GLAIVE

Jugend musiziert: What used to be a generic term for talents drilled to the max on classical instruments, working their way through centuries-old sheet music at breakneck speed, can now be understood as a synonym for the exact opposite: Young people who have an appetite for music, who do not submit to a single rule, and who record highly idiosyncratic as well as independent pop and rap music from their children's rooms, which only follows its own laws. And in their stylistic openness to reference, they create completely new genres, including hyperpop and digicore. One of the consistently young stars of these new genres, who reach many millions of listeners monthly online, is coming to Germany for the first time on November 20 and 21 for two exclusive shows in Cologne and Berlin: Glaive - who will be presenting his debut album "I Care So Much That I Don't Care at All" live on this occasion, which will be released on July 14. The stories of the new, young stars of hyperpop and digicore - besides Glaive, for example, Ericdoa, 100 Gecs, Aldn or Kurtains - are basically like two peas in a pod: At the beginning of their careers, they are all young teenagers, often with parents who are very interested in music and a correspondingly eclectic taste in music, mixing their parents' records with the latest Spotify and YouTube stars between pop, rap and dance. Then they discover the possibilities of digital music production on the computer in their children's room and begin to produce their own tracks based on their maximally heterogeneous musical tastes, in which, depending on the artist, pretty much everything modern pop culture has to offer is mixed: From glitch to trap, from trance to NuMetal, from pop-punk to EmoRap, from dubstep to indie rock - anything goes and is allowed that pleases. Supplemented by autotune vocals that are sometimes sung, sometimes rapped, as well as the extensive use of compression, distortion and an almost avant-garde tendency to "chop up" the original tracks, a completely new, unprejudiced and fearless pop aesthetic is created that knows hardly any boundaries. Many of these new stars often need only a few tracks and months to reach millions of listeners, precisely because their sound aesthetic appeals to the younger generation. Who, like the artists themselves, are enormously closely networked via the countless social platforms. It is common in the scene for many of these young musicians to collaborate closely with each other without ever having met in person. Because it's only the exchange itself and its result that counts, and not the shared history. Ash Gutierrez aka Glaive from North Carolina had never met many of his collaborators in person, among them Brodie Wilson, Scruff, Kassgocrazy, Lovesickxo, 2worth, Savage Gasp or Ericdoa. With the latter, he released a complete EP entitled "Then I'll Be Happy", some of whose songs have over 20 million plays on Spotify. "Then I'll Be Happy" was preceded by a true lightning career of Glaive, who already at the age of 15 and in the middle of the Corona lockdowns released his first EP on Soundcloud with "Cypress Grove". Within a few months, the collabo EP with Ericdoa was followed by two more exciting EPs, "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Ovine Hall," which literally lifted his monthly listenership on Spotify out of nowhere to over 1.5 million. This did not go unnoticed by the major 'Interscope', which is always very open to trends and offered Glaive a contract - and will now release his debut album "I Care So Much That I Don't Care at All" on July 14. But this is only the beginning, because Glaive, who just came of age in January, invests up to ten hours a day in the further development of his unique sound, which not only captivates young listeners. -