Life, Death and Everything in Between
Released July 28, 2022
Liner Notes
Second full-length album by Danish, Screamer-Songwriter act Stöj Snak.
12 tracks of heartfelt, folky troubadour-punk infused with plenty of raw energy and melodic catchiness.
Some people see things that are, and ask, why? Some people dream of things that never were, and ask, why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.
– George Carlin
The songs on this album seem to circle around family and relationships in the modern, societal structures and how we, the inhabitants of these systems are affected by them. How the constant chase after validation, possessions and careers constantly diverge our attention from the people and moments that are the most important to us. And make us forget ourselves.
So this album is dedicated to our kids, families and lovers!
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
All songs are written, produced, recorded and mixed by Niels Højgaard Sørensen.
Co-produced, recorded and mastered by Rasmus Glassau Clausen
Additional set of ears, eyes and taste buds by Kasper Vestergaard
Constant inspiration and enduring voice of reason by Jill Juul Jacobsen
Beta-tested by Mads Krogh and Troels Højgaard Sørensen
On this record Stöj Snak are
Niels Højgaard Sørensen
Rasmus Glassau Clausen
Jeppe Nørgaard
Jesper Olsen
Additional musicians
Sara Harrington
Tobias Dahl Nielsen
Troels Højgaard Sørensen
Frederik Glassau
Numsi
Slagterens Tove
Artwork and layout by Niels Højgaard Sørensen
Reasons to Smile
We walk through life dressed in its beauty with all we need beneath the sky
But there’s so much built to be broken or just raised to tear you down
The cruel world you will be facing, it breaks my heart to think about
Because it’s tough to come to terms with how fucking ugly this place really is
I know this world is not a place I would want to be born into
But I hope you can forgive your mom and I ‘cause I know we will never regret you
And I’m sure you will find your own reasons to smile
Trees
We vote for changes and bright promises but only those promises seem to change
We call the bluffs and we demand some truth so we’re fed with it till we choke on it
We won’t be shattered by the things we hate but in a flood of all the things we love
Do animals raised in captivity have the means to teach their offspring to be free
The leashes are not forced upon our necks but they’re passed down kindly by the ones we trust
Pumped full of know-how and self-confidence but robbed of intuition and self worth
We’re like beautiful trees without roots in the ground
We’ll be blown apart when a storm comes around
Just beautiful trees, exposed and alone
Here comes the storm, here comes the storm
Our kids have never seen the Milky-way and would rather shop than play to pass their lives
Generic, screen-raised model citizens just buying swift entertainment with their time
They won’t be spoiled by all the things we fear but in a flood of all the things they love
We’ve planted these trees without roots in the ground
We’ve been blown apart, we know where they’re bound
Just beautiful trees, swaying calmly in the breeze
They’re beautiful trees without roots in the ground
They’ll be blown apart when a storm comes around
Just beautiful trees, exposed and alone
Here comes the storm
Here comes the storm
We work as our lives pass by us, lunatics run the asylum, we’re all powerless and bridled, pray for rain, and watch the fires
Seems becoming an adult is nothing but a series of seemingly small compromises
Till we are unrecognizable
The (not so) Great Depression
How do we escape this not so great depression?
Is it the way that you sell out your values
To impress people you don’t like?
Or how your kids are kept in locked institutions
Because their parents are never home?
Or how your chores leave you numb and exhausted
Because you crave more than you can afford?
Or how you fake it and polish the surface?
Is it the way you can’t turn this off?
Do you feel anything?
Do you feel anything at all?
How do we escape this not so great depression?
Is it the way you’re disconnected from nature
And apathy replaced your will to fight
Or how bright screens and gadgets steal your attention
And all your spare time just passes by?
Or how your family slowly turn into strangers
And how you barely see your friends?
Is it that thought that nags in the evening;
That maybe life could be more than this?
Do you feel anything?
Do you feel anything at all?
How do we escape this not so great depression?
The ice is thin but we all run
So we won’t hear when it cracks to pull us in
All this work for what?
How do we escape?
Do you feel anything?
Do you feel anything at all?
