Following the release of new single ‘Sick’ – Glasgow’s Snash are back for their biggest headline show to date. I caught up with lead singer Connan and guitarist Steven before they take to the stage in Glasgow’s King Tuts Wah Wah Hut to get a little inside of life in the band, influences and even their take on delicious treats.
First of all, introduce yourself to the readers of DM.
Were Snash, I’m Connan and he’s Steven who’s the guitarist and I’m vocalist & lyricist. We have who aren’t with us for the interview Andy who plays drums and McGee who plays bass.
Tell the readers who don’t know who Snash are what to expect and a brief insight to your sound.
We tend to go for what is known as mental but sh*te if that’s any use to anybody. In the words of Jokey – ‘high aggression’. Basically fast, heavy and hard and just make as much noise as fast as you can to cover up your mistakes. Were very energetic and take in a lot of influences from other places so we like to drop it down a little bit to more melodic stuff.
That takes me on to the next question, who are you main influences?
Mainly for us has to be Pete Doc for us two anyway – for our generation he is the best of what he does, for the band as a whole it was definitely Pete Doherty who got us into music – but for our sound it was mainly Slaves type vibe we wanted to go for it was the thing that appealed to me most.
In the same breath you’d have to mention the likes of Slipknot who are the whole kind of idea behind what Slaves do but a lot more darker and intense. The four of us share the same interest in Slipknot and we all grew up in that 2000’s Kerrang! era where the likes of Slipknot, Limp Bizket and Korn were all on tv and thats gravitated us towards music. With bands like these it lead us to start writing songs with a more darker side that all stemmed from the Nu Metal scene from the 90’s to early 2000’s.
Were always influenced by bands the likes of Slaves and Idles – we’ve also recently discovered a band called John (TIMESTWO) who are just outrageous, just two guys making a complete racket and it just sounds amazing – so were always influenced by the likes of that.
Moving on to your own music, is there any EP or even album plans?
Definitely – the reason we’ve took a little bit of a hiatus is because we’ve sorely been working on writing and stuff we want to work on putting into an album and at the moment we have songs we want to record for that and some we want to aim to record at the end of August – after that it’ll be all about getting music out, getting it on tour and see how people react really.
The next step for us is E.P, its highly unlikely you’ll hear another e.p from Snash after this, the next step will be an album. We don’t always want to drop an e.p, people who are already into the band are aware of us and have already heard what we are capable of so the next thing we want to release is something that will be a complete bodywork of the band. It needs to be something more than just single single e.p – want now to be single single then album.
We want to have an artistic view of the start and end of a piece of work with everything in between and the way it all joins together. We want this art to be something bigger and show a story of the band, we want it to be right.
Sticking with the music, how have you found the reaction to new single ‘Sick‘?
Its been really good actually, it was a track we were on the fence about we were never sure if we were ever going to release it or not. But we thought its already done and dusted it might not be an album or e.p track so we just wanted to throw it out there and see how people feel about it.
The response has been really good and its surprised me how well it’s actually done with it being one of the ones we were unsure of. Its gave a slightly different side to us but also falls into the same kind of place you would put the likes of White Out or Pigs – its a different vibe, when you want to put out something like that you want to make sure the right people are on board.
Are there any songs you like/dislike to play live?
Connan – least favourite for me would be Help, I think everybody in the band would agree with that. Its one of they songs that just doesn’t fall into the set its a bit weird and middle of the road.
For me my favourite song to play live is Pigs hands down.
Steven -I’ll be boring and echo that, I don’t hate it but it just doesn’t fit, when we wrote it at the time it was our heaviest song we had but everything about it live just seems off and its been dropped.
My favourite to play is probably War Of The Classes (W.O.T.C) – I just love how fast it is and how punchy the riff is I just love everything about the song.
Let’s discuss the Glasgow Scene – you’ve been part of it for a while, what’s your view on what it is now to what it was when you first came into it?
There was only a few bands on the Glasgow scene when we first started, now you see it now, theres a good few bands who are just pushing their way through – were playing tonight with Wine Moms and its really good to see them where they are. Its a scene you don’t expect much to come from it, but its always just throwing out talent – its constantly healthy.
It goes through waves where it might be more heavy and intense to maybe a bit more indie. The band opening tonight Permo, they’re exactly the kind of thing we do and show really how healthy the scene is and I’d like to think it always will be.
Are there any stand out bands you’d like to mention?
Permo 100%, as I said they are like us, unsure if they fall into the Glasgow scene but definitely them. Really like Moonrunners, they’re absolutely brilliant. There’s so many come through you don’t want to mention bands and not mention them there’s some really good stuff out there – Gallus are a band who always come to mind, they’re always a stand out.
There’s so much out there but you just need to go looking for it, there will always be something there – I like the fact its not really in your face and its not obvious you need to find it – one band can lead you to another, the further you look you’ll find more bands who are similar. A bit like Snash, we’re a fetish band, no everyone’s into but the people who are, are proper into it. That’s pretty much it.
It’s already been touched on but what’s next for Snash?
Just slogging away man – we want to play as much as we can and get a few more singles out. We’re planning to go on tour, maybe do a small Scottish tour towards the end of the year and just take it from there and just keep doing what were doing. We’ll be doing this for as long as we can, we do it because we love it. Being asked to play gigs like King Tuts Summer Nights is very flattering – we want to play as much as we can where we can.
Finally, on to a more personal yet possibly controversial question – what’s your favourite biscuit?
Connan – favourite biscuits? yes here we go this is the real question now. I want to say a Rocky, but its quite middle of the road, but I do love a Penguin. But a Blue Ribband now you’re talking, is that a biscuit or a chocolate bar? Go to your grannies and she whips out the biscuit tin a blue ribband is first out. Changing my answer to that.
Steven – custard creams are top tier, never mind the waggon wheels a custard cream is top of the pile.
Continuing the cake/biscuit argument, is a Jaffa Cake a cake or biscuit?
Its a biscuit, its the only answer – someone askes for a slice of cake and get given a Jaffa Cake there’s kick offs that’s not what I asked for. 100% biscuit aye.
A massive thanks to the Snash boys for giving up their time before Tuts to have a chat about the band and their background. Give their new single ‘Sick’ a listen and catch them in a town near you soon!