‘It’s good to be pushed out of your comfort zone’
The Snuts frontman Jack Cochrane talks to Alex Green about his band’s big dreams
WHEN Jack Cochrane zooms into our video call from his home in Glasgow he looks a little hurried, understandable given he is in the middle of promoting his band’s debut album.
“All good mate,” he replies when asked how he is. “One hundred miles an hour.”
The Snuts, from the small town of Whitburn in West Lothian, Scotland, are releasing their album, titled WL, after more than a decade spent building a devoted fanbase through heavy touring and a series of riotous singles.
Frontman Cochrane (26) says the album is his band’s “life’s work” and, while that may initially sound absurd given their respective ages, he is at least partly correct.
He tells me the other three members — guitarist Joe Mcgillveray, bass player Callum Wilson and drummer Jordan “Joko” Mackay — met when they were about three and he joined the crew aged 10.
Their familiarity is their strength, he explains.
“A lot of the songwriting comes to me on my own.
“I’ll bring it to the guys and depending on how they feel about the song dictates whether it goes further.
“If they are praising it I will say ‘Let’s do this’. If I get a few mumbles you will never hear of it again.”
The album’s title does not refer to West Lothian.
In fact, it refers to Whitburn Loopy — “the trouble-makers and the youths” from their hometown (a social group The Snuts happily place themselves in).
Cochrane and co spent their teenage years playing the pubs of Whitburn before being thrown out of them for being underage.
“Growing up around here, there is a huge grassroots indie scene. Everybody was copying the popular band at the time.
“Going to Glasgow was something we were obsessed with doing, see all the big bands, all the touring bands.
“It’s making that jump to the city. It made an impact on us.”
The Snuts’ burgeoning success has already allowed them to meet some of their heroes, playing a series of socially distanced gigs with The Libertines, including one Pete Doherty, last summer.
“That’s another sentence I thought I would never say,” he laughs. “You always hear, ‘Don’t meet your heroes’ but they were like our ultimate heroes growing up and they were absolute gentlemen.”
Earlier this year Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine ruffled feathers when he asked in an interview, “Where have all the bands gone?”
But on the flip side, one could question whether the world needs more four-piece rock groups after the glut of the 2000s.
Cochrane has his answer: innovation.
“There’s no room for people to be regurgitating that same indie music,” he replies.
“That’s a way to ask for that criticism by just playing that same type of music.
“I actually welcome that criticism,” he adds, defiantly.
“It’s good for bands to be pushed out of their comfort zone by someone putting brackets around you, saying ‘Guitar music is dead’. On this record you can certainly hear that we tried to push those boundaries in certain places.”
Like chart-topping Stockport natives Blossoms, The Snuts are an indie band for the streaming generation, both in terms of form and function.
Their album’s 13 songs jump all over the place, from anthemic rock to garage punk and straight pop, in the manner of a Spotify playlist.
You could play the album in any order and it would still make sense.
Cochrane is not surprised by the comparison.
“It’s something that came organically,” he concurs.
“You have got to make music with the times.”