Snayx, an interview - Supporting Skindred, feminine sass, sausage rolls, surreal moments & smurfs!
- twistednippleevent
- Sep 25
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 26
The trailblazing trio of bucky swigging punks, Snayx, are currently burning through their Strutfast UK tour. Named after a combination of their beloved mascot, the tonic wine 'brewed by monks and drank by punks' - Buckfast, and their latest musical serving - their amped up new single, Strut.
It's day 4 of the tour tonight in Leeds and we take the opportunity to catch up with them about their biggest moments, their fanatic fanbase and just how on earth they maintain the stamina for such relentless high energy touring.
J - So guys, you've brought Safe Gigs for women with you on your previous tours. Are there any ways that you personally stay in touch with your feminine side?
Ollie - I like a good foot mask, a good pamper.
J - Self care's important.
Charlie - I agree. We're big on the self care. So a good day of pampering, a day in bed resting when you need. I should hope that's just a universal thing.
Ollie - I like to smell to smell good, a nice sweet fragrance.
Charlie - We encourage self care, we love a good sauna, or steam room.
J - It's probably pretty important to look after yourselves on tour. Your shows are pretty high intensity. How do you maintain the stamina for it on your big tours?
Ollie - There's a rat there! New member!
J - This has been a running theme - the rat chronicles.
Charlie - Dodging rats, keeps you fit, keeps you agile.
Ollie - Yeah we like to keep in good shape, go for a run, go the gym.
J - What's on your gym playlists?
Ollie - A lot of metal and hardcore, Knocked Loose and stuff.
Charlie - I like something heavier than I'd normally listen to. I've got a specific set of Bring Me the Horizon songs I do when I'm pumping a chest workout, I listen to Throne , Can You Feel My Heart and another one. I listen to them literally every time. I have the exact timings so everything is synced up to get me hyped.
J - I do the same. We have a couple of Snayx songs on our gym playlist.
Lucia - It's got a good gym beat, you could market your songs that way.
J - I was gonna ask questions in a specific order but I've binned that off immediately.
Charlie - It's like jazz our interviews, free form, loose of the cuff.
J - First musical memories for each of you?
Ollie - I had a Smurfs cassette, that had covers of popular songs by the Smurfs. It had I Wanna Be A Hippie, Saturday Night By Wigfield. It was all Smurfs related, it was sick! And that was my first introduction to music!
J - Absolute pioneers of music are The Smurfs. Alvin and the Chipmunks are pioneers too!
Lainey - I remember one of the first pop party CD's, it had the DVD on there too, and I used to have it on repeat. It had Barbie Girl on there, Maya Hee, Babycakes, Mcfly - Five Colours in her Hair. loved that DVD, I watched it like it was film.
J - And now, who or what do you take inspiration from, other than the Smurfs!
Charlie- I listen to a lot of Baxter Drury, Mannequin Pussy, Gorillaz, a bit of Blur, definitely Prodigy songs when I wanna get pumped. I also listen to a lot Lana Del Rey and Goat Girl. Big up those two!
J - Do you ever argue in the band, and if so what about?
Lainey - We don't really argue, they're more like tiffs, little tiffs.
Charlie - *jarringly* - We have fist fights, everything is settled in the ring!
We probably argue over who gets the last of the bucky, who gets the best bed in the air b and b, who get's the middle seat in the van, that's the worst seat. There's always a bit of scramble for those sort things.
Ollie - We don't really fight much cause we love each other.
J - Alright we'll do a quickfire round soon. Anyone?
Sharon - What band would you be in if you weren't in Snayx?
Charlie - None of 'em would have me.
Ollie - I'd love to be in Limp Bizkit.
Lainey - I'd go Pierce The Veil.
Charlie - Probably something like The Gorillaz, something a bit arty and different.
J - Name 3 dancefloor bangers that would get you on the floor?!
Charlie - Perfect by Exceeder! Absolute banger!
Ollie - Peggy Gou. We like a bit of Peggy Gou, (It Goes Like) Nanana .
Lainey - Mine would be Britney Spears - I Have Just Begun (Having My Fun)
Ollie - I love Maneater!
