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The Snips are no longer just the soundtrack of bored angsty Welland youth. In fact, 2010 marks the band’s 11th anniversary. In a couple of years they can celebrate their teenage years all over again. Not only are the members branching out, but they’re also making friends and gaining fans south of the border. Within the last year, The Snips gained the attention of Vinnie Fiorello (Less Than Jake) and he signed them to his new American label Paper + Plastick. Last July, the Snips released a two–song 7–inch with friends and labelmates The Flatliners and soon the band will be re–releasing last year’s Blackouts for the US label. “We’ve been working on a new record for a while,” explains the band’s trombonist and guitar player Chris Accursi. “We’re going to focus on the full–length in the next year. We’ve moved from seven to six and now to five. The other guitar player in the band – we had three – he’s out [of the band] now. There’s no bad blood or anything; we’re just a five piece. We’re taking on a new shape as The Snips.”
Earlier this summer, The Snips played both Toronto and Montreal dates on the Vans Warped Tour. The band played on the Kevin Says Stage, another big step for the evolution of the Welland quintet. “This was our fourth or fifth time playing – the first time we ever played Warped we won some battle of the bands online through Ernie Ball. Since then we were on the Stomp and Union stage, which was a bit bigger. Now this year, we’re not with that label anymore; we played the Kevin Says Stage. In Canada, it’s known as the West 49 stage. It’s not the mainstage, but it will do,” remarks Accursi.
The band is also evolving in terms of sharing their live sets with American crowds. The Snips played a handful of successful dates in March at Ratfest in Florida and at Harvest of Hope in North Carolina in May. The plan is to hit Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Minneapolis in the fall.
Not only will they be enjoying themselves down there, but they’re also doing it legitimately, not necessarily how they’ve done it in the past. “We had done a couple dates illegitimately – over the last couple years we never had our visas,” notes Accursi. “We’d make a fake invoice saying were playing at someone’s home studio for a couple days.”
But now that the band has their visas, they’re taking advantage of American geography, and being signed to an US label can’t hurt either. “You get a little nervous playing in a different country. For us it’s been all positive, which makes us want to keep doing it. That’s why this band still exists. It’s not like we’ve plateaued. The Snips have been a band since 1999 and we’re still this DIY band. Our music now has more hills and valleys than straight through, punch–you–in–the–face. We’ve matured as people and as musicians. We’re trying to get our music out to as many people as possible and try to tour and do what we’ve been doing. But we can’t tour too much or else our girlfriends get mad at us.”
Another reason for the band’s success is the way they’ve embraced online culture. Sure, every band has a website and Myspace, but The Snips, together with their pal Brent Kore (pkproductions.ca) have created a handful of viral videos to show the band’s outlandish side. The Jam features the band responding to text messages they receive from fans, friends and even enemies of Barty. On the fifth episode, lead singer Ricky Pridmore does his best impression of The Silence of the Lambs’ Buffalo Bill which had me in stitches. “It’s so accessible to communicate with people that are into us. Brent Kore did all those blogs with us. He’s on the road with us all the time,” says Accursi. “We have an archive of videos that we’ll eventually turn into a sweet DVD. If we weren’t as lazy we’d have more videos. People always say ‘That was hilarious,’ even if the video isn’t supposed to be hilarious. But even if people didn’t like the videos we’d probably do them anyways.”
The River Road Rager takes place this Saturday in Welland. Doors are $10. And to those who don’t know exactly what a rager is, Chris does his best to explain: “You just go out and get liquoured up – well, you don’t exactly have to get liquored up. Its a new term these days the kids are throwing around. I guess it must be a Welland thing. V
THE SNIPS
w/The Flatliners, Street Pharmacy, Murder Thy Maker, Black Majik Movement
@ Club Richelieu.
565 River Rd.Welland.
July 31, 6pm.
myspace.com/thesnipsmusic
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