Snooper - Interview
Interview & foreword by Beau Croxton
Snooper by Blaire Beamer
Nashville’s Snooper began in 2020 as a DIY collaboration between guitarist Connor Cummins and vocalist/visual artist Blair Trammel . Their music was wholeheartedly embraced among the popular wave of “egg punk” at the time, and the project quickly expanded into far more than its creators ever imagined it could.
Snooper has also had quite the trajectory since planting their Nashville DIY roots— in 2021, they launched their wild live shows that incorporated Trammel’s puppets with their playful punk, and they quickly gained a notable reputation. This reputation got the band signed with Jack White’s Third Man Records, and in 2023, they released their explosive debut on the label. Super Snõõper released in summer 2023 to significant critical acclaim, and the band toured all over to follow– in Europe, Australia and North America. The touring has been persistent and the group hasn't shown any sign of slowing down since they hit the ground running.
Similar to the best, classic punk bands– Snooper has a very trademark sound and a unique identity that people have come to know, love and expect. On October 3rd, the band released their fantastic sophomore LP Worldwide- and it manages to expertly tweak their formula, while retaining everything that's irresistible about the group’s signature sound.
The record was produced by John Congleton— who has worked with the likes of Erykah Badu, David Byrne, Angel Olsen and St Vincent– but he’s also quite Snooper fan himself.
Now with plenty of momentum, Snooper holds a bold confidence on Worldwide. The record has plenty of new gems that hold their own with their biggest bangers: explosive cuts like ”Hologram” and “Blockhead” go toe-to-toe with the group’s energetic best, and songs like “Company Car” “Worldwide” and “Guard Dog” are as just as earworm-y as the band has ever been.
We caught up with Snooper around the release of the record to discuss all things touring, Worldwide, John Congleton, “Guard Dog”, and puppets.
Check out the interview below!
BEAU: Hello! Congrats on Worldwide— it's absolutely killer and so exciting. How are we all feeling about releasing this one?
SNOOPER: We feel so creatively recharged after working on this record. After touring so much, we needed to come home, write, and go dark for a bit. We needed to regroup- socially, physically, and mentally. That switch was incredibly challenging for us in many ways, but it was necessary. We are thankful that the record is out in the world now.
Things have evolved so quickly for Snooper- one minute it was lo-fi EPs, next minute it was the Super Snõõper debut on Third Man Records, and now we're at Worldwide ! Have you had a minute to take it all in?
We have! We are just learning so much all the time. I guess it’s the same with anything, in the sense that we all started out not knowing anything about being in a band and now we’re here doing an interview for Occult Magazine. Of course, some members of the band have toured and recorded music before, but some of us haven’t done either! Being in this band has been an enormous learning experience for us and we are so thankful for every new experience Snooper has exposed us to. We are personally so passionate about this band, and while it feels easy to do things that you are passionate about, it also has felt really hard and intense and we’ve been faced with some inevitable growing pains. I think this band has undoubtedly challenged us to grow up and has given us the opportunity to take our art more seriously. We are so thankful for all of the people who have inspired us or been mentors to us along the way.
How has the touring been so far this season?
We are about to go back out on the road with The Hives. We will be playing with them in Europe and are really looking forward to those shows! Playing live shows is what we love most, but we have been forced (in a great way!) to grow and scale up the live show in ways we never expected. We are so accustomed to playing small, DIY leaning venues. We love venues that fill up quickly and get sweaty. We love being close to the crowd more than anything! It’s been a different experience for us playing larger venues and being further away from the crowd. It’s a bit hard to feel the energy from the crowd if we can’t feel them sweating with us. We’re learning to live with stages that have barriers- ha! We have been dialing in our live sound now more than ever. It’s been fun!
John Congleton has made so many huge records- from All Mirrors by Angel Olsen, to Strange Mercy by St Vincent…and now Worldwide! How did that link up happen, and what did Congleton bring to the table as a producer?
John produced a record for our friends Being Dead from Austin Texas. Cody and Falcon from Being Dead also use an 8 track to record their music and we feel very close to them in that way! John had reached out to us at one point about the possibility of maybe recording together, but we were touring too much to consider it at the time. Once we had a break from touring, demoed some new songs at home, and got excited about the idea of making a new record, we reached out to John (at the very last minute) who was able to carve out 9 days for us to come to LA and record. We already had everything demoed out prior to recording with John, but we were able to expand on some ideas that were not fully flushed out live in the studio with him. It was our first experience like this and it was challenging for us to give up some of the control. John never pushed us or changed anything musically, but more stuff naturally began to seep into the recordings as this switch from analog recording to recording in a studio with John was of course a big change for us. We could have spent hours with him adding fun bleeps and bloops, and this experimentation was the most exciting part of working with him. Also, he’s just an awesome guy and we were all inspired by the person he is. I think all of us left feeling like we received some sort of mentorship or inspiration from him in a meaningful way.
