Able to live
Style: hard rock, alternative metal
Color: red
Theme: children, parents and searching of place in life
Foreword
A newborn is a canvas which can be coloured variously – from dazzlingly coloured to heavy grey. A newborn is a seedling whose growth can either take its own course but can even so be facilitated. The seedling needs enough water and sun (which are representative for love and care) otherwise it will bear bitter fruits when it’s fully grown. The rule is simple: As you sow, you shall mow. The temptation of influencing a person and forming him in one’s own image often exists since it is hard to accept that people belonging to the same bloodline might develop into a completely different direction. However, happiness is the number one goal in everyone’s life and the sooner you accept this fact, the better it will be for everyone eventually. In the end, the question whether a thread that links child and parent will be cut over time or not, can only be answered by yourself.
Lyrics
A sharp crying pierces the air
It happens a momentous affair
Another infant takes a dare
Fight or die
Whom did your parents give birth?
What is your happiness worth?
Are you a product of love or nonsense?
Million ways
In front of you
It’s hard to find
Your place in life
We want to be
Happy
We want to be
Able to live
Just to be
Able to live
It’s so easy to break a clean mind
To turn a sighted into the blind
Don’t turn a river into lake
But put on the right track
It’s a good and feasible plan
To become a respectable man
Not respected by society
But by yourself
Wandering in the dark
Eyes are used
Resting against the wall
I’m confused
Trying to get out of a pit
Bit by bit
Casting off the chains from me
I am free
Mixtories
The gaze directed into the distance… The small person is limited not only by external space, but internal boundaries are already beginning to press on our fragile mind. Escaping from a wooden cage is not difficult, but how many more such cages await the small person on their life path? Cages that will not be made of wood. Cages as high as the sky.
A tenacious parental grip holds onto the hand of their offspring, which confidently tries to slip away. But time will inevitably weaken that grip, and in the worst case, the fragile connection may be lost. All that remains is to work on oneself and hope that the delicate hold will be replaced by a moderately respectful interaction — one that can keep the flame of kinship alive.
Credits
Behind the song
The story of the song begins in December 2016, when Anton Ra was exploring a collaboration with Kevin, a vocalist from Rheine. After receiving some initial musical ideas from him—specifically a verse and a chorus—Anton reworked them beyond recognition. Once the collaboration with Kevin came to an end, Anton Ra composed a bridge and the second part of the track to go with the existing verse and chorus, finally shaping the song’s musical structure.
At the end of that same year, Angela from Münster reached out with a proposal to join the band as a vocalist. Following discussions with the band members, her offer was accepted. In early 2020, while filming a video at their rehearsal space in Münster, Angela’s vocals were officially tracked. Her voice can still be heard on the single version of the song. However, her vocals were omitted from the album version due to a lack of long-term viability for her involvement in the future of Mixte.
Fun fact: Anton’s vocals—much like on the track Massive—had been recorded earlier inside his car, as he didn’t have access to a proper rehearsal studio at the time. Additionally, the band’s then-guitarist Sven tracked a couple of rhythm guitar parts for Able to Live, but they ultimately didn’t make the final cut due to technical execution flaws.
In the second video version from 2025, both Angela and Sven are absent, despite appearing in the original cut. There were two reasons for this: their minor personal interest in the project’s creative direction (leading to their eventual departure) and Anton Ra’s subsequent desire to see Mixte perform live strictly as a trio—viewing it as the most optimal and streamlined format for the band’s workflow.
The lyrics were penned in 2019, inspired by the struggles of personal growth, with roots tracing back to conflicting relationships with parents. This complex theme blended perfectly with the song’s intricate structure, where shifts in key and tempo mirror the inner evolution of a searching soul who ultimately attains what they were looking for.