Pigeon Opinion Featuring an Interview with 7Sven

“But Live It” is a 70s‑inspired jazz‑pop album blending Steely Dan–style grooves with cinematic ballads and philosophical depth. The focus tracks — “Anorexic Mind” (a haunting, atmospheric mini‑pop epic) and “Routine” (a powerful, emotionally charged reflection on modern life) — have already received praise from Dulaxi, IndieDock, 1111CR3W, and Cage Riot. For fans of Steely Dan, George Michael, Rufus Wainwright, and timeless songwriting with emotional clarity.

Interview with 7Sven

What inspired you to create But Live It, and how did 70s jazz-pop and cinematic ballads shape the album’s sound?

The songs on the album are poetic snapshots of emotions, thoughts, and half-digested dreams about the world and the time we live in, both the big world and my own small one. Regarding the sound, I am always drawn to the depth and complexity of albums from the 1970s, when it was more common for bands to create musical pieces of art with big budgets and passionate collaborators in the studio, backed by record companies that, of course, wanted to make money but also to be seen as patrons of the artists.

How did bands like Steely Dan, Genesis, and Supertramp influence your approach to songwriting and production?

What I love about Steely Dan is the mixture of very cool and intellectual professionalism with a passion to create beauty with the perfect musical result, and their subdued but always present romanticism. In my humble way,s I try to reach for something similar. Genesis has created this very unique overall artistic identity; they have been very self-conscious at a very young age to do “their own thing”. And they managed to mix “serious” and “popular” music perfectly. It was also an incredible combination of unique talents, especially while Peter Gabriel was still in the band. Supertramp also always strived for “going big”, creating epic masterpieces and layers of meaning and emotions. And they did it in a way that felt very much alive and down to earth, very different from Pink Floyd for example, whom I admire for their ambition but who always were a little too “nerdy” for me.

Can you walk us through the creative process behind the track Anorexic Mind and its haunting, atmospheric quality?

It was actually quite easy: Once I had the idea of this cliff diver standing high on this rock above the blue of the sea, everything came in a constant flow. There is this feeling of being “more alive”, right before you take a leap like that. Danger tends to make every part of you bristle with electric energy; some things fall into place and suddenly make sense. Musically, I wanted to re-create the feeling of calm in that moment and go from small to epic. Therefore, I started with the piano and acoustic guitar, a kind of “Carole King setup”, and then, as I tried to convey that what is in this one person’s mind might have some universal truth to it, I tried to expand by using strings and the electric guitar.

Routine has been described as an emotionally charged reflection on modern life. What personal experiences influenced this song?

I wrote this song shortly after the US presidential elections in 2024. I was overwhelmed by sadness and could not understand anything about what happened over there. As I live in Germany, it didn’t have any direct consequences for my daily life, but I always felt close to the US since I was a teenager; some of my idealism comes from these old ideas of American spirit and freedom, and of course also from the films and the music. And that this could happen after everybody had seen in Trump’s first term what you would get if you vote for him, hit me hard, and I haven’t recovered fully until today. The line “Is it all for sale?” in the song reflects my disillusionment with the dreams about that country that I used to have.

How do you blend philosophical depth into pop music without compromising accessibility?

I think everybody is looking for meaning in their life, whether consciously or not. Nobody is always sure about themselves, about their everyday life, and about how others see them. I like songs that work on separate levels: There has to be instant accessibility, which most of the time happens through the music, the melodies, and the singer’s voice or a certain sound of the guitar. But there also has to be some kind of mystery, something like “I didn’t quite get that, I want to learn more and listen to it again, maybe read something about the themes brought up in the song”. Beauty and mystery are the perfect combination to me.

What role does your love for 70s and early 80s production techniques play in shaping the overall sonic identity of the album?

I love the combination of the sound of acoustic guitars and piano. I like the sound to be not too shallow, too Spotify-friendly. I like the bass to be full and really be heard, so I sometimes mix it up a little too much. I like analogue drums. And I love to spend hours in the studio trying to make incremental, time-consuming steps to create beauty. Which, in the end, counts more than being commercially successful, I believe. So this naivety might have a little 70s touch. The movie “Almost Famous” by Cameron Crowe gets right to the heart of this, I think, wonderful film.

Which artists or albums from your formative years most directly impacted the musical style we hear on But Live It?

Besides the bands from the 70s mentioned above, I have to admit I’m a kid of the 1980s, and for many years I dreaded music from that period when looking back on that decade. But getting older, I realize that not everything was bad. If you look behind the curtain of ugly synth-drum-sounds and terrible keyboards and bad hairstyles, there was a lot of buried gold. Peter Gabriel or the Talking Heads come to mind or The Style Council. But what really impacted me in that period was the discovery of Queen and Genesis. My first Queen album was “Live Magic”, and I went backwards in time from ther,e and there were always new discoveries and doors opening. And “Tonight tonight tonight” was this great Genesis song from the mid-80s, I had a 12-inch-version of the song and listened to it over and over again, very loud, reading Stephen King’s “It” to it, so it worked as a kind of soundtrack.

How do you balance technical musicianship with emotional storytelling in your music?

As I am not a great musician, the storytelling part is much easier for me. But I feel music; it is always in my head. And I am able to hear music when I try to express an emotion, which comes quite naturally. And as soon as you are able to grip an emotion, a song becomes accessible, I think. So if there is no hook, not something you can hum along to it doesn’t feel right, and I keep on trying. Not to get it smoother or radio-friendly but to create a door that listeners can go through.

What was the most challenging track to record or produce on the album, and why?

Probably “Routine”. It totally changed throughout the songwriting and recording process. In the beginning, it was just angry and frustrated. There were no electric guitars, and the riff at the beginning was kind of “hammered” on my acoustic guitar. But I was never satisfied with it until I had the idea of layering these soulful strings over the second verse. You can still feel the anger and exhaustion at the end of the song, but the endless loops of fine-tuning gave the song some more timeless and universal quality and lifted it from being “about this election” to “how do we decide how to live our lives”.

Looking ahead, how do you see your sound evolving beyond But Live It while staying true to your influences?

I will continue trying to create songs that last within arrangements that have beauty and layered complexity, I think. Apart from that, I really don’t know what comes next. At the moment, I am mainly listening to music and not writing. This will start again around spring, I guess, like everything else.

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