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SNAPCASE
- Believe The Hype
By Paul Silbiger
With all that hype surrounding the Y2K bug, you may have forgotten
about the other great hype for the year 2000 -- it's Snapcase's
new album, Designs For Automotion. Ranked one of the 25 most anticipated
albums for 2000 by Alternative Press, Buffalo's Snapcase have garnered
a lot of attention lately, especially for a band on an independent
record label. Unlike the Y2K bug, this release lives up to expectations.
I talked with Snapcase's overworked vocalist Daryl Taberski about
the perils of high expectations...and which mountain his band hopes
to climb next.
Begins Daryl, "Other people's expectations were on our minds
when we were getting ready for this recording. But we had a little
more material written for this album than we ever had before, so
we cut two or three songs. On our part, plans to promote this new
record are to keep doing interviews and go out on the road to play
shows. We'd done a promotional tour by going out prior to the release
and letting people know when the release date is. Once it comes
out we're going to hit the road again and cover a lot of territory.
Right now we have a lot of headlining shows booked with a fairly
diverse group: Buried Alive, Saves The Day and Anti-Flag. We're
also really interested in going out on the Warped tour this summer,
so hopefully that'll work out for us."
Snapcase's '97 release Progression Through Unlearning is Victory
Records' top-selling album worldwide. It gained them more attention
than they'd ever thought possible, so coming up with a follow-up
release that will hopefully amaze people all over again has got
to be difficult. Despite prior success, Daryl tells me they decided
to progress beyond the sound achieved on Progression.... "I
think this record definitely stands on its own. Though it sounds
like Snapcase, at the same time we haven't repeated ourselves and
so we were able to make a record that sounds better and more interesting
than any of our other releases. It still sounds like Snapcase, but
there's more diversity. On the last record, from start to finish
there was a relentless momentum going for it. This new one has a
lot more changes in intensity, more breakdowns and more melody.
None of this is deliberate, it's just the way the songs have turned
out. There are some songs that you can tell we had different influences.
We don't like when bands repeat themselves on albums; we like to
hear progression and change."
Snapcase's sound, characterized by high-energy rhythms, stop-and-
start riffing and yelled vocals is unique. There is no other band
out there quite like them, which led me to ask how the Snapcase
sound evolved. "Our sound just evolved from listening to a
lot of different bands and touring with bands and hearing stuff
that we all liked collectively. There are certain bands that we
all like: Helmet was one of them, plus Tar, Refused, Sick Of It
All, Fugazi...there were a lot of different influences. We're always
careful to take influences but address them in a way that we still
sound like Snapcase because we have our own sound."
Asking if they're happy being viewed as a hardcore act, Daryl responds,
"We get all kinds of different comparisons, but being categorized
is one thing we're not concerned about. We'd rather not be categorized
because the music speaks for itself and we're not trying to sound
like any type of band or any genre of music. We come from the hardcore
scene and we owe a lot to the scene, and that's where we've been
able to grow and progress. But at the same time we're not limiting
ourselves just to those bands. We're here to play for whoever wants
to listen."
Obviously a lot of Snapcase's success rides on how well Progression...
was received. But a solid release is never enough for a band to
catch on overall. There's lots of great music out there that most
people never hear because they just don't get exposure to these
different bands. That's why touring is so important, a point Daryl
helps to emphasize. "Without a doubt the best thing for any
band is to get on the road and keep playing shows and play as many
different types of shows as they can. Go out headlining one, go
out and support bands the next time, and play with different kinds
of bands to expose yourself to different people and get you into
different venues. The way to keep it fresh is to change it around.
Live, we try to bond and connect with the crowd and have fun. It's
aggressive music, but we really want to stress having fun and having
a good time. Hopefully people are going to leave the show as sweaty
as we are."
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