The Rakish Gent Paper 5 - The Snuts
The Snuts are a Scottish indie rock band, hailing from West Lothian, Scotland. Formed in 2015 the band consists of Joe McGillveray (guitars), Callum Wilson (bass), Jordan Mackay (drums) and Jack Cochrane (vocals and guitar).
Debut album W.L. topped the charts and the band are now preparing for the launch of their second album in October 2022, Burn The Empire. The release comes after supporting Kings of Leon on tour this summer.
When your first album debuts at number 1, there is an unspoken pressure to deliver on the follow up. For The Snuts lockdowns could not have come at a better time. Jack Cochrane says that “it actually came at a great time for us, and maybe not so great a time for many others. With lockdowns we had the space that we needed to create again. We were lucky with the timing because the first record had come out and done really well so with the second album we just wanted to make it and deal with the stress afterwards.” The result of creating during lockdown was the new album, Burn The Empire which Cochrane describes as “an evolution and almost like a different side of the coin from the first record”. Dubbed “nu-indie” its a sound that he and his bandmates are trying to revitalise in the UK, working with producers that take them out of their comfort zone and that would not typically work with similar bands. It was also a way for the band to take a lesson from the creation of their first album, which they had been so busy plugging that they forgot to enjoy the actual creation of the music. For Cochrane “this time we wanted to concentrate on being pure creatives”.
Growing up in West Lothian, like many young men of that age, the four bandmates were widely influenced by the music that they heard. Cochrane explains that it was the “lifestyle of the bands that we liked, more than the music” that influenced the decision to take a career in the music industry seriously. The View, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines are just a few of the bands that are credited with influencing the sound and style of The Snuts as they were “playing the music that made the most sense to us”. Jack acknowledges that “your influences change so much as you grow older” which might explain why the new album is a considered evolution from the first. The name of the band, slightly unusual was “a name that was given to us as a slang Scottish insult. It doesn’t have any specific meaning. After the years it just stuck. I think you have to commit to your band name, or you aren’t really a band. Even if its a terrible one!”
The album is loaded, not only in its name but in its content. One of the strongest tracks Zuckerpunch takes aim at the damaging effects that social media has had on society and the album title itself was a way of pouring out a host of frustrations. The title song was the first that they wrote when working on the new record and was borne out of “frustration with the social situation, with the government and how aspects of our lives had been playing out. The title felt pretty all encompassing of what we were trying to say throughout the album. It can be quite general as well as quite specific.”
For now, the band are excited to hear the reaction to an album that they have been working hard on, and are keen to tour more as “with the last album we didn’t even get to tour so we are really excited to do our UK and European tour. After that we will probably get back into writing again and maybe look towards the US next year.”
The new album from The Snuts, Burn The Empire is released in October 2022.
A full version of this feature can be found in The Rakish Gent Paper Issue 5.