Their music was never really meant to be heard by that many people, and the band’s frontwoman never set out to be a lead singer, but that all changed after one live show and then landing on the label of a musical icon.
Now rising Nashville punk/indie band Snooper is coming to Southern California for a pair of shows and bringing its energetic, infectious sounds, plus its team of puppets, to local audiences.
“It’s going to be energetic, it’s going to be sweaty and it’s going to be a unique experience we will create live in real life,” said lead vocalist Blair Tramel, who founded the band with guitarist Connor Cummins during their pandemic lockdown.
The band, which was signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records, is on tour promoting its sophomore album “Worldwide” and will be performing a show at the famed Pappy & Harriet’s music venue in Pioneertown on Jan. 28 before heading to The Regent Theater in Los Angeles on Jan. 30.
While the group is often referred to as a punk band, its music is more wide ranging with hints of indie, pop, some New Wave feel plus whimsical sounds and an experimental, artistic flare all performed at breakneck fast speed.
“We do play really fast which we’re really proud of. So we fit into any genre that has this speedy energy. I would say our music is very cathartic in that sort of way,” she said.
Tramel calls their sound egg punk.
“It’s kind of a dancier feel to it, the lyrical content touches on society’s anxieties, paranoia,” she said of the egg punk and Snooper sound. “A key feature of egg punk is this home recording style with eight-tracks, super lo-fi analog recording style which is the way we recorded all of our stuff originally,” Tramel said.
Born at home
Snooper came together during the pandemic when Cummins and Tramel wre stuck at home and began making experimental music just to pass the time. Cummins was already an accomplished musician who had played with several bands but Tramel had never been in a band before.
Instead she was a school teacher and an artist who specialized in papier-mâché art, so she said she initially had no interest in playing live or recording an album and just wanted to make music videos.
“I always made music videos, visual art and like all kinds of things for bands over the years but never played in bands myself,” she said. “It was just this really fun release of creativity we got to do during COVID.”
But after the pandemic they decided to go for it and perform their first live show in 2022 with rapper Lil Ugly Mane in Nashville.
“And so we played our first show and I was super nervous but it all worked out,” Tramel said, adding that she was hooked on live music from then on.
Now the band, which has received praise from NPR and music publications such as Pitchfork, is known for its live shows as it performs itshigh-energy music while Tramel incorporates her oversized papier-mâché puppets who come out and dance with the audience during shows.
“It’s so fun to include the audience into the live show. When you’re putting out all of that energy jumping around and you’re getting that back it’s like a feedback loop of energy, which we love,” Tramel said.
For tickets to the Pappy & Harriet’s on Jan. 28 and Regent Theater show on Jan. 30 go to www.snooperonline.com/