Los Angeles hard rock outfit S8NT ELEKTRIC have spent the last few years cementing themselves as one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most exciting and vibrant rising stars. Known for pulling off insane stunts in their music videos, including truck surfing, fire spitting, skydiving, and performing while surrounded by drift cars, the band has proven time and time again that nothing is off limits when it comes to taking risks for their artistry.
S8NT ELEKTRIC — composed of vocalist Bri Carbajal, guitarist Niko Tsangaris, guitarist Sinner, bassist Harrison Forsythe, and drummer Trey Baker — have made their presence known not just through their thrilling stunts, but also with their electrifying musicality. Combining the heavy compositional elements inherent in L.A. hard rock with the magnetic sensationalism of pop music, the band has fully submerged themselves in a genre they describe as “pop metal.”
After spending the last couple of years steadily releasing new material, the band now celebrates the release of their debut full-length record, OFF THE EDGE, released March 20 through Long Branch Records. More than just an album title, OFF THE EDGE is the band’s defining mantra, brand, and way of life. Encouraging listeners not to live on the edge, but rather off of it, S8NT ELEKTRIC enforce the idea of taking the ultimate leap in terms of self-growth, using insane visuals and a high-octane musicality as an explosive vessel for catharsis, self-discovery, and community.
Despite OFF THE EDGE being the band’s inaugural full-length release, the record exudes the musical maturity and strength of a well-seasoned group. Fueled by heavy guitar licks and unrelenting vocal fury, OFF THE EDGE flawlessly captures everything that S8NT ELEKTRIC is known for: balance, perseverance, and jaw-dropping sonic defiance.
In light of the album’s release, S8NT ELEKTRIC’s founding members Bri and Niko sat down with Melodic Magazine to discuss the making of the album, their favorite stunts, and what the future has in store for the band.
Thank you so much for taking the time today! What are the emotions like now that your debut album is finally out?
Bri: A lot of emotions. I’m just going to be honest, I feel a lot of happy and a lot of sad. Not sad, but I guess mourning. This album is like a journal from where we started to now, and knowing that it’s finally out, it feels like, in the best way, a weight has been off my shoulders because we’ve been holding so much in for so long. I guess for me, it’s like a journal or a poem, speaking the truth of your own feelings. So when you finally release it, you finally let it out. You feel everything. So that’s how I’ve been feeling. I’m just feeling everything.
Niko: It was a lot of years of hard work on that album. And it’s kind of crazy because we heard that album so much and we played it live, and to think that no one’s actually heard those songs yet, even though we feel like we’ve lived with this music for years now, is weird. So it is a good feeling that it’s actually out. And, in a way, I feel like we’re just starting now. Like, okay, this is all our stuff, this is what we’re about. You can look at our Spotify and look at our Instagram and see this is what we do, this is our message. Now we have the foundation to really start and to really push the limits on what we’re trying to do.
I was listening to the album ahead of the release and both the vocals and the guitar playing are just so insane. How did you guys push yourselves musically or otherwise while making this this album?
Niko: We’re really into bands like Ghost or Avenged Sevenfold, who are really good songwriters and also have really good musicianship. And when it came to this album, I think we just didn’t allow ourselves to compare down. We were just like, ‘This has to be the same quality as the music we listen to.’ We engineer and mix, and everything is done ourselves. We have a home studio set up, and we just record everything. So learning how to make a record with the production of a big-budget rock album was really, really difficult. But I think we got really close. I think with the musicianship, it’s the same thing. There were a lot of frustrating times in the studio, and then you finally get a breakthrough. Or like I’m doing a solo for four days, I still feel like it’s not there, and then I take a break, I revisit it two weeks later, and then I get it. And same with Bri, right?
Bri: Yeah. When we started S8NT ELEKTRIC, that’s when I started singing. I mean, we had re-recorded some stuff, obviously, in the past year or two with them. But I remember just recording some of the songs and then just being so tough on myself and breaking down in the studio. I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ But like with “MIRROR_IMAGE,” I look back and that is one of the easiest songs. I love singing that song because it’s just so relaxing on my voice. But there were some songs where I was like, ‘Whoa, this is really pushing my range.’ And I’m still learning. Even today, I’m still learning so many techniques.
