August 25, 2023 • 12 mins
Join Kevin Powell as he talks to guitarist/vocalist Scott Curnow of SNAFU! SNAFU recently opened up for PANTERA on three of their United States tour dates. SNAFU is part of the Housecore Records family. Get ready to learn more about these Detroit thrashers! Photo by Bambi Guthrie Photography
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Here met Hey guys, welcome backto another episode of the podcast. I
(00:27):
love everything rock metal, and Ilove, love, love talking to bands.
It's just something I've been doing foryears and something I will continue to
do until the end of time.Now, today I got another heavy hitter
on the on the show, andthese guys I saw in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
opening up for the Almighty Pan TraI'm very excited to have these guys on
(00:47):
today. We have Scott from SnapFood Scott, how are we doing doing
(01:22):
well? Kevin? Thanks for havingme on, hey man anytime. I
do appreciate you taking a minute,you know, to talk to me.
I am very excited to have youguys on because you gained yourself a fan
from the show, which I'm sureevery band dream of. You know,
That's why they play live to bringin more fans. Right. So I
saw you guys in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So you're Scott. What do you
(01:44):
do in the band? Scott?So I play guitar and d vocals.
Guitar and dow vocals. Okay,very nice. Now when it comes to
everybody else, who always in SNAPfwho and where's everybody from? So we're
all from pretty much around Detroit area. We got Ryan Staybro on guitar,
also does vocals. We have ElToro on bass who also does vocals,
(02:06):
and then we got Mike Drissed onthe drums, so everybody almost does vocals,
which is cool. It keeps everythingnice and diverse. And you guys
have this really cool thrash sound toyou. Why did you guys, you
know, start making music. We'veall been playing music since like our early
teens, and you know we're allmid thirties now, so yeah, i'd
say, like where we got oursound is we kind of like all started
(02:28):
as like punk rockers and got likebetter at our instruments and it just kind
of naturally evolved to thrash metal,I guess from there. And when did
SNAFU officially start? Sough to say. I'm like the only original member because
it started like forever ago, overten years ago with completely different members and
there's just you know, kind ofone member changes at a time sort of
(02:50):
thing. And we'd, like Isaid, we started out as like a
punk band, and you know,each new member's addition kind of added this
different wayer to it now the soundthat we have today. So nothing wrong
with that. So I wanted totalk a minute. Tell us about opening
up for and Tara on those selectdates. Tell me about your experience with
that, tell me everything that everyonewants to know. And it was crazy.
(03:10):
So we're on Phil's label, soHousecore Records, which is how we
got invited out to do the wholething. But it's just it was crazy
for us. We've been like dytouring for over a decade all over the
country. We played you know,basements, we played in somebody's kitchen in
Dallas, Texas. One time,we played you know, five hundred cap
(03:31):
rooms. We played everything, butlike the amphitheaters, it was just like
such a completely different thing for us. It was crazy. No, it
was just it was such a crazyexperience. Like I still feel like I
barely landed back on Earth from it. And it was like two weeks ago
now. So how many days wereyou on that with them? So we
(03:53):
just did three days. We didone that was just outside Pittsburgh there,
then Indianapolis and Milwaukee. So whenit came to walking up and meeting these
guys, what was running through yourmind? I didn't really know what to
think. It was. It waspretty wild, but Yeah, We're just
a real surreal experience and I didn'treally know what to expect, but we
(04:15):
just like clicked and started talking aboutkiss and just all kinds of different funny
stuff. And yeah, I'm wildhilarious. Phil's hilarious, They're all.
They're all we're just like goofing aroundlike pails. You know, did you
guys party or anything backstage with them? Say, I think a lot of
them are all sober. I didn'treally see any of them partying too much.
I know Zach had mentioned he quitdrinking a couple of years ago,
(04:39):
and I heard somewhere that like Philquit drinking a while ago and stuff too,
So yeah, I didn't really Ididn't really like them, right,
Yeah, yeah, absolutely all.We all partied heavy, but you know,
yeah, okay, no problem there. So you said you were on
Phil's label, which, if youdon't know, Philly and Zelmo arounds house
cool records. They've been around forI don't know how many years now,
(05:01):
but a long time. Yeah,they like being on that label. What
can you share about that? Itwas a really cool experience. We didn't
really know we had this record done. We finished it just before the pandemic
and then we're like, great,what do we do with this thing?
Now? Like pandemic hit and wedidn't hadn't released it yet, so we're
like, oh, man, whatdo we do? So we like kind
(05:23):
of sat tight on it for awhile and we're like reaching out to a
lot of different labels and whatnot andfound some smaller ones that we're going to
take us. And then we gotreached out to by housecre and we're like,
yeah, we should definitely. Itseems like a great idea for us,
and they really liked the record,and we're really excited to do it.
