Swapping tour bus hangovers for hot yoga and breaking away from their record label to release their third album independently, The Snuts are doing things their way, and doing it brilliantly. We spoke with bassist Callum, who told us why they want to create a safe space for young musicians and how a ten minute chat with your mate could make all the difference.
“It’s definitely going to plan - which is nice after we decided to break away from our label and do it ourselves,” says Callum. It certainly seems to be going to plan. After the anger and politics of second album Burn the Empire, their latest Millennials - released in February and which reached number 2 in the album charts - was a more personal affair, drawing together snapshots from the lives of the people the band know. You can hear it on the ups and downs of life on “YoYo” or “Deep Diving” which tackle the mental health epidemic sweeping The Snuts’ generation.
The result is probably their best album yet, and it’s no wonder that the band describe it as their free-est record. Following increasing pressure from their record label to promote themselves on social media, the band decided to take a break - heading to the Highlands with no plans but making some music. They returned with their third album and the decision to leave their label and release the record in their own way.
“In the midst of Burn the Empire, we started to feel a real disconnect from the way the label wanted us to represent ourselves and the way that we wanted to represent ourselves. We suddenly realised with that record that it was meant to be one that was focused on social issues and one of the most prominent ones was the cost of living crisis. We felt like everybody was skint and they just wanted to push this record in everybody's faces. It felt really against our moral fibre and we actually didn't want to do that.”
“So we decided to head up to the Highlands after the tour for Burn the Empire and just have a bit of fun and record some music. It was about a sense of release rather than going with the intention to record an album or start a project.”
“It's worth just taking just a ten minute conversation, because those ten minutes could be absolutely critical."
But, empowered by that sense of freedom, they created Millennials and let the record label know they would be releasing it themselves. “It was a tense conversation to start with, but a lot of big decisions in life can come from tense conversations,” Callum says. Thankfully it’s more than worked out. ”It's been the easiest record to promote, the easiest record to record, and the easiest record to play live because there's just no pressure.”