Track By Track: The Snuts singer Jack Cochrane breaks down new album ‘Burn The Empire’
The Snuts’ new album, Burn The Empire, sees the group evolve from their debut, W.L., and become the band they always wanted to be. Unlike their first effort, which wrote itself over a series of years, the four-piece retreated to rural England and approached their second outing with a different mentality.
Burn The Empire is genre-spanning. Over the course of the record, it flicks from soul to electronic, and there’s also room for quieter, acoustic moments. Despite the different sonic territories that The Snuts visit on the album, one constant aspect that knits Burn The Empire together is honest, compassionate storytelling.
For the new record, The Snuts recruited Clarence Coffee Jr. and Detonate, who teamed up to bring a new dimension to the group’s sound. The producers come from New York and London, respectively, and Burn The Empire was inspired by deep conversations in the studio they had around socio-political issues. Listening to each other’s different experiences was the catalyst they needed to move on from their debut and write about life’s most important matters.
All it took was one Zoom call with Coffee to convince them he was the man to help steer the ship on the new record along with Detonate. It was a deliberate choice to work with producers with backgrounds outside of traditional indie music, and on Burn The Empire, it proved to be an inspired decision.
Frontman Jack Cochrane sat down with Far Out to provide an insight into the new record and reveals how each song on Burn The Empire came to be.
Track by Track: The Snuts – Burn The Empire’
‘Burn The Empire’
The explosive opening track of Burn The Empire is a statement of intent and was born from a ball of frustration, inadvertently setting the tone for the rest of the record. “It felt like such a good space to voice frustrations,” Cochrane says of the studio environment with Coffee and Detonate (Nathaniel Ledwidge). “Whether it be political, societal, and having those different perspectives with Coffee being from America and Nat growing up in London”.
Adding: “At the moment when we were making it, the whole country was fucking frustrated. I think Covid also awakened this bubbling pot of frustration among everybody you spoke to, and people were really divided at that point. It wasn’t even anything to do with Covid, just everything that was happening around Covid. People were divided, angry at each other and the system. The song was just born out of that big melting pot of frustration. As soon as that was written, we decided this would be the tone. Although it was quite natural and accidental, I felt like this album was going to be a place where we’re gonna say some shit.”
‘Zuckerpunch’
The second track on Burn The Empire is ‘Zuckerpunch’, which explores our collective addiction to our phones, and is a reminder to live through our eyes rather than through screens, but done so without getting preachy or tedious.
“The danger when you speak about these topics is you can go pure fucking Morrissey,” Cochrane jokes. “People can question your intent, but with ‘Zuckerpunch’, because everything is tongue-in-cheek, and the music and production keep it genuine and unique. Again, it’s just voicing some opinions and opening up some conversations about how detrimental having social media in your hand can be to wellbeing, relationships, goals and self-esteem.”
He adds: “What I love about that song when we put it out is I felt like people weren’t ready to talk about it, which I think is an interesting place to be writing about. As a topic, it’s uncomfortable.”
‘The Rodeo’
Following the heaviness of the opening two songs, The Snuts decided to take a back-to-basics approach on ‘The Rodeo’, which didn’t have a deep-rooted meaning attached and was recorded on a whim after being inspired by The Beatles’ Get Back documentary.
Cochrane explains: “I think ‘The Rodeo’ was the last song we made for the record. Going through these topics and having the conversations we had, after a month of making the record, you start to get a bit drained, and we needed something to perk us up. We watched The Beatles’ Get Back one morning while eating our breakfast and having a couple of slices of toast. We’d been waiting for ages to watch it because we’d been in the studio, and we were watching these four guys write some of the best songs of all time just in a room together with no gimmicks”.
“So we thought, ‘Fuck it, let’s go the live room and write a song on the spot, it doesn’t matter what it sounds like. Let’s have some fun with it’. It just happened really quickly like that, proper old-school, and how we used to write songs when we were kids. I’m glad we could still bring that energy to the record,” the frontman comments.
’13’
’13’ is a heartbreaking effort about a friend of the band whose life spiralled out of control, and he tragically took somebody else’s life. Although this is a deeply personal track, the story is common across towns across Britain, and ’13’ approaches the subject with humanity.