J - There you go, staying in touch with a bit of your feminine sass.
Charlie - I forgot yeah, going back to our feminine side, I really love Lana Del Ray.
Lucia - Fan questions, from Stacey Irving, what's your Greggs order?
Charlie - Easy! My favourite thing at Greggs is the corned beef bake, really underrated, sometimes you can't get 'em down South, people are like ew. But up North you can find 'em everywhere and I'm a hero.
Ollie - Breakfast sandwich and a sausage roll.
Charlie - The vegan sausage roll is good too.
Lainey - I like to get the vegan steak bake, but they call it a vegan lattice, it's really nice. And I like the caramel custard doughnuts too.
Lucia - Question from Lou Lou Woodward, who would you like to collaborate with and who would you like to support?
Charlie - We'd love to collaborate with Mike Skinner, Damon Albarn, Baxter Drury.
Lainey - Kelly Quinn!
Charlie and Ollie - No. That would be Lainey's solo collab.
Charlie - For supports, The Prodigy would be good. Pendulum too. Even someone like Sleaford Mods would be wicked. Obviously we get to support Skindred, which is huge.
J - You've played some pretty big capacity gigs now, in your own minds, what has been the biggest?
Ollie - Download.
Charlie - Definitely Download, it was mental. We played the Dogtooth stage, the full tent was overspilling, and from the first song we had two mosh pits in stereo!
J - Dream rider? Anything you want, money's no object.
Charlie - Buckfast swimming pool, and a Greggs counter, our full dressing room to be a Greggs. That would be pretty unhealthy though, so maybe something else to offset it.
Ollie - Nice little salad bar that no one would touch.
Lucia - From Kim Blu, fantasy festival top 3 headliners? One each.
Charlie - This is gonna be really interesting... I'd go with Creed, that'd just be buzzing.
Lainey - Robbie Williams.
Ollie - Hmmmm .... *lengthily pondering....* cut this bit if you want.
J - interjecting the hanging silence* - The Smurfs!
Ollie - My heroes!
J - Just stood there crying.
Ollie - Do you know what, I saw the Venga Boys in Hastings, they were fucking amazing!
Lainey - Pitbull!
Charlie - Pitbull and Venga Boys collab.
J - He could be the super secret surprise special guest .
Lucia - From Ian Coates, if you weren't in Snayx what would be doing?
Ollie - Still working in Sainsburys.
Charlie - Yeah still working in supermarkets, some cooperate slavery I can't escape.
J - Onto a few more serious questions again. What inspires you to write music and how do you hope your music impacts people?
Charlie - I just write about what I see on the news and stuff. Anything I have an emotional response to, anything that makes me angry or upset. It's not always a conscious thing, sometimes lyrics merge out the subconscious .
I love it when music connects to people and people can understand my meaning, cause my art I only really make for me, it's never intentionally for anyone else, but it's nice when you find people connect with it.
David (to Charlie)- Do you write all the lyrics?
Ollie - He does, I have no idea what I'm doing, I just slap some riffs over it and make it sound nice, then Lainey adds some beats.
J - And that's the typical process of how you create?
Charlie - Yeah we sort of just bounce ideas of each other and it all comes together.
J - A lot of your songs are politically hitting. Do you wanna give some deeper insight into some... Like Boys In Blue, and H.A.N.G.
Charlie - H.A.N.G, we were right in the mist of a lot of Tory rule, everything was expensive, It felt like no one was happy. Especially in the Covid era and following it, everyone in politics seemed to just do what they like and no one was being held accountable. The song title (H.A.N.G) stands for 'hold accountable nefarious governments'. I liked using violent language because they were using violent language to describe people and migrants. So I decided to use it in the reverse context, with "I say we hang them all". It's provocative, but really I just want them to be held accountable for their actions. To be put in the Hague when they commit war crimes, or when they give backhanders in corruption, to get people to buy face masks from their mates shield company. People should be in prison for those things and they just get away with it.
Lucia - And people like Bob Vylan get in trouble for leading a chant. Which he didn't mean as a literal threat. They protect their own don't they.
