Start Listening To: Stice

Following their single ‘I Need Cash!!!’, Stice run laps around our minds in this charming interview, bouncing between candy, Daniel Ek, and why they make music.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, and a little bit about the music that you make?

Caroline: Jake and I are from New England, kind of similar backgrounds, poor but culturally rich, no rules, lots of candy; I had a lot of problems, I think Jake had a better outlook. But when we met he was about to move out of New York City, he said he wanted to make exciting music, like bash your brains in exciting. I had been in a band like that before (Kiddy Pool) and missed having the energy dump. Jake and I both have a thing for stuff that’s really really juvenile and stupid but also tricky like a magician. Sometimes its just as simple as making the music you want to hear so Stice was easy for us.

What is your songwriting process like?

Jake: Stice is very lucky to have an artistic process which was not only not affected by the pandemic but actually very much aided by it. We spend 99.9% of time during the creation of an album apart working in our own worlds — me on production, recording, editing, mixing, etc. and Caroline on writing lyrics, vocal melodies, and all the visuals for the project. I do my obsessive writing and tweaking over the course of a few months and then send tracks to Caroline who spills the vile compendium of universe-brained prose that sloshes around inside her brain onto a long scroll and 9 months later out pops a newborn trackbaby. 

Can you tell us about what went into your recent single, ‘I Need Cash!!!’?

Jake: this was the first instrumental that I made for this record which didn’t have any samples on it that weren’t recorded by us (a long time Stice-goal of mine). I wanted it to sound like a breakcore track played by a hardcore punk band.

It also has a few not-so-secret references to one of my favourite bands as a kid, Hella. The hope was that this song would make people feel the way I felt listening to them — like anything is possible, a reminder that there are other freaks out there who think/hear music like you do :)

What’s next for Stice after this single?

Caroline: Something very very cool is coming out on Halloween; we’re really excited to work with Ramp Local; our next album is god-level. Im going to make sour candy and sell it on our bandcamp. Sour grape and licorice bundles, “STICE’s BALLS”.

Jake: bouncy ball sounds.

Do you have a particular goal behind your music?

Caroline: When I was a kid I was really paranoid, I thought my father could read my mind when I was thinking about sex. I thought my parents were aliens. I had this obsessive thought about humping all my teachers arms. I had this fantasy of being locked in a vertical coffin where I could spin in circles and slam against the sides. The goal for me is to keep that fantasy alive!

Jake: To make extremely high intensity music which helps provide listeners with some sort of respite from the insanity of life — not by turning away from the dumpster fire but by juicing it directly into their ear canal at 100 decibels-per-hour.

Who would you say are your biggest influences on both your music and your aesthetic?

Caroline: I like anything scary/gnarly/obsessive. Anything thats jam packed with detail like Peter Greenaway or Lightning Bolt. I think it’s all about anxiety: horror movies, fast music and sour candy.

Jake: I like maximal and minimal music (and nothing in between (just kidding)). I listen to as much La Monte Young and Terry Riley as I do to Deerhoof and Bad Brains. Stice takes a lot of inspo from our favourite movies and TV shows too. It would feel weird to make music that doesn’t explicitly reference all the stuff we love in common — The Wicker Man, the Cube movies, The Simpsons etc. 

What do you hate most right now?

Caroline: I’m really not into the wellness thing. I don’t like fitness or yoga or therapy or having pets. People get a little money and think okay now I want to live forever. I don’t want to live forever but I’m so scared of being murdered I try to beat them to it with drinking, smoking and sugar.

Jake: Badly planned shows!! Live music always has the potential to be life changing, no excuses for going quarter-ass. 

What do you love most right now?

Caroline: My friend taught me about candy salad, so I’ve been doing that a lot. It’s your own mix, sweet tarts, peanut butter m&ms, nerds rope, atomic balls, jelly beans, bottle caps, spree, all mixed into one bowl and then you just go for it. I ate about 30 boxes of fruit roll ups last month. Next month I’ll do popsicles.

If you could change one thing about the music industry on a broader scale, what would you change?

Caroline: It’s the same thing I would change about everything! Share the wealth! No one needs a billion dollars, they should make the show Hoarders for the wealthy, because it’s the same disease. It’s like they are afraid they will have nothing so they take everything. Daniel Ek is a parasite.

Now that things are easing up around the world, do you have any particular plans for live shows?

Caroline: I really liked the acoustic set we played outside recently. You can find it incongruously on Don Mount’s Youtube channel.

Jake: Yeah, I think I'm going to play melodica at our live sets from now on. 

Which projects from this year have you been listening to?

Caroline: Black Nash, Ski Mask The Slump God, and Lucy.

Jake: W00dy’s Headbanging In The Club, RJ Miller’s Free Soul, anything by Wendy Eisenberg.

Your Spotify “about the artist” section seems incredibly specific. Could you elaborate on how that came to be?

One of our biggest fans is a teenage YouTuber from Georgia named Tyler Maxin who sent us that blurb with the promise that he would one day get us trending on Tik Tok… still waiting, Tyler!