What were some of your main takeaways from the recording sessions Congleton?
If your music only sounds good when it’s played back super loud, it’s probably not that great!
The ”Guard Dog” video is insane. It must have been fun– I would love to hear how that all came together.
Filming the “Guard Dog” video was incredibly fun! Arius Ziaee, Kate Renshaw- Lewis, and Joe Sams at some point got together and made an INCREDIBLE video that they posted online with a Snooper song. I was so honored and loved the video so much. I reached out to them to see if they wanted to help with the music videos for Worldwide and they were excited by the idea! I flew out to LA and over the course of 4 days, we shot so much footage that would later be used for three music videos on this record. Guard Dog was the only music video that we had a pretty concrete plan for. Arius, Kate, and Joe were inspired by William Wegman and wanted to riff off the dog puppeteering that Wegman had done in his videos. We used real dogs and real humans to make the video! Joe filmed everything live in his living room on analogue public access gear that he inherited a few years ago. His setup is pretty incredible. Arius and Kate made the art and puppets for the video, but we really figured things out together in the moment. Filming the dog band was my favorite part. Kate and Arius wore dog puppet costumes and strummed the guitar while wearing morph suits. Kate also wrote “Guard Dog” in peanut butter on a smooth piece of glass and we filmed a dog licking it off. That was super fun and made for an amazing title card!
I’ve always loved the Snõõper artwork- dating all the way back to the earliest singles and EPs. Where did the visual aspect come from for Snooper, and did you always have a visual element in mind when creating the music?
Thank you! The visual side of Snooper is very important to me! It is what keeps me excited about the project and keeps it moving in new directions. I (Blair) will always make visual art, but making music isn’t something I’ve previously been able to do on my own. I don’t feel like I have control over music the same way I do with visual art. I feel like, visually, I can make whatever I want to make in a way that Connor might feel about music. Synching up with Connor on this project has given my art a purpose and a direction in a way I never could have imagined. It has been such a wonderful and necessary creative outlet for me and I am so thankful that people have enjoyed the art side of the band as much as I have. I don’t think I would be able to come up with lyrics and find a voice within the band if I didn’t have the visuals to use to tie everything together. I’m always thinking about music videos, prop ideas, and the larger visual world around Snooper. It is my source of confidence within the project, which I think is really important. I genuinely don’t think I would sing as confidently as I do if I didn’t get to bring out the puppets and be surrounded by the props. Of course, they are there for the audience’s entertainment, but they are also there for me. In times when I haven’t felt confident in music, I have felt confident as a visual artist. I continue creating and evolving a visual world around the band that has made me feel comfortable. Others are welcome to join in this world with me!
What are your favorite songs from the new record (at the moment) and which are you most excited about playing live?
We love playing “Hologram” live at the moment! It feels powerful with the synth behind it. Several of the new songs from the record have backing tracks live- which is something new and exciting for us “Worldwide” and “Star 69” are more electronic and have been fun to work on in a live setting! Opt Out is also very fun to play live and keeps getting faster and faster.
Snooper by Emily Moses
I’ve been listening to you since I found the “Music for Spies” EP. The dry, lo-fi sound was so cool on that, and your more rowdy sound on Super Snooper and Worldwide is equally fantastic. Do you have any other avenues that you are interested in as far as new sounds?
We love the inherently limiting nature of analog recording. We know how to write songs on an 8 track. We are good at that. It is exciting to learn new things and that’s all we want to do. As we grow and try new things, it doesn’t mean we can’t go back to older ways of doing things. We just have more options now as we are more open to learning and trying new things. Options are awesome -and daunting- and awesome!
Do you have any favorite live shows that come to mind?
Death Grips, Sextile, and Machine Girl are the ones that immediately come to mind! We love an energetic, and engaging live show!! We want to feel it!
What's next for Snõõper after the release of Worldwide ? We would love to see you in Brooklyn sooner or later…..!
We felt like we were overplaying the East Coast last year, but now we miss it dearly! We’ve been on the West Coast more than ever lately, and the drives on West Coast tours can feel so long. We are ITCHING to come back to the east coast! We don’t have any concrete plans to be out there at the moment, but that gives us a really fun opportunity to plan a random tour of our own. We hope to come visit something this spring!
Snooper’s new album —Worldwide — is out now via Third Man Records.
You can order their vinyl and support them here on bandcamp here.
You can check out all of their music videos here.
And you can listen directly below!