Charlie - Yeah, and with Boys in Blue, I was very disturbed by the Sarah Everard murder and the police roll in that. The absolute absurdity of knowing his history and past and allowing him to be an active police officer, which gave him that opportunity when it should never have happened. And what does that say about the police? I want people to question it.
J - The police are on of those services we're told we're automatically obliged to praise for their protection, but they are causing harm and there's a big issue of institutionalised corruption.
Charlie - It's institutionalised and deep routed, and it's difficult to clear out when the issue has become so inflated.
Lucia - We're watching Line Of Duty at the minute, and it's actually true to life. Chiefs high up covering things up to protect themselves and others .
Charlie - It just needs to be defunded and rebuilt with a different mindset.
J - What's your pre gig warm up routine? How do you psych yourself up for a show?
Charlie - We like to bounce around, few swigs of bucky, caffeine injection, get things pumping. I find as soon as the intro hits and I go out there, the adrenaline kicks in and takes over.
David - You must have played a few hundred gigs now. Is there anywhere you haven't played that you'd like to?
Charlie - There's a really cool amphitheatre in the US, one of the craziest looking venues, Red Rocks, that would be the dream. Or the Tempodrom in Berlin. We nearly played there actually.
Sharon - Weirdest place you've played a gig?
Charlie - We played a gig at a working kitchen in a hotel, as part of a Kind of Weirds Weekend in London. It was like a proper weird fever dream. There was a sheet half hanging between the kitchen were they were serving and us, with punters moshing round were there was food. I'm sure there must have been some hygiene standards contravened.
J - For your fanbase, you maintain really good connections with your fans and personally from our experience better than most, even on that interpersonal level.
Charlie - Yeah we enjoy hanging out with people and getting to know them. We enjoy being in the Bellycrawlers - we enjoy that community. We saw it with Idles and The AF Gang, which were in before starting Snayx, and it's amazing that a little community has formed round us.
J - I've noticed a number of bands, some that aren't even that big, don't seem to have much time for fans. How do you guys make time for that?
Charlie - It can get quite busy and hectic, but you've got to do it, 'cause were would we be without the fans? And we do enjoy doing it, it's not difficult. And also we've got such an amazing group admin like Larry, who's always keeping things active and keeping up the passion, even when we can't. Every day I open my phone and look at Larry's post. It's the first thing I do every morning.
J - And the amazing artwork everyday. Shout-out to Larry! (currently on day 1060 and counting of Snayx memes, commitment to the craft!)
Charlie - He's a legend. An absolute force for music and for community.
J - And the badges from Elfo (aka Patrick). And also the project over in Gambia.
Charlie - Yeah we're gonna have a new video to release about the Gambia project, so look out for that. We're excited to reveal the good that has come from people buying T shirts and merch and getting involved.
David - Are you at a stage we're you're big enough to do this as a job yet?
Ollie- We wish, but unfortunately not. We all have second jobs, most musicians we know do .
J- So Snayx, if you could be any animal in the world, what would you be and why?
Lainey - I'd be a seagull. I think they have quite a nice life - fly around, eat chips and shit on people.
Charlie - I'd be a Labrador, that's gotta be the best life. Everyone loves you, lay around, eat good food. Yeah life as a Lab.
J - Ambitions for the future of Snayx?
Ollie - Lots of money!
Charlie - A full complete record would be nice to put out in the future.
J - And before we go, favourite artists on the current scene?
*collective response* - Soapbox, Lambrini Girls, City Dog, Congratulations, Slag, Lemonsucker, Shelf Lives, Knife Bride, Nova Twins .
Snayx obviously played a blistering show full of fire and energy. Aptly supported by rowdy and raucous Scottish punks, Soapbox. A Palestine flag set the backdrop, with several "Free Palestine" chants interluding the sets. Everyone in the room resonated, showing that pockets of community and solidarity exist everywhere.
Both these bands stand up firmly for what they believe in and pour everything into their performances. Members dripped in equal amounts of sweat and charisma. The bands engaging closely with their fans. Bodies cruised over the crowd, as streams of crowd surfers took took turns to dive and plunge into the belly of swirling mosh pits. It was unrelenting, non stop fun of the highest order. If you want in, you have the rest of the tour to get involved!
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