“Life is what is happening to you while you are busy checking your news feed”
Lohn Jennon
Bliss Point
Here in the light of the burning Sativa and the last rays of the setting sun
Under the sky, far from laws and surveillance,
Only laughter breaks the silence
We’re too drunk to plan tomorrow, still not completely numb
As time dissolves we share pieces of mind
We searched our souls and unbought explanations, danced to the beat of a sleeping world
Filled up the void with drugs, art and music,
More placebos and distractions
There’s a hole inside my heart and it’ll only fill with love
From someone not just waiting their turn
We are spoiled boys, we get fed and fit and our newborns survive most of the time
But sadness can only be measured from inside
It takes courage to die for your ideals but dedication to live by them
Where are the elders in this village I can seek out for the wisdom of a lifetime
They are roller skating hipsters or pacified in homes
Our roots are buried as our stories die
The human race is almost over but who will be the winners?
Those who finish first or last?
Is everything okay or should we feel ashamed?
Your thoughts won’t count but either way they will be used against you
So board up your windows
Is everything okay? Or is it just me?
‘cause I don’t want to leave – let’s live while we’re still breathing
I don’t want to leave – And dream before we fall asleep
The drugs won’t set us free and the world takes nothing back
It’s up to us to make our time make sense
I don’t want to leave – let’s live while we’re still breathing
I don’t want to leave
No, I don’t want to leave – allow ourselves to die a little
I don’t want to leave – there is no sense in coming down
We’re sitting on the ground
Wants//Needs
Sometimes what you want are not the things you need
If you fall, I’m standing here right beside you
Holding on, I’m standing here right beside you
The masses will go to great lengths to preserve their hyper-normality, habits and malls
The fences are painted and stories installed
To postpone any questions
Out of sight, out of mind, without sound, burning out
Sometimes what you want are not the things you need
When you fall, I’m hanging here right beside you
Holding on, I’m hanging here right beside you
The flock’s pressing on and the end of the world will be caused by people just doing their jobs
While those burning bright to enlighten the hob
Will hang from the lampposts
Out of sight, out of mind, without sound, burning out
Sometimes what you want are not the things you need
While you fall, I’m hanging here right above you
Pressing on, I’m hanging here right above you
Hoping someone’s there to catch you
(Nobody likes a sore loser who whines
But the victors wrote all the history books
And all the plot holes are getting too big
To suspend any disbelief)
Out of sight, out of mind, without sound, burning out
Sensible Utility
I saw this little kid staring dead out through my screen, looking for a way to make her hunger end
Scenes from some forgettable and foreign continent, clearly playing for my sympathy
I felt a slight discomfort as I flipped the channel off
Like a lurking question still remained
I passed a homeless man sitting broken on the street without shelter, folded hands, begging for change
Bloodshot eyes and troubled thoughts inside his bloated head, but nothing a steady job wouldn’t fix
I felt a slight discomfort as I looked the other way
Like a lurking question still remained
We’ve got to fucking help them, don’t we?
What kind of humans are we if we don’t?
We got to fucking help them, don’t we?
But we can’t save the whole world on our own
One of my old friends came by my house the other day looking for a way out of his problems
Bad decisions and bad luck had caught him in a ditch but I didn’t see how that would concern me
I felt a slight discomfort as my door slammed in his face
Like a lurking question still remained
We got fucking help them don’t we…?
Do we really share a common bound
just because we share the same genome?
How close do our problems need to be
Before they can make us feel?
This Condition
I’ve got this condition, thoughts boil in my head
Clinically sane, there’s not diagnosis
Please don’t remind me I’m better off than most
Like it’s supposed to cheer me up
Maybe these songs will never really matter
And the times never change
Maybe we’re stuck here repeating patterns,
All the mistakes of yesterdays
Should we just stop and simply give up?
I am brought up with food, education and toys
Can I justify that I speak up or complain?
My mind is sane and my judgment is sound
So others must feel the same
Maybe these songs will never really matter
But it matters that we try
First step to change is seeing a pattern
That we can break if we rise
The future belongs to those holding on
When you sing along, I’m holding on
Na na na na na na…
Let’s sing along!