So yeah, I would say,you know, it's a really good
(05:44):
pro to open up for Pantera beingon the housecore labels family, So it's
a pretty good pro there. Yeah, absolutely, it was. Yeah.
When we heard that he once wegot the offer to open for them and
saw that he was like bringing outhousecore bands for like different regional dates stuff,
I was just like, man,that's really cool, cooler than to
be Yeah, honestly. Yeah,Now when it came to them reaching out,
(06:06):
was it like a pr agent orwas it Phil himself? It was
actually Phil's wife, Kate. Shedoes a lot of the handling of the
label and stuff. So yeah,she's she's on to reach out. So
yeah, that's super cool. I'mhoping you guys were like a pant Air
fan before our you know, rightright yep. So you were talking about
the twenty twenty one album Exile Banishment, Key, tell me about kind of
(06:29):
what all went into this. Howdid you guys go about writing it,
how'd you go about recording it?Anything at all? So writing it,
we we all actually do a lotof the writing. It's not just like
one person doing all the writing andwhatnot, So we all are constantly bounce
ideas off each other. Sometimes somebodywill write a whole song complete front to
back. Sometimes somebody will just bringlike a riff to the table. Sometimes
(06:53):
I'll write like a whole song andbe like, man, I don't really
know like what to do for vocalwise, Like Ryan, if you want
to like just like do vocals onthis one for the song that I wrote
and stuff. So we're kind ofalways doing that and I think that gives
us like a really kind of different, unique sound and stuff like that.
But as far as recording it goes, we went down to Richmond, Virginia
and tracked the whole record with ourbuddy Landfill and his brother Josh Hall Landfills
(07:16):
from Imanisvuwais and Iron Reagan and bothhim and Josh playing Cannabis Corpse together.
Yeah, so we went down thereand tracked the whole record with them,
and then yeah, we came uphere. We finished vocals with our buddy
Adam, who actually ran front ofhouse for us at those Pantera shows,
and then he did a lot ofmixing, and then we sent it off
to Joel Grind from Toxic Holocaust tohave it mastered. So yeah, I
(07:42):
got a lot of names in that, Yeah, a lot, a lot
of a lot of cool Yeah,a lot of cool people got to work
on it. So we're really happywith the way it came out, too
awesome. So it came out,you guys are happy with it. What
was the initial response? What wasthe initial reception to the album? A
lot of people liked it. Itwas a lot different from our last ones
and definitely a lot harder, heavier, darker. Definitely wrote a lot about
(08:03):
a lot more personal issues rather thanlike societal or political kind of things.
Is like real kind of a personalalbum. I feel like now snap who
it stands for something. I wouldlike you to talk about what that stands
for and why it stands like that. It's an old military acronym that stands
for a situation normal, all fuckedup. Nice. Yeah. I found
(08:26):
that out not too long ago,which was cool. I was like,
hey, stands for something, soreception reception was great? What kind of
I talked to bands all the time, and there's all kinds of different ways
to go about writing and recording me. For example, I sit here exactly
where I'm at, and I recordinto my iMac. That is one way.
(08:46):
Like you guys said, you allhave your own ways of doing things.
What do you prefer, do youguys? Kind of like demo stuff
at home and then bring it intothe table later or we have I think
for this record with just the waytechnology is like way more accessible with that
kind of stuff like home studios anddemoing and stuff like that. This record,
Exile and Banishment was definitely one wherewe demoed a lot of things at
(09:11):
home, you know, then likeeither like sent them to each other like
hey, what do you think aboutthis? What do you think about that
kind of thing? Or brought itto practice to like listen to you and
then worked on it from there.So yeah, definitely, Like I said,
with a way technology is going,like writing at homes like super easy,
just setting up there and making alittle notebook or riffs kind of thing,
you know. And it's so easyto where you can literally email or
(09:33):
riff to someone and they're like,what if I did this, and then
it can send it back. There'sguye hards out there that are, you
know, all for the old ways, which no flak on them. Good
for them. They'll probably make amazingstuff that I can't make. But at
the same time it's so easy.I love it. I lovell technologies evolving.
Yeah that's great. But yeah,we've also had times too we're just
at practice and we're like, oh, man, like somebody just brings like
(09:54):
a little portion of a riff andwe just sit there and end up all
coming together and writing a whole song, right, are together based off like
one little concept or idea kind ofthing. So I've told people before there's
no right or wrong way to writeor record. There's just a million ways
to do it. Yeah it comesgreat, then have at it right exactly.
