Interview: S.N.A.F.U. "Our Drummer Is Actually An Amazing Guitar Player"

S.N.A.F.U.

There are a lot of bands in this world that straddle genres.

Many others completely defy convention.

S.N.A.F.U. is a bit more like the latter. In a former life they were a punk band. As they continued to playing and playing together, the band became something more than that. Looking back at old school thrash metal, the obvious choice would be to point at Metallica or Slayer.

Those two acts epitomized the fusion of punk and metal creating thrash, but S.N.A.F.U., isn't much like them either, though their genesis was strikingly similar.

When they were in the friendly confines of the lounge at Fubar, we talked the state of the world over a Rolling Rock Pint. Also, S.N.A.F.U. played at FUBAR...get it?

Glacially Musical: So, how are you guys doing today?

S.N.A.F.U: We're good.  A little tired. It's been a long drive.

GM: Where's the tour taking you next?

SN: Tomorrow we're in Omaha, NE.

GM: How's the tour been going?

SN: Surprisingly well. We got off to a rocky start with some van issues and stuff. (We) had to cancel our first show in Boston. Scrambling around all day trying to figure out how we were going to get around.

We ended up biting the bullet and renting a van. It's a little bit extra overhead that we didn't really expect. Other than that, it's been really amazing.

GM: How are the crowds treating you guys?

SN: Really well. Last night was just like one of the best responses we've gotten from a crowd in a really long time. Everybody seemed really impressed.

Cincinnati went off pretty well too. Crowd surfing and jumping off the booths and shit.

GM: You guys are kind of new...

SN: We've been around for like four or five years, but not hitting to hard at the start...

GM: It's a lot harder to break these days. Are you getting crowds based on your name or the club?

SN: It's getting more and more on our name as we've been touring the past several years.

GM: How much touring are you doing right now?

SN: This is our third tour this year, so trying to do as much as possible, slinging with our jobs back home and stuff.

GM: That's something I hear a lot more than I would like, getting on tour around the job.

SN: I'm actually kind of working right now on a call center right now. So I take calls while we're cruising down the road and stuff.

GM: Your music is a bit different, it's a bit like original thrash, imprecise and angry. Where does that come from?

SN: It's the product of four different songwriters all liking different stuff meshing it together...

GM: Wait. You let the drummer write songs?

SN: Yes we do, but our drummer is actually an amazing guitar player.

When we lost our last drummer, we asked Ryan to be our drummer and he was like, I always wanted to be in your band, that's not the instrument of choice, but I'll do it. <laughs>

I'd say our sound comes from a lot of different things. We all got involved with punk rock music.

It always evolves into metal.

GM: How do you make that transition?

SN: It's liking it all, man. I like the fast shit no matter what it is. I don't know how it happens, it just does.

I liked punk rock growing up as a musician because it was so accessible. Just playing four chords and just fucking yell, but you start growing as a musician and you get into thrash and stuff.

GM: What do you think about sub-genres?

SN: I kind of hate sub-genres.

It's fucking confusing.

It's like that Billy Joel song, it's still rock'n'roll to me.

GM: What do you do to calm down after a show?

SN: I seriously throw up after ever set.

I go sit outside, pound three cigarettes and don't talk to anybody for a bit.

Yeah, I like to decompress.

GM: How do you handle saying hi to the people and trying to be alone?

SN: I'll go sit and the van for a little bit and then come back in.

We're not trying to be anti-social, but we gotta get the sweat off a little bit.

Yeah, get the puke outta my beard!

GM: Besides music, what are you guys into?

SN: Well, we're all from Michigan and we were all on a beer league hockey team. It's supposed to be a friendly no contact league, but the refs spent most of the time on penalties and breaking up fights...then having to see who was getting suspended.

That's what we used to do.

Yes, we all love hockey.

Definitely go to a lot of Detroit Red Wings games...a handful a year.

GM: My family and are big Blues fans and we take in some games every year.

SN: It would be nice to see the Blues take a Cup wouldn't it? It was pretty close last year.

GM: Let's not talk about that.........

(NOTE: This interview was conducted with both guitarists of S.N.A.F.U., more often than not, their answers are here for both questions, but I didn't get their names before their answers, so I hope you hear both voices like I did!)