Blue Eyes Blinded: Where Songwriting Meets Sound System

When longtime collaborators Daniel Jaeger and Alexander Schug found themselves reconnecting in the studio after years on separate paths, they weren’t chasing a new project. But what began as a casual exchange of ideas quickly turned into something deeper — a hybrid of analog soul and club precision that neither had explored in quite this way before.

The result is Blue Eyes Blinded, a Berlin-based live act rooted in emotionally charged songwriting, gritty vocals, and cinematic, bass-forward production.

With their debut EP “Here Comes The Light” out now on Bar 25 Music, the duo officially steps into their own lane, the one they call Alternative House. In this conversation, they open up about creative trust, building songs that hit just as hard in headphones as on a Funktion-One, and why live performance was never optional.

How did the idea for Blue Eyes Blinded first come together? Was there a specific spark that kicked things off?

It started with a pause. In the winter of 2019, Alex stepped back from music, call it a reset button rather than a full stop. Fast-forward to 2023: Daniel sent over a track (Love Or Hate) and asked Alex to try lyrics and vocals. The spark was instant.

In 2024, Daniel upped the ante with Still Bleeding, inviting Alex to add guitar, lyrics, and vocals; that cut is now slated for a late-2025 release on Desert Hearts.

Somewhere between those two songs, a “why not?” turned into a “we have to.” That’s the moment Blue Eyes Blinded really took shape — born from a creative reunion, sharpened by chemistry, and aimed squarely at a new electronic live act. Warm heart, cool machines, and just enough bite to keep it honest.

“Here Comes The Light” marks your debut under this new project, but both of you have a long history with Bar 25 Music. What made this the right label to introduce Blue Eyes Blinded?

Short answer: history and home. Alex’s former live act, BONDI, and Daniel’s solo releases both grew up on Bar 25 Music — some BONDI tracks are still among the label’s most-streamed.

So when we launched Blue Eyes Blinded, the choice felt obvious: start where listeners already know our musical DNA. Bar 25 isn’t just a logo on the artwork; it’s a community that has backed our songwriting, our live energy, and our slightly left-of-center take on house music.

Releasing our debut here lets us welcome longtime BONDI fans while introducing them to the next chapter: an alternative-house, electronic live act with real instruments, raw vocals, and that Berlin-afterglow feeling. Familiar doorway, new room, same heart.

You describe your sound as Alternative House. What does that term mean to you, and how do you define it through this EP?

For us, Alternative House is where songcraft meets a sound system. Daniel builds cinematic, bass-forward house and progressive grooves; Alex comes from alternative rock, soul, and blues — he’s written around 38 songs in those lanes.

When we run those melodies, guitar lines, and story-driven lyrics through Daniel’s production lens, you get a hybrid that’s too emotive to be just club music and too club-ready to be just a band. That liminal space is our self-made genre: Alternative House.

On the EP, that translates to:

• live guitar and raw vocals sitting comfortably on modern, muscular low end
• verse–chorus storytelling without losing DJ-friendly flow
• rock/blues tension resolving into widescreen, progressive drops

In short: heart-on-sleeve songs, spine-rattling bass, music you can feel on the floor and remember in the morning.

The title track carries a hopeful, almost cinematic feeling. What was the emotional or creative starting point for it?

It started like most of our songs do: Alex with a guitar and a notebook, writing from real life, not fiction. Here Comes The Light came out of the two of us clawing our way back to music after trying on other jobs and life-models that didn’t fit.

It’s the sound of a door opening: resilience turning into momentum, verses about struggle blooming into a chorus that actually lets you breathe. Daniel’s cinematic, bass-driven production took that raw sketch and widened the frame, same heart, bigger horizon.

Its sister track, Isolated, comes from a different corner of the same room: Alex’s unease with a world of technological dominance and curated, counterfeit identities. Where Light reaches out, Isolated looks in; one offers release, the other a mirror. Together, they define our emotional compass — hope with teeth.

“Isolated” feels more introspective and moody. How did that track evolve in contrast to the title piece?