So for the guitar text, theguitar nerds what do you like to
(10:16):
play and why do you like toplay? Right now, I'm playing a
Gifts in Explorer and Classic. Yes, yep, I just use an old
nineties fifty one fifty and then mypedal chain is pretty simple, just a
tube screamer and a boost puddle andnoise suppressor and that's about it, So
simple and easy to yeah, exactly. So what's coming up next for SNAPHO?
(10:43):
You guys just did that little tourand now we have the rest of
twenty twenty three. What's in theworks. So we're working on some Midwest
dates right now that we should beannouncing soon, and then October we got
a couple more Midwest stuff and that'sabout it for now. So we're still
trying to figure out the end ofyear. We really want to get in
the studio this winter and pump outa new album. So he done those
(11:05):
in the works already. Yeah,We've already started started doing some demo and
writing over the summer. So yeah, that's what I like to hear.
No. I always like to kindof wrap things up by asking bands,
is there anything that you would suggestto a new band or band trying to
break through that glass ceiling, Anytips, any tricks for them that you
(11:26):
wouldn't like to share. It's prettysimple this. We have a lot of
younger bands here in Detroit that arestarting to come up, and I always
tell them all the time, youknow, just don't give up, just
keep pushing. You just got tokeep going and see where it takes the
kind of thing. You know,say yes to a lot of things,
and yeah, just try and getout there as much as possible, and
just don't break up. I mean, as long as the band is good
(11:46):
and doing great, I tell theseyoung kids and I just don't break up
and just keep going. You know. That's that's about it. So anything
you want to say to fans aswe wrap things up, yeah, just
thanks for all the support. Youknow, without fans, you know,
this would would be nothing. Youknow. It's like it's incredible all the
support we get from all over thecountry and everybody. So I really appreciate
(12:07):
every little bit of it. Absolutelywell, said Scott. I'm gonna talk
to your talk to you here ina little bit off air. I just
want to say thanks again for hoppingon the podcast. Absolutely man, thanks
for having me, no problem.That's Scott from the band SNAPf Foo.
They got an album out right nowcalled Exile and Banishment. These guys are
heavy, very thrashy. Again Salomonin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania opening up for Pan
(12:28):
Tara and they gained a fan,and I hope that you guys are also
going to become a fan of Snaffoo. Thanks again for checking out this episode
of the podcast. We will seeyou next time.
Here met Hey guys, welcome backto another episode of the podcast. I
(00:27):
love everything rock metal, and Ilove, love, love talking to bands.
It's just something I've been doing foryears and something I will continue to
do until the end of time.Now, today I got another heavy hitter
on the on the show, andthese guys I saw in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
opening up for the Almighty Pan TraI'm very excited to have these guys on
(00:47):
today. We have Scott from SnapFood Scott, how are we doing doing
(01:22):
well? Kevin? Thanks for havingme on, hey man anytime. I
do appreciate you taking a minute,you know, to talk to me.
I am very excited to have youguys on because you gained yourself a fan
from the show, which I'm sureevery band dream of. You know,
That's why they play live to bringin more fans. Right. So I
saw you guys in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So you're Scott. What do you
(01:44):
do in the band? Scott?So I play guitar and d vocals.
Guitar and dow vocals. Okay,very nice. Now when it comes to
everybody else, who always in SNAPfwho and where's everybody from? So we're
all from pretty much around Detroit area. We got Ryan Staybro on guitar,
also does vocals. We have ElToro on bass who also does vocals,
(02:06):
and then we got Mike Drissed onthe drums, so everybody almost does vocals,
which is cool. It keeps everythingnice and diverse. And you guys
have this really cool thrash sound toyou. Why did you guys, you
know, start making music. We'veall been playing music since like our early
teens, and you know we're allmid thirties now, so yeah, i'd
say, like where we got oursound is we kind of like all started
(02:28):
as like punk rockers and got likebetter at our instruments and it just kind
of naturally evolved to thrash metal,I guess from there. And when did
SNAFU officially start? Sough to say. I'm like the only original member because
it started like forever ago, overten years ago with completely different members and
there's just you know, kind ofone member changes at a time sort of
(02:50):
thing. And we'd, like Isaid, we started out as like a
punk band, and you know,each new member's addition kind of added this
different wayer to it now the soundthat we have today. So nothing wrong
with that. So I wanted totalk a minute. Tell us about opening
up for and Tara on those selectdates. Tell me about your experience with
that, tell me everything that everyonewants to know. And it was crazy.
