Ian: Introduce yourselves.
Mark: Mark Johnson (lead vocals/guitar), Marty Dodson (drums), Eric Clausen (lead guitar/vocals), Matt Lynch (bass).
Ian: How would you describe the Snail sound to the un-initiated?
Mark: Generally speaking, we`re a hard rock band. More specifically, we`re a stoner/doom/psychedelic/proto-metal band. I`d say we try to sound as heavy as possible using elements of early metal bands. We also like to add sweet melodies over really heavy tunes; we like the contrast.
Ian: Do you find the term stoner rock limiting, inaccurate, or just plain offensive? Do you consider Snail a stoner band?
Mark: Yes we consider Snail a stoner band, and we`re proud of it. When we got together in the early 90`s stoner rock was just emerging as a style… and although the scene has been through a lot I love how it has evolved. The current stoner rock scene reminds me of the punk scene of the early 80`s… rich with tons of great bands yet not sold out. Plus there`s some really fucked-up heavy shit out there to listen to.
Ian: There seems to be a lot of convergence between punk/hardcore and stoner rock, lots of bands such as Solace and individuals such as Lee Dorian (Napalm Death/Cathedral/Rise Above Records honcho) have moved from punk into stoner; why does this seem like such a natural progression given the two scenes would appear to be diametrically opposed?
Mark: I think the heaviness and artistic integrity were what appealed me, as well as the fact that stoner rock is a platform for more musical creativity than punk and hardcore. I mean, I love screaming and growling vocals but you lose a lot of melody and thus are limited. I`ve been in a couple of hardcore metal bands – The Crucified and Blessing the Hogs. It`s awesome to write and perform that style but I think its more about power and aggression than subtlety and depth. With stoner rock, you get both; incredible heaviness as well as catchy tunes. The fact that stoner rock is still fairly underground is appealing as well.
Ian: Black Sabbath are always touted as an influence in this style of rock but you guys have cited the Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine too; how do those bands influence the Snail sound? Or do they play more of a part in the song writing itself?
Mark: As far as the Velvet Underground, they influence our mellow tunes like "Relief" on the new album. The Velvets had a way of taking fucked up subject matter and applying it to a happy tune… I love that. So with "Relief," for instance, that tune is about dropping out of society, and the relief that a drug dealer brings when he visits. That`s an experience I had… I quit working and sort of dropped out of society for a few months and practically ended up homeless. It was a tough time so the only good thing that would happen was when my dealer and I would hook up for some weed. So like the VU, I thought it would be perfect to write about the experience and contrast it with “happy” 60’s sounding mellow tune. As far as My Bloody Valentine, I`d say they influence my singing. I just love the idea of soft atmospheric vocals over heavy or loud music.
Ian: One of the things that stands out about Snail to me is the vocals. Rather than the usual snarly/gravel gargling that seems to accompany a lot of newer stoner/doom bands you actual sing, at times there is even a Cobain-esque quality to your voice?
Mark: Thank you, that`s very flattering. Kurt Cobain had a great voice and he was an influence on my singing when Bleach came out. I guess that influence stuck with me. Personally I feel that vocals and melody are the parts of a tune that touch your soul, so to speak. I really love vocals that sit like another instrument in the mix… really soft whispery atmospheric vocals like My Bloody Valentine. They (MBV) had this wall of noise pouring out live and then these soft vocals layered inside. I love that sound. I definitely think there`s a time to sing gravelly/raspy but just not all the time. Dynamics and contrast are key in my opinion.
Ian: What influences you apart from music?
Mark: Personally I`m influenced and affected by ideas. I get sort of obsessed with ideas. For instance, while writing tunes for the Blood album I was very much fixated on the philosophy of Deconstruction and Derrida. I read a lot of books about it and attended a book event at Seattle University with one of the experts in Deconstruction (John Caputo). I`m sort of a very compassionate person and I saw Deconstruction as a tool to free people from mental oppression. That`s what the tune Mental Models is about. It’s about the ideas that the "Haves" try to impose on the "Have-Nots" in order to control them.
Ian: That’s a pretty heavy topic; stoner bands are generally more inclined to write about, girls, bongs and UFO’s.
Mark: HA! Well, I don`t want to come off as some esoteric asshole… I write about girls bongs and space as well. That`s another great thing about stoner rock… to me there`s a little bit of tongue-in-cheek going on and no one`s taking themselves too seriously, at least we`re not. So a lot of times I`ll write a tune that has a dual dialog; the surface dialog being about outrageous stoner shit, and a sub-dialog about something more meaningful. For instance I was working on a tune recently that, on the surface, was about going to score weed. But the sub-dialog was about prison reform… how so many people are put in jail for smoking/selling weed (which is a racist law) and are subsequently taught to be violent criminals in the prison system. It`s a protest song… "We`re going on a dope run!"
