The Snuts: “Nobody tells us what to do from an office”
With “Millennials”, the Snuts, four Scottish boys who have conquered the British scene and are emerging into the world, they show us their artistic maturity and put themselves completely on the line. With “Glasgow” from 2016, their debut song which has become a symbol of their history, immediately showed all their value in terms of writing and sound. In 2021 the first big ring: the record “WL”, short for West Lothianthe area of Scotland from which they proudly come and where, in 2015, they formed and took their first steps, comes first in the charts and amazes with the fusion between rock, pop and writing. “Burn The Empire” is the Scottish band’s second projectreleased in 2022, which arrived after the black hole of the pandemic.
Now this third chapter, “Millennials”, out on February 23rd, seems to move from protest rock to a story of feelings. There are those who already define it as “the album of maturity”. “We called the album this way not so much to represent a generation, but to tell about a change, a movement, which starts from afar and reaches today. Because i Millennials they have truly felt the impact of technology. The album is a way to go back to your first love, to when you wanted something, but you weren’t emotionally equipped to get itto relive what formed you, all by reliving those sensations, with the mature lens of the person you are today”, says Calum Wilson, bassist of the group.
The tracks were written on the road as The Snuts toured the world to present their previous album “Burn The Empire”. Recordings were made ‘on the fly’ in tour coaches, changing rooms, hotel rooms and in a studio in the Scottish Highlands which cost £300 a week. “Working on the move allowed us to create frank, fast and direct songs – continues the musician – there wasn’t much time to think, we acted. This was super: Jack (Cochrane, the singer, ed.) sampled various sounds from his hotel room such as the sound of the shower water. And depending on where we were everything was different, there were many stimuli to write. Naturally, there was an urgency that was reflected throughout the album.”
To compose this album they had to go back to the roots and the reasons why they started making music. “Our approach was totally free – he continues – and this was also possible thanks to the independent spirit that fuels us now. There are no people who tell us from a label office what to force or what to focus on in terms of sound, we follow our vision and that’s it. When you are too rooted in that system you pollute the mind and art. We are here, it is us, there are no external filters, we no longer want to end up in any meat grinder, we don’t want to be devoured on a creative level, which is why we launched our label Happy Artist Records. Furthermore, compared to the first two albums, we worked differently on a production level.”
One of the album’s signature tracks is “Millionaires”. “It talks about the materialism of society and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who don’t just think about money – admits Callum Wilson – look at the billionaire Mark Zuckerberg which passes from Brazilian jujitsu to MMA, the money never seems enough and he goes from one thing to another, doing a thousand activities, as if he were in an infinite loop. I believe that surrounding yourself with good people to understand your priorities is fundamental, friends and family who can give you love without constantly making you think about how much money you have in the bank.” Another significant piece is “Gloria”: “At the center there is a normal love, it doesn’t mean that everything has to be extremely romantic, sometimes spending time in your car with the one you love is beautiful. To be happy you often don’t have to have incredible experiences, you just need to live”.