Niko: It was school for us.
It was so worth it, because it came out so amazing. One thing I loved too is I feel like it seemed very intentional in terms of the order of the songs and how it played out. What was the songwriting process like in that sense of telling this overall message?
Bri: We looked at our setlists that we do live. We always curate our setlists, depending on who we’re playing with and what show it is. If it’s more alternative, more indie, we probably won’t do some of our harder stuff. But if we’re doing [something heavier], we’ll just curate. And recently we’ve been just doing the same set list, so we thought about that. Then we thought about how we like to play and how we like to perform live, and how can we incorporate that on the album as well. With the emotions we try to create, we’re not going to do three slow songs and then three fast songs. We try to make a roller coaster of emotions throughout the set. So for that, that’s how we chose the order.
Niko: When we were coming up with the songs, it wasn’t an intentional order, but all the songs are written about different breakthrough moments for us and turning points that we faced in our personal lives. Each song was created at the peak of an emotional moment, and I’m really proud of us for being able to capture that. When looking at the track list, the way I kind of view it — and I haven’t really said this out loud — but that instrumental intro song is setting up this journey. And then when it goes into “CATACOMBS (FLOWERS BLOOM),” it gets all heavy. It’s like you’re in that dark part of it, and slowly, with some ups and downs, by the very end you emerge. That’s the way I view the record, as a piece of art.
Is there any song on the album that’s your favorite or that you’re just really into at the moment?
Bri: These are the hard questions (laughs). We obviously had about half of it already out as the singles, and put out six extra songs to make the whole album. I really love all the songs that are out now, so I’m not going to say those. But I really like the song called “THE RIVER” a lot. I wrote that based on a bunch of poems or thoughts in my journal. I really like it. It’s definitely very different, but also it’s very cohesive with the sound of who we are. It definitely was at a point of my life where I was very not well. Hearing it back feels really good because I don’t feel that way anymore. I’m not in that situation anymore. I think it also embodies the whole idea of going “off the edge” and just doing it, and then you finally figure it out and be happier. You know what I mean? I feel like with that one, especially just being very vulnerable and really literal, that it just feels like a nice release of what I was feeling.
Niko: There’s a song called “SEASONS OF YESTERDAY.” That one came together really fast. We kind of went through this same situation together, and both of us were handling our pain with it in our own way. “THE RIVER” and “SEASONS OF YESTERDAY” are the songs we wrote about the situation, which I think is cool to hear them [back to back]. They’re next to each other on the track list, which is funny, but I really like that song. It’s very heavy and a bit angry and sad, but it was every emotion I felt at that time in one song. So I was really happy about that. And the guitar solo too, I’m proud of it. I was planning to re-record it. I just did it in one take. It was right when all this stuff was happening, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is probably going to be shit, you know?’ I just played it and I was like, ‘I’ll go redo it later.’ And I listened later and I’m like, ‘I’m going leave that in there. That’s cool.’
“Off the edge” is not just the album’s title, but it’s been your mantra and your entire brand for the last couple of years now. I was wondering now with the album being out, after spending the last couple of years living off the edge, what have you guys learned about yourselves that maybe you didn’t know at the start of this whole era?