(03:10):
So we're on Phil's label, soHousecore Records, which is how we
got invited out to do the wholething. But it's just it was crazy
for us. We've been like dytouring for over a decade all over the
country. We played you know,basements, we played in somebody's kitchen in
Dallas, Texas. One time,we played you know, five hundred cap
(03:31):
rooms. We played everything, butlike the amphitheaters, it was just like
such a completely different thing for us. It was crazy. No, it
was just it was such a crazyexperience. Like I still feel like I
barely landed back on Earth from it. And it was like two weeks ago
now. So how many days wereyou on that with them? So we
(03:53):
just did three days. We didone that was just outside Pittsburgh there,
then Indianapolis and Milwaukee. So whenit came to walking up and meeting these
guys, what was running through yourmind? I didn't really know what to
think. It was. It waspretty wild, but Yeah, We're just
a real surreal experience and I didn'treally know what to expect, but we
(04:15):
just like clicked and started talking aboutkiss and just all kinds of different funny
stuff. And yeah, I'm wildhilarious. Phil's hilarious, They're all.
They're all we're just like goofing aroundlike pails. You know, did you
guys party or anything backstage with them? Say, I think a lot of
them are all sober. I didn'treally see any of them partying too much.
I know Zach had mentioned he quitdrinking a couple of years ago,
(04:39):
and I heard somewhere that like Philquit drinking a while ago and stuff too,
So yeah, I didn't really Ididn't really like them, right,
Yeah, yeah, absolutely all.We all partied heavy, but you know,
yeah, okay, no problem there. So you said you were on
Phil's label, which, if youdon't know, Philly and Zelmo arounds house
cool records. They've been around forI don't know how many years now,
(05:01):
but a long time. Yeah,they like being on that label. What
can you share about that? Itwas a really cool experience. We didn't
really know we had this record done. We finished it just before the pandemic
and then we're like, great,what do we do with this thing?
Now? Like pandemic hit and wedidn't hadn't released it yet, so we're
like, oh, man, whatdo we do? So we like kind
(05:23):
of sat tight on it for awhile and we're like reaching out to a
lot of different labels and whatnot andfound some smaller ones that we're going to
take us. And then we gotreached out to by housecre and we're like,
yeah, we should definitely. Itseems like a great idea for us,
and they really liked the record,and we're really excited to do it.
So yeah, I would say,you know, it's a really good
(05:44):
pro to open up for Pantera beingon the housecore labels family, So it's
a pretty good pro there. Yeah, absolutely, it was. Yeah.
When we heard that he once wegot the offer to open for them and
saw that he was like bringing outhousecore bands for like different regional dates stuff,
I was just like, man,that's really cool, cooler than to
be Yeah, honestly. Yeah,Now when it came to them reaching out,
(06:06):
was it like a pr agent orwas it Phil himself? It was
actually Phil's wife, Kate. Shedoes a lot of the handling of the
label and stuff. So yeah,she's she's on to reach out. So
yeah, that's super cool. I'mhoping you guys were like a pant Air
fan before our you know, rightright yep. So you were talking about
the twenty twenty one album Exile Banishment, Key, tell me about kind of
(06:29):
what all went into this. Howdid you guys go about writing it,
how'd you go about recording it?Anything at all? So writing it,
we we all actually do a lotof the writing. It's not just like
one person doing all the writing andwhatnot, So we all are constantly bounce
ideas off each other. Sometimes somebodywill write a whole song complete front to
back. Sometimes somebody will just bringlike a riff to the table. Sometimes
(06:53):
I'll write like a whole song andbe like, man, I don't really
know like what to do for vocalwise, Like Ryan, if you want
to like just like do vocals onthis one for the song that I wrote
and stuff. So we're kind ofalways doing that and I think that gives
us like a really kind of different, unique sound and stuff like that.
But as far as recording it goes, we went down to Richmond, Virginia
and tracked the whole record with ourbuddy Landfill and his brother Josh Hall Landfills
(07:16):
from Imanisvuwais and Iron Reagan and bothhim and Josh playing Cannabis Corpse together.
Yeah, so we went down thereand tracked the whole record with them,
and then yeah, we came uphere. We finished vocals with our buddy
Adam, who actually ran front ofhouse for us at those Pantera shows,
and then he did a lot ofmixing, and then we sent it off
to Joel Grind from Toxic Holocaust tohave it mastered. So yeah, I
(07:42):
got a lot of names in that, Yeah, a lot, a lot
of a lot of cool Yeah,a lot of cool people got to work
on it. So we're really happywith the way it came out, too
awesome. So it came out,you guys are happy with it. What
was the initial response? What wasthe initial reception to the album? A
lot of people liked it. Itwas a lot different from our last ones
and definitely a lot harder, heavier, darker. Definitely wrote a lot about
(08:03):
a lot more personal issues rather thanlike societal or political kind of things.
