SFISTIKATED: Crafting chaos, touring Europe, and finding magic in the unknown

Blending raw energy with meticulous craftsmanship, SFISTIKATED has carved out a sound that defies categorization. With their debut album Perpetual Motion, they’ve embraced a fragmented, genre-bending approach
that mirrors the chaos and beauty of modern music-making. Their journey has taken them across Europe, fueled by initiatives like Liveurope, which has opened doors to new audiences and career-defining opportunities. In this
exclusive interview, the duo reflects on their creative process, the magic of live performance, and their whirlwind experiences touring the continent—complete with being lost, following train tracks, and a near-freezing night in Grenoble.

Where does the name SFISTIKATED come from?

 So here comes that cliché story hahaha (but true yo!!) there was a Basquiat’s cheap print in the studio where we were working and one night between talking about aesthetics,  names and composing we looked at that painting right above our heads, in the middle of the room and went like “yeaaaah, we already have a name for this and it has been looking at our faces all this time”.

In this painting it’s written in a completely different way but we just fell deeply in love with it and started chopping out letters and ways to write it, the way we do in our samples and beats.

SOmE sCHiZo stUff ahahah

(Untitled – Sophisticated Lady, Basquiat 1987 if you wanna check it)

Your first album “Perpetual motion” is out and features a number of collaborations with different artists. Can you describe your creative process when you collaborate with other artists?

In Perpetual Motion we basically worked a lot online mode (+ all the back and forth with the collabs) and inside our own heads. As the first album we really wanted to put ourselves completely in it and emerge in the process so we could create the fragmented and schizophrenic parallel universe we wanted to create. The only “in person connection” we had was afterwards in our first show ever. We invited Teddy Trillion, Lopez, Nico and Pedro to join us on stage and ended up pushing the songs further from what they were and even having new live stuff. Was magic.

Liveurope is an initiative supporting European artists to cross-borders and play in some of Europe’s top venues. Last year you played at our venues Posthof and MKC. Do you have any thoughts on this initiative? 

We truly think that these initiatives are super important in any artist’s career and they can define the way for the artist to go. Being able to go abroad, and even in our country fr, to play in venues and festivals like the ones that are proposed is breathtaking and it can give any artist a huge gate of new opportunities.

You have played at the Liveurope Festival last December and also took part in the program’s training and coaching sessions for artists with the Liveurope’s representatives. Can you tell us about your experience and how it has impacted your career?

Like we said before, it opens gates of new opportunities. Being able to play in some of the best venues in Europe and to connect with other artists, booking agents, labels and crowds gives us the chance to reach to more and more people and more and more places. It has been a truly amazing impact and it helps keep our sanity and hearts in the right place.

In the past year you played several shows abroad. What has touring in different countries meant for you and what’s been your experience finding new audiences?

It has been amazing fr. Lots of friends and new collaborations were made while on the road. Always amazing to know and dive deep into new cultures, explore cities, food wise ALSO AMAZING!

And ofc playing to new people.

P.S.: hit us up in the dm’s with food recommendations we can’t miss in Budapest 🙂 *only savories allowed* 

Do you have a favourite memory or anecdote to share related to your touring experiences?

 We like to goff around a lot but we pretty bad with jokes tbh sooooo probably better to leave an experience from our first tour, in Grenoble we guess. We got some time after the show to meet up with some friends and ended up in a festival that was happening though the center. After our mates headed home, both our phones died and no chargers with us.  It was time to go back to the hotel and us too completely lost in the middle of that unknown town, no taxis or any kind of transports on the arounds and no people at all soooo we got the brilliant idea to follow the train rails (we had caught the train to the center before) and it really sounded like the best idea ever. Ended up taking around 3 hours finding the right track back to the hotel. We were already thinkin we were gonna sleep on some random bench and freeze our asses off!

Also two days before we got stuck in an elevator in the middle of nowhere in Pirineús, trying to call emergency help and nous ne comprenons pas du tout le français. It was quite a good time to panic but the story ended as good as the fairy tales. „and they all lived happily ever after”.

What comes next for your project?

 We are now preparing new releases, new tracks and deeply focused on playing in more and new venues and festivals so we can bring our energy (and neeeeew and fresh live set) to everybody worldwide. For us, one of the most grateful things we can have is to play live what our minds and souls created in the studio and being able to feel and share it with a crowd connected by smiles, sweat and the love to dance and music.