Niko: Man, that’s a great question. I really learned that we’re capable of so much more than we think. Dreams are not as far as they feel sometimes. With a lot of the stunts and all the stuff that we’ve pulled off, at first it was like, ‘How are we going to pull this off? This is impossible.’ With the “TAR” video, it was with all these drifters in New Mexico, and we were organizing that for two months. It was our first real big project, and I was stressed out all the time. Then things happened with the footage, but it got done. And then we looked back, and you know what? It wasn’t perfectly how we imagined it. We still have a long way to go and we still are trying to achieve that vision. But even though it wasn’t perfect, people still got the message and that one video got like 200,000 views. It was a semi-viral kind of thing. But that one video got seen by Jeff Jones, who’s a Formula DRIFT driver, and then we got to play his festival. We did a video there with crazy pro drifters, and now our music’s going to be in a show about that. And because of that video we’ve met so many people and so many things have happened. So for me, the lesson there was that it’s not about perfection. Try to get as close as you can, but just get the idea across. Just give it a shot. Over time, you’ll get closer and closer to that vision you have as you get more resources.
The band has become known for all these stunts you do, and just how far you’re all willing to go for a music video. But I think one thing that it really shows is that you guys are all just so close. You all do this all together and it’s so obvious that S8NT ELEKTRIC is a collective unit. Throughout the making of this album, how did you guys all get closer together? How did you support each other through this?
Bri: When we do the content or we do videos or we record, I’ve noticed this pattern where we go all in for like two or three weeks, we’re with each other every weekend. And then once we finish it, everyone takes a break, takes care of themselves, and does their own thing. I think that’s what helps us be very close and trust each other, because we get space. Because when we’re together, we’re not just doing a video. It’s like, we are out for 18 hours and then going to another thing and shooting this and doing this and emotions are high. We’re all trying to be grounded. We’re all doing these — I don’t want to say death-defying — but these crazy stunts. You have to really trust each other and trust that we’re all going to figure this out together. But also with those fun things, we’re getting to experience these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, creating this art. Honestly, we love it. People might have things to say, but this is us showing you are able to live off the edge. You can go take that walk. You can do better for yourself. It doesn’t have to be in art either. You could maybe want to be a doctor or a lawyer. But in all the things that we do, we have to trust each other. And nothing’s perfect, but I feel like because of these crazy things, in a weird way, we’re able to express ourselves and able to express together. I feel comfortable being able to be my true self. And I know everyone else feels comfortable to feel whatever they want in that moment. I feel like our whole brand has really brought us together.
Niko: I think anytime you do something really intense with someone else, you get bonded a bit. You have this experience that you don’t have with other people. We have so many stories together that are just absolutely insane. It just builds a different kind of bond than I’ve had with any other person. And like Bri was saying, it’s a really high-stress environment. You can only really do this stuff once, that’s the thing. Most of these things it’s like, this is it, this has to be good. So tensions are high. Sometimes we kind of yell at each other, we’re kind of going through it, but then we accomplish it, and then we go out to eat somewhere or whatever and it’s the best feeling. I love that feeling. It’s like we finished it and we did it, we’re exhausted. So I think that really just made us really tight. And we’re really good friends. Our friendship is really important. It’s really important to me that we’re all actually there for each other and we’re all talking about how we feel and we’re checking in with each other. We consciously are building that environment.
Last time we spoke was around the release of the “TAR” video, and I remember when that song came out, I had asked about how there was so much discourse about what genre you are and a lot of people online seemed to be pretty vocal about it. And now I noticed this time around that a lot of people are getting upset about the stunts you do. What’s your response to that if you would be willing to share?
Bri: I guess what I try to tell myself, and something I’ve been really learning, is I would say 97% of the time, what people are projecting is what they feel about themselves or how they would do it. The other 3%, they might just be upset or stressed for me because they want me to be safe. We probably haven’t had stunt coordinators for all of our videos, but we’ve gotten better. When we did the fire spitting, we had experts who do fire spitting. For the truck surfing one, I love my life, I want to live (laughs), so we got on the truck with a guy named Brian and we practiced it. I think that people don’t think that we think about this stuff. We talk to stunt people and get their advice. We’re not just stupid. But I get where people could see that, or say that we’re just doing it for the virality. We want to promote our brand, but we are not just doing this for that. This is actually our brand. Stunts are what make “off the edge.” But yeah, there’s been comments and, I’m not going to lie, I’ve gotten very angry. I’ve teared up. I’m not afraid to do crazy stuff, but I’m also a very emotional person. It affects me sometimes, but at the end of the day, I have to remember I’m doing these super fun things and I’m living my life and they’re just upset that they’re not doing these fun things. That’s why we’re trying to promote it.
