Snuff Redux

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week, we are featuring local artists performing during the 2015 Capitol Hill Block Party. Today’s song is “Disintegrate the Days” by Snuff Redux from the 2015 self-released Toy Kingdom EP.

Snuff Redux is the anthemic indie rock project started Seattle musicians Skyler Ford and Daniel Chesney. After a constant tour cycle in which they honed their skills and songs, the group dropped their debut offering, Toy Kingdom, to the awaiting masses and critical review. It has a cheerful coherence, as each song’s mood fits comfortably with every other, clearly contrived for our listening pleasure. Melodic, inventive, crammed with musical delights, today’s featured song, “Disintegrate the Days”, treats the ears and challenges the imagination with its vintage virtues. As the perfect entry into the the Snuff Redux world, this track is coated in jangled rhythms, heartfelt lyrics and a guitar melody so catchy even the band can’t help but hum along with it. - KEXP

Later, the warm, swaying night played host to the fantastic, furious Snuff Redux, local kids with a penchant for Superchunk and a love of all things London which made me laugh as we spoke after their glorious, teenage dream of a set. The vision of Seattle I had as a teenager played out for me in person that evening and as that smiling, beer-spilling moshpit filled the residential road it was as close to a perfect moment as one could ever wish for. And I'm still in love. - Michael James Hall

Snuff Redux has burst on the scene, wooing the hearts of KEXP DJs, with their EP, Toy Kingdom. Comprised of Daniel Chesney (bass), Dylan Arlick (guitar), Alex Paulino (drums) and Ford (guitar, vocals), this young, fresh-faced four-piece seems ready to take on the world. KEXP caught up the group to talk about living together, making music and angry neighbors.

What can you tell me about “Boy” and “Girl” Haus?

Boy house is where Skyler and Daniel currently live in Ravenna, girl house is our friend’s house in Montlake. We walk through each other’s doors frequently.

Give me a window in – is there lots of music, drawing, TV watching? What happens?

Besides 80s music (Tears For Fears, Talking Heads, Stevie Nicks) blasting at all unholy hours, we have had to keep most music volumes to the dullest roar, we live super close to our neighbors. We got through 20 seconds of a song when we moved in before the neighbor was punching the door until his hand bled. We have a practice space so that’s where the noise happens!

The past month has seen long nights, drinking two or four bottles of red wine, a handful of spliffs and the cast of familiar faces we call our friends. We laugh sputter smoke and giggle and probably don’t sleep enough. Daniel is the serious painter of the crew, he is always meddling with his oil paints. We don’t have cable but we have been playing NFL Blitz on Nintendo64 a lot.

Sounds like beautiful youth at its best! What’s the plan with more music: playing, recording, rehearsing?

Daniel is working with this noise collective amongst the post UW experimental arts scene, and through that, we found out his buddy has converted this bunker under Mars Bar into a recording studio, which we plan on hitting ASAP. We have five more songs ready to go, just gotta record. We wanna make another video too. We are gonna have practice today at Crybaby studios, we are playing the Girl Haus house show then playing at the Josephine in Ballard on Saturday.

When you get together, how does practice proceed? What sorts of conversations do you have leading up to making music?

Up until November, we didn’t know who our drummer was. It was a flip-flop situation throughout the fall, having shows booked and finishing the record, etc. We had our buddy subbing on drums until I met Alex after the Death From Above show. From there, we have just worked hard to get the old songs done and sounding sweet, but Daniel and I have been messing with new songs, there are like 6 new ones so it’s cool to have a set where we can say we would like to play this song or skip it.

With that, we have been all just getting comfortable in our present situation together because our vibe works well. We get off work and set up, light a spliff and be on our way. If we need to go over a flubbed song, Alex likes to say “Hit it and quit it” so we are always getting better.

If you could compare the band to one famous group – fictional, real, cartoon, superhero, whatever – who would you be?

We are often compared to The Warriors [1979 cult action thriller], though instead of the violence and switchblades we are just running around the city sippin’ Gatorade and hanging out with our goons, it’s all good fun. - KEXP

Introducing Seattle’s Snuff Redux.

Blaring from the garages, and makeshift DIY venues of Seattle, we just got hipped to Snuff Redux, and their passion fueled fury that is littered across their Toy Kingdom EP. The cobwebs and rafters are brought down with “Crust”, with “E-Drone” sending a roaming spirit from within the multi-propellor machine, as “Disintegrate the Days” unleashes what is pure candy, lending the herky-jerky gentle jive of, “Tell Me Twice”, storming emotions and fist pumping convictions on, “Classic”, leaving you with the desperado drifting shambles-shaker, “Cowboy”. During the week’s press storm, we were able to get a hold of frontman Skyler Ford for a unique look at this Seattle group.



How did Snuff Redux come to be?

