Name: Snazzback
Members: Dave Sanders (Alto Saxophone), Alfie Grieve (Trumpet), Hal Sutherland (Keys & Synth), Eli Jitsuto (Guitar), Will Scott-Harley (Bass), Chris Langton (Drums) and Myke Vince (Percussion)
Interviewees:  Dave Sanders, Chris Langton
Nationality: British
Current release: Snazzback's Ruins Everything is out via Worms Discs.

If you enjoyed this Snazzback interview and would like find out more about the band, visit them on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Chris: We tend to write instrumentally most of the time. So our work is built in a sculptural way in the sense that we don't start out with an idea, we work with abstract forms until they feel complete.

Politics, art, relationships all affect our music a lot but we never try to explicitly express anything with our work.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Chris: We are working more with concepts as we progress, such as our new album Ruins Everything. The title served as a reference point when asking ourselves about some decisions we had to make.

We have found that having a concept can create a frame for our music and as a largely instrumental band, having something to associate ourselves with can help us to focus our ideas and for our audience to get a feel for what we are making.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

Chris: Rather than research, the development process is usually rooted in the conversations and ideas that form while we are playing our previous tour material. We will collectively discuss where we are moving towards and try to aim in that direction moving forwards.

It's not a precise method but it's always a collective one.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Dave: Since the early days of the band we have rehearsed and written in the same space. It is a little rough around the edges but there is something grounding about being in the same space and engaging in the rituals that surround that.

Putting the coffee on, the group walk to the corner shop, basking in the patch of sun when summer comes are all small rituals for us.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Dave: It can vary quite wildly. On a track like “Stoke’s Croft Sleep Clinic” the idea was quite formed before it was brought to the group. It’s a track inspired by a particularly strange and surreal area of Bristol and the seed of the idea formed very quickly.

In contrast, something like “Gherkin” was more slowly crafted from the ground up, piece by piece.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

Dave: For Ruins Everything we spent alot of time playing the music at our studio and listening back over the course of weeks and months. Trying to tweak and bend the music to better fit our intention. Taking out layers, adding bars or scrapping things entirely and then revisiting it next week and so on and so on.

Sometimes whole pieces are born from a snippet of a rehearsal recording and expanded upon into something entirely different. “Laoshu” was born from 32 bars from a sunny session by the river that grew organically over time.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Dave: That is quite personal to every individual writer. For me each piece has an intention behind it or that it is trying to portray, however abstract that might be.

It is our job to explore and develop that authentically.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Dave: The nature of this project is highly collaborative and as such new ideas and alternative roads present themselves constantly. The fundamental core of a tune or an idea is often shifted and recontextualised by the input of another member and the whole thing is sent down a new road.

This is an exciting and invigorating way to write but for me the challenge with this lies in where to draw the line. When is something finished if it can be continuously reimagined?

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Dave: I think you would get seven different answers from this group.

For me personally I would describe the creative state as wordless communication. Trying to grasp and communicate abstract ideas to the audience and your bandmates. It is learning a new language that is always changing moment to moment and trying to share that as best you can.

In terms of spirituality, that isn’t something we share as a collective but personally I can say that the creative state it is when I feel the most free and in touch with what it is to be alive.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

Dave: A wise friend of mine told me that art is a representation of the ‘you’ that made it in that moment. Like a diary entry of that time of your life, or that feeling.

A work is done when it communicates whatever that is, and we as artists have to resist the temptation to always come back to something that was an honest representation of a past moment and mold it to what we feel now. We should instead try and create something new that does that. That’s when I think the process is over, when we sense we are trying to bend the thing into a space that doesn’t fit.

Practical time pressures are a blessing for this in some ways, a deadline will force you to finish.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

Dave: I think, similar to my previous answer, there is a temptation to not let things lie.

Within Snazzback we do refine our ideas alot through a long process of recording and re-recording and editing ideas. Some works like “Stoke’s Croft Sleep Clinic” have taken numerous forms throughout the years until they eventually settled into the shape it has now.

But I think we know as a group when something is finished, sometimes that takes a couple of failed attempts to refine it and reflection on whether the changes actually achieved their goal or just clouded the intention of the work.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Chris: This plays a huge part in how the music is received and understood. So many preconceptions are based on the sound world and we are constantly trying to improve our process of production so we can capture what we find exciting.

We like to be part of the whole process, but it definitely gets to a point where we have to trust the ears of individuals to let the process move forwards. Sometimes 7 brains isn't better than one.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Dave: I think we can relate to that for sure, but for us its often a feeling of relief after a very intense process.

We often enjoy a brief time of rest before diving into whatever is next for us, whether that is touring or the next record.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Dave: Yes and no. There is beauty in so many things in life and so many opportunities to be creative even in the everyday that the line is quite blurred.

Music and art are an opportunity to communicate and refine abstract ideas that perhaps you wouldn’t be able to do with something like cooking or making a fine cup of coffee. But those things can be exciting and fulfilling in their own ways.