person, I think it’s my responsibility to go talk to other white people because I do have the privilege of being more accessible to them.