Snuff started out of a stagnation in mind and sound in October of 2013. Daniel and I had lived together with some friends and had a great house where there was tons of music and fresh creation, but we eventually got booted by our tyrannic neighbor/landlord. After the boot, I moved to Bellingham for about a month, but with no job market in the college town, I moved back with my dad. Daniel and I started jamming in his basement, and eventually we got this itch, this itch to put our feet in something wet and new that we hadn’t touched. We needed a drummer, so we hit up this guy Adam who I’ve known for awhile. He and I jammed two years prior, so, the dude with the drumset is the drummer. We went right to it after that, seriously the day after we said we were going to start a band and “practiced” every morning (9 AM-2 PM) every weekday. We had a strict diet of coffee, spliffs, Fireball and microwavable taquitos. Everything moved fast.

What is the current indie climate in Seattle, and how do you feel it has impacted SR?

As a 22 year old who has been a part of the DIY scene for the past six or seven years, I have seen a lot of change in the music community. For all of the movers and changers in this city, and there are too many great people to list (but they know who they are), there have been setbacks. Crucial DIY places have been sucked dry by steady gentrification, the rent is rising and I think that has hurt things. No doubt people have been inspiring and inspired, but the balance between people running house shows/art spaces and the opportunity to share art with friends and new faces has been a little splintered as of late. There are still a few great houses and many, many musical forces that continue to make waves in this city, and we appreciate all of their individual impacts because it keeps us inspired to make stuff too.

With these redevelopments and splintering of the DIY communities, what has been both the challenge and struggle of keeping these indie communities thriving beyond the dedicated clandestine, designated houses, spaces, etc?

Even though the past few years have seen change, the overall mindset with keeping our culture thriving is that there isn’t a struggle as much as some bubbling desire to keep things alive and well, which I think has never died down since I’ve been going to shows. You get back what you put in, so playing shows when and wherever we can is the drive. And in one year I think we have accomplished a lot, playing some of the bigger clubs and stuff recently, it’s stuff I dreamed about and now it’s happening for us. Everyone is moving at a comfortable pace.

Give us the nitty-gritty on how Toy Kingdom came into being.

Toy Kingdom is essentially the first batch of songs we made, give or take a few songs. They were made in those early morning sessions, where we came together and bashed stuff together. The recording of it took a really long time, but it was worth it. We wanted to make songs that were straightforward but with something fresh to bring to the big table.

Give us a taste of what else you guys got in store for us.

We plan to record the next batch in the next couple of weeks, we are working with some cool dudes who are putting a studio together. The intention for this next release is to work a little faster but stay thorough and clean, even when it’s dirty sounding. We want to introduce some new textures and dive into production in a different way, but I think we have sat on these and played them enough that we can blast them out and have it be something cool. It will work as a vague b-side to Toy Kingdom, but also with new sounds and textures maybe a small glimpse into what is even further down the road for us.

Thoughts and conceptual design works you can share about what might result from some of these new recordings?

So I guess with this next release, we would like to show the other hemisphere of the Snuff brain. We are always talking about what’s next, but we haven’t had enough time to be in the present really since Alex our new drummer has been with us. This next release, which is called, Besides You? will be the scraps of a demolished Toy Kingdom, all of the pieces scattered and ready to be picked up again.

The part about us thinking ahead is where the real answer is…and that we are in the first stages of the full length. It’s called Denim American and is a loose concept album about the struggles of youth and people in this city, struggles of paying rent and fearing getting pushed out of your own environment. People talk about something called ‘the Seattle chill,’ and I think what we want to do is fight against it. Everyone is cut throat about making it in this town but they forget they need their friends, their brothers and sisters, and the people they don’t even see to get to where they want to go. We want to take everyone with us, even if we don’t know where we are going.

Other Seattle artists that are off the radar but everyone needs to be listening to right now.

I dont know what the radar looks like, but if I was to say whose music I enjoyed recently, I would say:

So Pitted; The future of Seattle guitar rock. Mostly enough said. They are the loudest and best people ever.

youryoungbody; cold and brooding dance music, like Kate Bush plus Ghosts and Duran duran.

Great Spiders; sick melodic Americana vibes with beer swilling shred, always fun times

Lakefight; manic carnival emo scream goodness.

Whitney Ballen; a most original voice who can make a man cry with her words. Believe it. - Impose Magazine

Snuff Redux offered a slew of fun power pop songs – their set had the cohesively hashed-together feel of a slew of songs. That guitarist did some cool things with an analog delay while the bassist laid down the dub. It was a groovin time straight out the Peavey. - whatsup-magazine.com

Seattle newcomer indie rock act Snuff Redux kept spirits high inside Neumos as the afternoon rolled on. The band dropped their debut EP Toy Kingdom back in January to much local acclaim. Shortly after, the band embarked on their first major tour ever, an 18 date west coast and pacific inland tour showing off the EP and getting their feet underneath them. This Capitol Hill Block Party appearance marks their first ever for the festival, and the hard work they’ve put in on the road and at local dates in the last three months sure shows. Snuff Redux look like they’ve been doing this stuff with this lineup for years. Lead single “Disintegrate The Days” lit Neumos up like fireworks. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing these dudes again quite soon. - KEXP Blog