The Snuts Tune Into the Delicacy of Ordinary Love Stories with Hit Single “Gloria”
The Scottish rock n’ rollers have hit major cities across Europe, South America and are currently making their way through North American cities as they tour alongside Louis Tomlinson. Formed originally in 2015, the band consists of Jack Cochrane, Joe McGillveray, Callum ‘29’ Wilson, and Jordan ‘Joko’ Mackay. With “Gloria” as their first release of the year, the song has so much symbolism attached to it. The Snuts present a narrative that highlights the beauty in mundane, everyday romantic behaviours. The music video follows a real-life couple in a day-in-the-life type structure as they go grocery shopping and be one with each other in their home. The Snuts have opened a magical door to admiring the things we do everyday with the ones we love. “Gloria” has to be one of the most honest, and beautifully written songs from The Snuts to date and we can’t wait to hear the rest of the record spin out throughout the year. Alongside the track raining with romantic symbolism within its narrative, the song also stands as a strong shield that protects their creative freedom as artists.
As their tour bus pulled over at a truck stop on its way to Irving, Texas we scored a few moments with lead singer Jack Cochrane to chat about their newest single “Gloria,” released on May 23, 2023.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How has touring with Louis Tomlinson been going so far? Any specific shows stand out to you the most?
[THE SNUTS - JACK]: Yeah, they’ve actually all been great so far. We’ve just done South America and Europe. I think so far some of the venues that we’ve been lucky enough to play in have been an absolute dream. We got to do the Greek Theater in California, and the Hollywood Bowl, which was amazing as well. Just getting the opportunity to play those venues. So many people have never heard your music before, so it’s just been incredible ‘once in a lifetime’ stuff.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Were those your first time playing at those venues as well?
[JACK]: Yeah, for sure. I think I’ve had a lot of ‘pinch me’ moments where you know a lot of artists and bands would absolutely love to play those venues. Being a British band, you don’t always come across these types of opportunities all the time, - so it’s been amazing.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Gloria” was released just before your performance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee on May 27th. Can you describe what it felt like to finally play “Gloria” live especially in an atmosphere like Dundee?
[JACK]: I think when we were making music and writing songs, especially ones like “Gloria,” we had the intention to play it in the sunshine with those festival crowds. So actually being able to do that, it’s just one of those great moments you get when making music when a song was designed for days like that.
[UNPUBLISHED]: The new single is your first release from your newly signed label, Happy Artist Records. How do you feel you have grown as artists after switching labels, and is there anything in particular you are hoping to experiment with more in future releases with Happy Artist Records?
[JACK]: Yeah, I think you know, just the overall freedom as an artist is something we’ve been battling for quite a while. I think when you start out as a young act, you don’t necessarily understand what it means to release music and how you want to be perceived as an artist. On another level, this is the place where we can be completely free to experiment with music, and do the things that we really want to do. Especially when it comes to how we promote our music, and how we can actually connect with fans directly and do that in a way that makes us feel comfortable and happy. I think the cutting claim of being an artist is fairly pressure heavy. There’s a lot of expectation on us to be social media stars or reality stars, I think the focus always comes off of music and it comes down to the artist being forced to maybe be something that I’m not. With this new label, we’re totally free to just be ourselves.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How do you feel the new single represents you as a band now?
[JACK]: It comes back to that kind of freedom and I think there’s freedom there to just be super honest with the music. With the music, be it sonically or topically, we can really properly be ourselves and sing about the things that we feel are important to us. We feel unformed to other people and I don’t think that’s just a facade when it comes to music. I don’t think we’re trying to be anything that we’re not, ultimately that’s the stuff that connects with people the most. With that same goal and everything else is going to be on this next record. I’m so pleased to be purely honest, it’s not a deliberate ploy to engage with a particular fan base or a certain type of person or demographic. It’s just truly what we believe in, so it feels pretty nice.
[UNPUBLISHED]: For the music video, I love that you casted a real-life couple to show an ordinary day-in-the life. Why was this aspect important to you when reflecting “Gloria” through visuals?
[JACK]: When we were making the song, the focus was on that honesty and I think we wanted to try to avoid portraying something that was false. When you’re talking about love stories and music, sometimes the easiest route to go down would be to offer heartbreak and tragedy. Whereas I felt like there were so many great everyday love stories around us. Be that your parents, grandparents, your friends, - It felt like a nice time to celebrate those kinds of relationships. I thought there needed to be more focus on that stuff and just be more personal, and show that there’s hope that that feeling exists for everyone. When we were casting the couple, I felt it had to be real. Just to find this couple that’s never been on a camera before and they were just perfect, and truly in love.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Were you friends with them prior to the shoot or did you just find them through friends of friends?
[JACK]: Yeah, through friends of friends. I was working with someone I collaborate with a lot, he’s a photographer and videographer, Jacob Campbell. I was speaking with him about the idea and that I’d love to find a couple who were just real people. And he was like, ‘I have these two friends who would be perfect’. So we didn’t even think about it a lot. We just shot that one day and I never met them before.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What does your songwriting process usually look like? Is it quite collaborative with all four of you?
[JACK]: Yeah, I think “Gloria” started off as just an idea, and we were recording in my house at the time just with demos and stuff like that. I brought it to a test studio in Scotland and we were working with a longtime collaborator, Scott Anderson, who produced the record, both me and him. We both just sat down and tried to pick the song apart. Sometimes a hard thing with a song is to make it make sense. That’s been the process with a lot of these songs, like just making things really clear in what we’re trying to say because I feel like on previous records, we’re just trying to be too clever. And that’s fine, but with this one we just really want to put it on a plate and express what we’re really saying. It felt quite nice to do that. It’s a bit different from ways of flow in previous records, so it’s been nice to always try to change things up.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Is falling in love with the mundane natural parts of life going to be a continuing theme with future releases? Is there more of the “Gloria” storyline that will be told?
[JACK]: Yeah, for sure. I think the record as a whole is going to be just that. It’s going to tell tales of the ordinary as how it feels to me. It’s going to describe probably just how we’ve felt over the last 16 years of growing up. Those challenges, celebrations, and achievements, - in the good times and even the bad things that came with that. As a band, although we’ve had a lot of success I don’t think things have massively changed for us. Like our attitudes and personalities have never really disappeared from where we started. I think it’s still important to tell those stories, so yeah across the record there’s going to be that feeling there.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Alongside a summer full of live performances, what’s up next for The Snuts?
[JACK]: Yeah, there’s going to be a new single probably within the next month or something. Again, talking about having that freedom. I think it’s important for people to just put music out when they feel good about it. When you live inside major labels for too long, there are a lot of chefs in the kitchen and you can lose a bit of that desire to put music out. There’s a lot of worry about the music, where we feel really good about the music that we have and we just want to put it out. The record is pretty much done, we just need to stop writing and just be happy with it. It’ll be here probably early 2024!
