SHORELINE

Answered by Hansol Seung

Q1. Can you please provide for our readers who may not be familiar with you a little background on the band—where you’re from, when you formed, etc.?

We’re a four piece band from Münster, Germany and we formed late 2015 / played our first show in 2016. Shoreline are deeply rooted in the DIY punk and hardcore scene of Germany, we spent a good amount of our early twenties playing squats, house shows and record stores all across Europe/UK.

Q2. How did the band come together and what made you want to really pursue it in the way that you have?

All of us played in other bands before we formed SHORELINE, but it was the first time when everyone was on the same page musically and equally invested. All we wanted to do is tour as much as possible. We even did a full Europe and UK Tour when we just had two shitty demos out on youtube (nowhere else and that was 2016 haha). Christoph (who is playing bass) joined the band 3 years ago, when our old bassist decided to quit. We just take it from release to release to be honest, thankfully more and more people seem to be into it every time, so we just keep going and try to see how far we can take it.  

Q3. What would you say are the band’s influences?

When we started, we were heavily influenced by punk of the 2000s and late 90s, everything from Fat Wreck to Epitaph, especially Strike Anywhere, The Flatliners etc.

That changed over time when we got more into emo and hardcore and that’s apparently where our band sits stylistically, so I’d say we’re now more inspired by bands such as Title Fight, Drug Church, Citizen. Julius and I, who are the main songwriters also listen to loads of rap and pop music, so those influences start appearing in our music in a more or less subtle way.

Q4. You have an album coming out in February via Pure Noise Records. How did making that your “label home” come about?

Our manager used to do a lot of PR for the label in Germany for a couple years, so they had a good relationship. It’s a pretty “boring” story from there haha, Jake liked the record, we had a couple calls and chats and we signed to the label. They’ve been really really good to us, everyone is very invested in the band and try to make good things happen for us, although we are one of the smallest acts on their roster.

Q5. What was the writing and recording process for the album like?

It was very different than usual for this record, because we recorded everything ourselves in our own studio that we’ve built during covid. Chris Teti (Silver Bullet Studios) co produced it per remote and he also mixed it. It was very challenging, going from recording our previous records in a professional studio to doing it ourselves was scary. I can honestly say that I think that this is our best sounding record so far and we are extremely proud that we were able to pull it off.

Q6. The song “Seoul,” which I believe is to appear on the record, is out now. Can you talk to us a little about what that song is about?

Thanks for asking about this one, it’s one of my favourites of the record!
I am talking about my experiences as a German-Asian. We started talking about this on the last record already (GROWTH 2022, End Hits Records), but the approach was a very different one. It’s much more introspective and realizing what my cultural heritage is, trying to unlearn internalized stereotypes that I did not reflect before and connecting with other Asian kids, trying to enter and create a community.

Q7. What are some of the near future plans for Shoreline?

We’ll tour a bunch this year, we got 4 tours confirmed alone for the first half of 2024. A goal would be touring more outside of Europe, let’s see how that works out.