Ian: The band started in 1992 right but called it a day after one critically acclaimed album; what went wrong?
Mark: It was many things. I was consuming many substances and had become a self-centered, arrogant tyrant. We didn`t have a proper booking agent so a lot of shows we played were to empty clubs. People thought we were a grunge band because stoner rock was not an established style yet. I got into a personal disagreement with one of the record label partners, so they lost interest. Marty (drummer) was the first person to jump ship and when you lose your drummer, you`re fucked.
Ian: And what brought you back out of the woodwork last year?
Mark: Matt had suggested getting back together around 2004, but I wasn`t into it at all. At the end of 2007 I thought about making a MySpace page for us… just for the sake of saying "We were here" or something… so I did. I put up a few tunes and scanned some old pics for the hell of it. Well it was like instantly people started coming out of the woodwork, saying very nice things and asking where they could buy our old album. They also asked if we were getting back together which made me think about it. We had an entire album of material in the form of cassette demos from back in the day and I started to wish that we could record it, for old times` sake. So I contacted Matt and told him I was thinking of doing some home recording and he suggested that we do it proper, get the band back together and record at his studio in Los Angeles. So I timidly called Marty (we had remained friends over the years) and asked if he would be into it, and he was! So the three of us, the original band members, were back together as Snail. Also, at that time I had reconnected with a high school buddy of ours, Eric Clausen. When we went to high school together he was known as the best guitarist in town. He related to me that he always had a desire to play in Snail, so we asked him to go into the studio with us to record Blood and see what develops. By the end of the sessions Eric was in the band.
Ian: What’s different about the 2008 version?
Mark: Wow… a lot of things. The musical style/culture of stoner rock has developed and evolved while we were absent so that has impacted us. A lot of ground has been covered by other bands so we took that into consideration. There`s no need to reinvent the wheel so to speak. We have Eric now so I feel like our song writing, arrangement and execution of songs is at a higher level. Stylistically, I`d say we`re becoming more metal. That`s a natural progression for us as a band and we had intended on getting heavier with every release – even back in the day. Currently we`re including some early Dio and post-Sabbath early Ozzy influences in our song writing. I consider those influences to be "stoner" because that`s what I grew up listening to while getting high. We also ditched the fuzz pedals… the 2008 Snail was/is all about cranked tube amps. Lastly I`d say we`re much more stoic about staying true to ourselves musically and forsaking music trends. We`re not about trying to get "huge" and running Snail like a business; we just want to play heavy tunes that we like.
Ian: Despite achieving a reasonable measure of commercial success, even the major stoner bands such as Monster Magnet, Fu Manchu, and Kyuss seemed to stay true to themselves, to a degree that even punk has struggled with over the past 15 years; why do you think that is?
Mark: I think that frequently there`s a strong correlation between a band "selling out" and their commercial success. I think when a band gets bigger and bigger they take on more responsibility to produce and have more "mouths to feed." Capitalism castrates art. It turns art into a product, a commodity. I think on some level that affects an artist`s focus, having all those pressures to produce music that more people will like. It waters down the art. I think an artist starts to think more like a businessman than before and it pollutes the creative stream. As Hedwig`s mother said in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, "Power corrupts, therefore it is better to be powerless." So a lack of commercial success is a good thing, and positively affects a music scene in my opinion.
Ian: With exception of The Melvins you guys must have seemed pretty much like fish out of water in the Seattle scene in 1992?
Mark: We were based in Fresno, California in 1992, and, of course, we were the only band playing that style at the time. Most people just thought of us as a grunge band for lack of a more fitting classification. That totally drove us nuts; we hated it. It was pretty cool to be the only signed band in town though, and made people respect us a little. But yeah, we definitely felt like fish out of water, for numerous reasons. I think the redeeming factor was our shows; it was well known that everyone would get fucked up at a Snail show so it sort of created a spectacle when we played, with half our friends passed out drunk outside before we even went onstage. After show parties would get wild too, sometimes ending up with everyone getting naked and going swimming at our friend Devin`s parent`s house.
Ian: Did the success of Nirvana and the grunge scene in general have a positive effect on the Seattle music scene or ultimately ruin it?