Is like real kind of a personalalbum. I feel like now snap who
it stands for something. I wouldlike you to talk about what that stands
for and why it stands like that. It's an old military acronym that stands
for a situation normal, all fuckedup. Nice. Yeah. I found
(08:26):
that out not too long ago,which was cool. I was like,
hey, stands for something, soreception reception was great? What kind of
I talked to bands all the time, and there's all kinds of different ways
to go about writing and recording me. For example, I sit here exactly
where I'm at, and I recordinto my iMac. That is one way.
(08:46):
Like you guys said, you allhave your own ways of doing things.
What do you prefer, do youguys? Kind of like demo stuff
at home and then bring it intothe table later or we have I think
for this record with just the waytechnology is like way more accessible with that
kind of stuff like home studios anddemoing and stuff like that. This record,
Exile and Banishment was definitely one wherewe demoed a lot of things at
(09:11):
home, you know, then likeeither like sent them to each other like
hey, what do you think aboutthis? What do you think about that
kind of thing? Or brought itto practice to like listen to you and
then worked on it from there.So yeah, definitely, Like I said,
with a way technology is going,like writing at homes like super easy,
just setting up there and making alittle notebook or riffs kind of thing,
you know. And it's so easyto where you can literally email or
(09:33):
riff to someone and they're like,what if I did this, and then
it can send it back. There'sguye hards out there that are, you
know, all for the old ways, which no flak on them. Good
for them. They'll probably make amazingstuff that I can't make. But at
the same time it's so easy.I love it. I lovell technologies evolving.
Yeah that's great. But yeah,we've also had times too we're just
at practice and we're like, oh, man, like somebody just brings like
(09:54):
a little portion of a riff andwe just sit there and end up all
coming together and writing a whole song, right, are together based off like
one little concept or idea kind ofthing. So I've told people before there's
no right or wrong way to writeor record. There's just a million ways
to do it. Yeah it comesgreat, then have at it right exactly.
So for the guitar text, theguitar nerds what do you like to
(10:16):
play and why do you like toplay? Right now, I'm playing a
Gifts in Explorer and Classic. Yes, yep, I just use an old
nineties fifty one fifty and then mypedal chain is pretty simple, just a
tube screamer and a boost puddle andnoise suppressor and that's about it, So
simple and easy to yeah, exactly. So what's coming up next for SNAPHO?
(10:43):
You guys just did that little tourand now we have the rest of
twenty twenty three. What's in theworks. So we're working on some Midwest
dates right now that we should beannouncing soon, and then October we got
a couple more Midwest stuff and that'sabout it for now. So we're still
trying to figure out the end ofyear. We really want to get in
the studio this winter and pump outa new album. So he done those
(11:05):
in the works already. Yeah,We've already started started doing some demo and
writing over the summer. So yeah, that's what I like to hear.
No. I always like to kindof wrap things up by asking bands,
is there anything that you would suggestto a new band or band trying to
break through that glass ceiling, Anytips, any tricks for them that you
(11:26):
wouldn't like to share. It's prettysimple this. We have a lot of
younger bands here in Detroit that arestarting to come up, and I always
tell them all the time, youknow, just don't give up, just
keep pushing. You just got tokeep going and see where it takes the
kind of thing. You know,say yes to a lot of things,
and yeah, just try and getout there as much as possible, and
just don't break up. I mean, as long as the band is good
(11:46):
and doing great, I tell theseyoung kids and I just don't break up
and just keep going. You know. That's that's about it. So anything
you want to say to fans aswe wrap things up, yeah, just
thanks for all the support. Youknow, without fans, you know,
this would would be nothing. Youknow. It's like it's incredible all the
support we get from all over thecountry and everybody. So I really appreciate
(12:07):
every little bit of it. Absolutelywell, said Scott. I'm gonna talk
to your talk to you here ina little bit off air. I just
want to say thanks again for hoppingon the podcast. Absolutely man, thanks
for having me, no problem.That's Scott from the band SNAPf Foo.
They got an album out right nowcalled Exile and Banishment. These guys are
heavy, very thrashy. Again Salomonin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania opening up for Pan
(12:28):
Tara and they gained a fan,and I hope that you guys are also
going to become a fan of Snaffoo. Thanks again for checking out this episode
of the podcast. We will seeyou next time.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.