If Here Comes The Light is the door swinging open, Isolated is the quiet room you realize you’ve been sitting in. Alex wrote it from an observer’s seat — watching how technology slips from tool to substitute, how feeds start to feel like friends, how avatars outshine the humans behind them.

It’s not a sermon; it’s a snapshot. Lines look outward at screens and inward at the ache they leave. Where Light moves from struggle to release, Isolated lingers in the tension and asks, “When did the glow replace the touch?”

We built that contrast into the production. Daniel kept the palette lean and a little colder: bass that feels like a low, steady pulse; drums that leave space; vocals sitting close and unvarnished, as if they’re right in your ear. Fewer fireworks, more shadow — so the lyrics do the talking.

And when the track finally opens up, it doesn’t explode; it exhales. The effect is intentional: a moody, cinematic walk through a world in love with its own reflection, set against the stubborn beauty of real people and the real world waiting just outside the screen.

Alexander, your voice and songwriting were central to BONDI’s early identity. How does your role in Blue Eyes Blinded compare, creatively and emotionally?

Creatively, my role is familiar — voice, guitar, and lyrics at the core — but it’s also wider. With Blue Eyes Blinded, Daniel meets every song with radical openness: instead of asking, “Does this fit house music?” he asks, “How do we make this feel true and make it hit?”

That “yes, let’s try” energy lets us bend a soul sketch into a club moment or turn a rock chorus into something widescreen and electronic without losing the heart of the song.

Emotionally, it’s freer. In BONDI, my identity formed around a specific lane. Here, I can bring the full palette — alternative rock, blues, soul — and trust the production to carry it onto a big system.

That’s why Blue Eyes Blinded won’t be a typical electronic live act. We’re writing for clubs and festivals, yes, but just as much for concert stages, where verses matter, dynamics breathe, and a set can travel from pin-drop intimacy to a cathartic drop. Same voice, bigger canvas, more risk, and more reward.

Daniel, your productions are known for their precision and groove. How do you balance that with the more raw, emotional elements in this project?

For me, precision isn’t the opposite of emotion — it’s the frame that lets it hit harder. I still build the spine the way I always have — cinematic, bass-forward, grooves that lock — but I leave more oxygen for Alex’s voice and guitar to breathe.

That means fewer layers, more dynamic automation, and letting good imperfections live: a slightly late strum, a cracked note that tells the truth. I’ll quantize the kick, not the heartbeat.

It’s been a real learning adventure. I’ve learned to treat sound design like cinematography — pull the drums back when the lyric needs the spotlight, push the low end forward when the chorus needs lift, choose textures that feel lived-in instead of pristine.

Very quickly we realized my precise production and his raw songwriting don’t cancel each other out; they fuse. That fusion is the point of Blue Eyes Blinded — and why Alternative House feels like our own lane.

You both have deep roots in electronic music, but also draw from alternative rock and blues. How do you decide what to bring into the mix and what to leave out?

We start like a band, not a DAW: Alex on piano or guitar, singing the song top to bottom. That’s our north star. Then Daniel builds the electronic story around it with Alex at his shoulder — stretching a verse, carving a pre-chorus, cutting the fat, adding tension. It’s sculpting: chisel first, polish later.

What we bring in:

• Anything that serves the lyric and pulse — bass that carries the emotion, drums that move the room, textures that widen the picture
• Live guitar and vocal moments that feel human and slightly unruly; those become our signature hooks
• Cinematic lift where the chorus needs to breathe

What we leave out:

• Sounds that are “cool” but blur the message. If it crowds the vocal or muddies the groove, it’s gone
• Over-quantizing the life out of it — we keep the tiny imperfections that make it feel real

How we decide:

• The eyes-closed test: if the feeling fades when a layer comes in, we mute it
• The floor vs headphones check: it has to hit in a club and still mean something on a quiet walk
• Ruthless arrangement edits — kill your darlings, keep the spine

In the end, the song leads; the electronics translate. That’s how our blend of alternative rock and blues heart and house precision becomes one voice — Alternative House that actually tells a story.