THE SNUTS: WE LOST FRIENDS TO DRUGS
BAND JOIN SCHOOL PAL CAPALDI TO INSPIRE TEENS AT RISK
HE SNUTS might be on the brink of following their good pal Lewis Capaldi to the top of the charts, but behind their success is a dark t tale of drug abuse. The indie rockers’ debut album W.L. is poised to beat Demi Lovato to No.1, but the record holds painful teen memories of pals lost to the drug culture gripping small Scottish towns.
Frontman Jack Cochrane told Guilty Pleasures: ‘This album has been crafted throughout a whole lifetime. There are songs on there that were written when we were 14 or 15 years old. It’s telling that story of growing up and touching on the social inequalities around you.’
Jack, 25, said it specifically refers to the UK’s drug ‘epidemic’, adding: ‘How it affects mental health, these are things people aren’t hearing about a lot.’
Coming from West Lothian, he feels it is hard for anyone in the area to emerge unscathed. ‘We are from small working-class towns which have been negatively impacted by those themes,’ Jack added. ‘Everybody we know has been affected one way or the other. We grew up in a big group of friends. We have lost friends to drugs. Friends drifted away down the wrong path.
‘As much as you and your friends try, it was not having a solid family foundation and support group there. A lot of people have not been able to come back from that.’ Jack and his bandmates Callum Wilson, Joe
McGillveray and Jordan Mackay hope to join school mate Lewis Capaldi in inspiring other teens to escape the clutches of the local scene.
‘I know Lewis really well, it’s good to inspire the next generation,’ he said. ‘We look at Lewis’s success and see how that is working for him first-hand. How hard he works. It’s a huge motivation for us and we hope we can have that huge effect on other musicians. ‘There’s a bond we’ve always shared. He’s watching this chart battle closely, giving advice when he can.’ The Snuts, plugging their album with a photoshopped image of Jack as Mel Gibson in Braveheart, say they have shaken the dangers of their own hedonism. ‘In our younger days we were pretty wild,’ they added. ‘We realised pretty quickly that in today’s landscape that doesn’t go too well and you do have to put the work in.’