Mark: I can only speak for the current Seattle music scene; I lived in California during the grunge era. Currently there are a lot of Indie bands here… and lots of hipsters. The music scene is rich here though, don`t get me wrong. I love it here. As far as the success of Nirvana and its affect on the current scene – I don`t really hear or see it. I mean, any style is dead the moment it goes commercial though. If stoner rock ever breaks that`ll be the end of it.
Ian: Fast forward to 2008 and MeteorCity Records, home to Scott "Wino" Weinrich, Solace, and Atomic Bitchwax; that must have been a dream come true.
Mark: Oh yes. I was lurking about on StonerRock.com long before we decided to get back together. When we did finally reunite I dreamed of being on MeteorCity… seemed like a perfect home for us. There is no better place for Snail than MeteorCity.
Ian: How did the deal come about?
Mark: We sent out demos of our self-produced album. Dan from MeteorCity contacted us a couple weeks later and was really excited about putting the album out. After negotiating a little we signed with him; he really seems to care about his bands.
Ian: They seem to have a genuine fan love of this music mixed with a very professional ethic; it`s unusual to see both in an indie label.
Mark: I agree. I`ve known so many people that are into a music scene yet they don`t play so they start a label. The record business is brutal and oversaturated. You have to have some business skills to stay afloat, let alone make a profit. It can really wear you down. I think Dan has learned from the mishaps of other stoner labels like Man`s Ruin. He`s running a tight ship, he works hard, and he`s totally into it… a rare combination in the Indie scene.
Ian: The label has just released your second album, simply titled Blood; you guys seem pretty "econo" when it comes to naming the band, song titles and albums, is that intentional?
Mark: HA HA! That`s funny. I never thought about it but you`re right. Well, we make up for it with ridiculous lyrical phrases like "anthropocentrism specious."
Ian: Is there any intention for MeteorCity to release your self titled first album?
Mark: Yes, we talked about it and there are plans to re-release it. We recently acquired the rights to the album so we`re working on getting the artwork redone and remastering the album. It`ll be available soon. Check our MySpace for updates.
Ian: You also recorded an EP right? Did that ever see the light of day? Is it still in print?
Mark: We did record and release an EP entitled All Channels Are Open on Big Deal Records back in the 90`s. It is out of print and has been for a long time. Occasionally you`ll find a copy on Ebay but we`re not going to re-release it. It was essentially a cassette demo and it wasn`t very good so… .we`re burying it. We may resurrect the tune "Religious Ecstasy" for our next album though.
Ian: A friend recently commented that he couldn’t listen to "stoner" style music because all the bands sound generic; is he wrong and what do Snail have to offer that makes them part of the wheat and not the chafe?
Mark: I tend to agree, but that notion can be applied to any style of music. I think once you delve more deeply into the individual bands you`ll start to hear distinctions and identify their unique contribution to the style. As far as Snail I think we benefit from being absent from the scene for so many years. It`s like we`re able to be objective and not get caught up in trying to sound like Pentagram or whatever. We`re just trying to pick up where we left off and we don`t have to try to sound "stoner." So I think we are a departure from some of the familiar elements of stoner rock, for better or worse.
Ian: How important are graphics to the band? Are there any artists you would love to work with?
Mark: I think graphics are very important because they are a visual language representing the band. A lot of times you can get a more complete impression of a band from their graphics. I`ve seen a lot of incredible band art on MySpace but I don`t know any names… Matt is sort of our art director/designer for the band as that is his day job. I`m a designer by day as well so I come up with some of the stuff. For instance, Matt did the cover of Blood, and I did the back cover.
Ian: What’s next for Snail?
Mark: This summer we plan on playing some west coast shows with our friends Fu Manchu and Nebula. We don`t have the actual dates yet. It`ll probably be a small west coast tour. After that we`ll likely go back in the studio. We are finishing up writing our next album now and it`s sounding HEAVY. We`re really excited to go in the studio again. Ultimately we`d love to tour Europe so that`s on the horizon as well.
Ian: If you could bring that touring package over to the UK that would be awesome; those guys are like the founding fathers of modern stoner rock.
Mark: Oh God, I know. I have such respect for Fu Manchu and Nebula. Fu Manchu has been friends with us since the beginning… way back in the 90`s. They (and Nebula) really took us under their wing when we reunited and have given us such encouragement and help that we owe them both a lot. All three of us are so excited to play together and I`m sure we will soon. We`ve been talking about it since we got back together.
Ian: How can people get in touch?
Mark: Please visit our myspace page to get in touch (www.myspace.com/snailexhumed).
Ian: Parting comments or cheap shots?
Mark: smoke a fat one and crank up some stoner jams!