I’m holding on if you’re holding
Let’s sing along, the future belongs to us
Drink from the Well
Songs About Beliefs
I used to be hopeful that if we kept believing then all of these mountains could be turned around
Once our generation became cops and politicians then we would make a difference and make the world change
But ideals turn to hope and hopes turn to dust, and it gets in your eyes and it gets in your thoughts
Now the names and faces have changed but somehow all of the shit piles up exactly the same
But we used to sing for the whole world to hear, open our hearts and forget our fears
We would rather die standing on our feet than live on our knees
If it mattered once to dream like this, we can make it matter now
Cause we might be broken but we’re still not beaten and we never fought this fight just to win
There’re are mistakes waiting to be made and thoughts and ideas still left to get
So fuck all this talk about getting older, we should be talking about getting better
Yeah, where is your anger? You see the same things as me and no one will do it if we don’t stand up
And we can sing for the whole world to hear, forget our depressions and challenge our fears
And overcome impossible odds, get back on our feet
If it mattered once to dream like this, we can make it matter now
Let’s make this matter
Rise and sing, all of my fallen friends
If just for tonight, live our beliefs
Rise and sing, all of my fallen friends
Let’s be the change we want to see
Yeah, let us sing for the whole world to hear, expose our hearts, our hopes and ideas
And for once be true to ourselves and make things matter
If it mattered once to dream like this, we can make it matter now
Smoke
Thick smoke rises above the trees
The heat is closing in with a familiar smell of ashes
Invisible machinery
In the unknown we are so easily seduced by hatred
We thrive among the things we know
So in our search for reason we see patterns where there are none
Divide until we’re all alone
Ignite the world with hatred, kill till there’s nothing left to kill
Fire
You’ve fought this war on your fears for so long
That you forgot the reason why
A call to arms so loud that it drowns out all senses
And making monsters of you
You kill the culprits and shake up the grounds
But not the ideology
It feeds on grief, unawareness and hatred and grows with every casualty
Fight fire with water if you really want to put it out x2
The flames will burn through everyone, leave all you know in ashes
Mistakes that cannot be undone so fight the fire
Before all you ever loved is gone
It’s you and them, you sacrifice for your cause
You both build caskets for your young
Your flags are different but your tears are the same kind
The kind that turns hearts to stone
So maybe time has finally come to forgive
And forget your differences and gods
Look at each other and lay down your weapons
Approach your problems in peace
Fight fire with water…
They prosper from division so they want you to hate them
But fuck all the weapons and fuck all the hatred
If your beliefs are worth killing for then set an example and start with yourself
Stop killing people you and go to hell
“We kill people who kill people because killing people is wrong”
– Unknown
Life, Death and Everything in Between
I was born in a country too small to fit in
Its rivers and fjords are running through my mind
It sent me off floating and carried me through my youth
But fed me distrust and insecurities
And it’s streets of eternal summer no longer wear my name
I wore many faces, some fell, some got stuck
Now, I have to look close to recognize myself
But may my deeds be remembered by the people I loved
And all my mistakes all serve to educate
Don’t judge me on all my answers
But on how I found them
How tall can you grow without tearing off your roots
And stand without breaking in the wind?
Sometimes the old must die to leave room for the new
May I grow into myself and float on
But remember the place I came from
I’ve chosen battles and let chances slip by
And had many days soiled in compromise
But also days full of music were the tunes were all mine
Now, All of my songs are for everyone to take
Let my time leave scars and wrinkles
And memories worth losing
May my time not be wasted prolonging my days
And may the time I have left leave me feeling loved
I found an island with roots deep in the ground
And we rode off the storms in our intertwining rivers
Though, it’s too rarely that I tell you
It’s with you my heart belongs
How far could you fall without falling apart?
How well would you walk on through the fire?
How hard would you fight for things already lost?
Life’s not about the destinations we reach
But the journeys we take in between
(Solo)
May my footprints be shallow on the ground that I’ve walked
but deep in the minds of everyone I’ve known
I hope there will be laughter and song when I die
In room full of friends all celebrating life
Let our deaths be quick and painless
And in the right order
How far could you fall without falling apart?
How well would you walk on through the fire?
How hard would you fight for things already lost?
I don’t count on my life to be perfect at all
But I hope it’ll worth all its flaws
I hope you’ll dance till you drop
Sing back at the madness
Let the tune lift you up
Carry you on so you keep on smiling
I hope you’ll dance till you drop
Punch holes through the sadness
Give all you’ve got
When shadows fall, burn like a fire
Burn like a fire
I hope you’ll dance till you drop
Bring light to the darkness
But when the sun comes back up
Take a brief break to hear the silence