So many people just get mad because they’re just jealous that they haven’t made that step. But the ultimate message of off the edge, like you’re saying, is you’re not telling anybody that they can’t do that. The whole message is that everybody can push themselves to do bold things. People just get so mad, and life’s too short.
Bri: (Laughter) Yeah, I try to tell myself that too. I’m like, ‘Will I care about this one day when I’m just touring and doing all these amazing things? Is that really going to affect me?’
Going off of that, with all these crazy stunts and all these accomplishments that you’ve had with the album throughout the course of this OFF THE EDGE era, is there anything that you’ve done that you can’t believe you actually were able to do?
Bri: I climbed on this huge rock for “MIRROR_IMAGE.” Not for the music video, but for a separate video that we promoted a little bit. It’s really pretty. I made this outfit with mirrors and stuff, and I climbed up this rock. Honestly, if I were to have fallen? Dead. I remember being up there. My friend Salam — I love her — had a drone. It was our first time using a drone. I was in this crevice, my feet were locked in. It was at the peak of the highest mountain at this place called Vasquez Rocks. You can look it up and see how crazy it is. And I did that by myself. I’ve been wanting to talk about this too, so I’m happy that you brought this up. I don’t know what kind of experience I could explain that I had up there performing “MIRROR_IMAGE,” but seeing the sky, being in this elevated area, I felt so magical and ethereal. I felt a divine presence doing this just because it was so beautiful. I know Niko and Salam were so nervous for me. It was just us three filming it. I think that was the first time I’ve ever been scared. I remember I had to sit for like, 20 minutes at the beginning to just really breathe it out. It was like, if I trip, I’m gone. But it came out gorgeous.
Niko: I can’t believe we pulled off the last thing we did, which we’re going to be releasing at some point in increments. It’s basically every stunt we’ve ever done in one video, as a full album live performance in an abandoned water park with all this crazy stuff. But that was a mission. And it was like 20 people or something and a bunch of drift car dudes and it was just a lot to organize, but we managed to pull it off somehow.
Bri: Very grateful for all the people. Obviously, we don’t have this crazy budget. We all work our minimum wage jobs and fund it through that, and we’re very lucky to have had them trust us in doing so, because it was a lot. It was crazy.
I’m excited to see that! Speaking of that, now that OFF THE EDGE is out, what’s next in terms of goals, plans, or projects for S8NT ELEKTRIC?
Bri: Well, we have a lot of demos. We want to put more songs out. Honestly, in a couple of months, there’s already going to be a new song with a new stunt and stuff we have already prepped. Niko writes a lot, so we have a lot of stuff that we’ve been waiting to put out. We’ve just been waiting for the album to be released. We feel like we found who we are and now we have our baseline. So a lot of our upcoming songs sound more like us and this genre that we are. But that’s the goal. And stunt-wise, we want to showcase all these people living off the edge in extreme ways. And through that, when we meet someone, we meet someone else. Someone sees a video and they’re like, ‘I want to do this’ or ‘I want to help out.’ That’s what I feel like is coming. I feel like this is the beginning for us and our whole brand “off the edge.” This is our foundation. I feel like it’s only up from here and we’re going to continue coming up with more ideas and seeing who can we collab with. Our goal for this year is to collab with other artists and work with other people.
Niko: I just wanted to release a lot more music and see how far we could take the stunt stuff, collab with other artists, and do cool videos with them. That’s something that really is exciting to us. And just coming up with different ways to show the world that we’re building. That’s really what we’re focusing on. Building a world and a place for people to feel comfortable to express themselves, and building a community is really something that we’re focusing on right now.
Stream OFF THE EDGE here.
Keep up with S8NT ELEKTRIC: Instagram // TikTok // Facebook // Spotify // YouTube // Website
