SNEW – Interview with Curtis, Andy, Mark

American's hard-rockers from SNEW released their third album. Obviously Bobby Owsinski was the producer of album and Ken Scott occupied with the recording and the mixing. Well, so good persons could occupy only the good music. About the story you will read below.

Hello! SNEW – what it means?

Curtis: It means everything to us.

And the titles of your albums? They are pretty characteristic…

Curtis: They stand for everything SNEW is about. Be yourself, do your own thing and ROCK!

Your music is Hard Rock in style of 80th. It seems that demand for this type of music is smaller in Europe. How is in the U.S.?

Mark: As far as we can tell its big everywhere. There are more hard rocking fans in the world than most people realize.

Though the Internet gave you possibility of attainment to larger number of persons – beside of the U.S. I remember when you organized the internet's competition in which the winner was man from Poland.

Andy: Our fans are all over the world so from time to time we have contests to reward people from every nation.

The first associating during the listening of your albums was with AC/DC. But from the second side I also felt the breath of Glam Metal (connected with your image of band, typical for this type of bands), that is the style of MOTLEY CRUE. Which of these bands had on your music the larger influence?

Curtis: Our biggest influences come from bands of the 70s. Bands and artists like Alice Cooper, The Stooges, Kiss, The Ramones, MC5 and Motorhead (of course we love AC/DC too).

Such music makes associations with bikes, parties, pubs with striptease and with the rakish style of life… That is “sex, drugs and rock'n'roll”, hahaha… Is it your motto too?

Andy: To us its more like Sex, LIFE and Rock n Roll.

The title of albums “Snew You”, “We Do What We Want”, ” What's It To Ya” are very boisterous and quarrelsome (anyway like the music). So, what are your lyrics?

Curtis: Boisterous yes but I woundnt say quarrelsome. We just make the statement that we are happiest when we are honest about who we are, we all want what we want out of life. And it feels very good to say it loudly.

You co-operated with some well-known personalities from world of music in your career. Let's begin from the man with Polish surname… Bobby Owsinski. What was his contribution for formation your albums?

Curtis: Bobby has been with us since the beginning and he is the coolest producer on the planet. Mostly he listens to what we do and know how to point out where the holes are. Every band needs someone who can sit back and listen objectively. When you are in a band you get caught up in your own performance and its easy to miss things. Bobby is our guy who sits on the other side of the glass and says thats great but why are do doing this and what if you did that instead. He makes us work to figure out if we are making the best choices for the music. In the end its always about the music.

Next man was Ed Cherney (well-known from co-operation with THE ROLLING STONES, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton)…

Andy: Ed is one of the coolest and funniest guys in the business. We loved working with him. He made us comfortable in the studio and gave us an incredible sound.

And Allan Holdsworth…

Curtis: Allan is a friend. We had talked for years about doing something together and it finally happened. Allan is a true virtuoso. Recording Highway Sat was not only fun but a priviledge.

Ken Scott…

Curtis: Ken is a legend. When we were told he was interested in working with us my jaw nearly hit the floor. This man has recorded and produced some of the most important albums in rock history. Just being in the studio with him was an honor. The result of us working with Mr. Scott is Snew having an album that stands up to anything anyone can ever throw at us. No matter what anyone may say Ken is proud of this album and for me thats better than being in the hall of fame.

You already released three albums. The last one was released in August 2012 year. What is reaction for this album?

Mark: This new album is taking off. Weve seen the biggest response of any of our albums so far. We put a lot of ourselves into making this one and we are very happy with it. After three albums I think people have realized SNEW is serious and we are gonna be around for a very long time to come.

Why did you change bass player for Willie Basic? What is cooperation with him?

Curtis: Our original bass player Cat had to make some changes in his life. It had nothing to do with his love for the band. We wish him the best. I have know Willie for many years so I asked him if he wanted to record the new album with us. He was totally into it and had been a big fan of ours. His playing style worked perfectly with our songs. He did a great job.

Tell me something about your concerts.

Andy: If its loud… SNEW YOU!