“I don’t think without ‘Burn The Empire,’ we’d have been brave enough to write that one,” Cochrane concedes. “I was writing about myself a lot, and I wanted to write about more than that. He had such a hard start in life, and I think there’s a difference between a hard start in life, and him, where it was a really fucking hard start in life, but I feel we are past that place where we acknowledge how hard some people have it because it’s easier to ignore”.
“If you look at crime rates, people can be demonised for living in a certain area and living in extreme poverty. There are incidents like this all the time where young guys are killing each other in the UK and across the world. The point of this song is to look at why that’s happening, and why that can be allowed to happen because we need to look at the roots,” he emotionally adds.
‘Knuckles’
Following the tear-jerking ’13’, The Snuts bring a moment of light relief on the euphoric ‘Knuckles’, which is an ode to love. The decision to place it here on the album was very much deliberate, with Cochrane stating, “It’s all about the balance on the record for me”.
He elaborates: “I think it’s so great to be able to like use music first for that other purpose too, and just bringing people together to jump around and share moments and memories. We could talk about it till the house that the cows come home about what it means to me, but you’ve got to make sure there’s stuff out there that is open for interpretation. I just love singing along with this or seeing it go off at a gig, or sticking on in the car when the sun’s out. That’s the vibe of that track.”
‘End Of The Road’ ft. Rachel Chinorouri
Unlike any other track in their canon, Cochrane shares vocal duties on ‘End Of The Road’ with rising indie-star Rachel Chinorouri. The collaboration came about through social media with Chinorouri, then venturing to Abbey Road to meet the band for the first time, where they got to learn about each other’s background before co-writing her contribution and laying down her vocals.
‘I’m a huge fan of female vocalists like Joni Mitchell fan, and I grew up listening to the Staves and Laura Marling,” Cochrane reveals. “I always think there’s something that a female vocal can do that a male vocal can’t and a spirit that I don’t think I was managing to capture up with that song. I had another verse written, but her energy and personality were perfect for the song.”
‘Pigeons In New York’
Next up is Cochrane’s favourite track from the record, ‘Pigeons In New York’. It’s an explosive rallying cry for us to all get on the same page and a poignant reminder that there’s more that unites us than divides us. The title came from a conversation with producers Coffee and Detonate, who came from drastically different worlds to the Scottish rockers, yet, they see the world similarly.
“We never walked into the studio with a plan to write about a certain subject, we’d just turn up, and everyone would be eating their breakfast, having a coffee or a smoke, and somebody would start talking in an easygoing manner. With this one, Coffee and Nat were discussing what it’s like being labelled as a Black man all the time, with no context as to what that entails. Coffee talked about his culture and family traditions, whereas we come from a small town with like two Black families, but it was a really comfortable conversation to have,” Cochrane says.
“For the first time in my life, I’ve been able to have that conversation and not be daunted by having conversations about race and culture. As a society, I think it’s really important to be open and learn about each other instead of constant labelling and stereotyping.”
Initially, it started as an acoustic song that Cochrane wanted to be in the mould of Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan, but with the help of the band’s producers, they turned it into an epic piece of music which acts as the album’s centre point.
‘Hallelujah Moment’
‘Hallelujah Moment’ sees The Snuts take another left turn as they offer up a slice of soul, which captures the poppiest element of the band and celebrates those moments of joy that make life worth living. “This started with a demo. If you think our records our mad, you should listen to our demos,” the frontman laughs.
“It was almost like a soulful house tune, to begin with, fuck knows what was going on. We revisited it with fresh ears a few months later, and I’m very conscious of balancing the record. I don’t want to be this constantly serious guy, and I want to have a bit of fun. I want people to come to the shows to have fun, not to analyse how the world works.
“I love this song because the way I see it, it’s that feeling of like driving somewhere in the car with my girlfriend where it’s non-important, but everything’s good, and I feel like that a lot and think it’s important to acknowledge those moments of being super happy. You need to acknowledge a feeling like that when you do because life’s intense.”
‘Cosmic Electronica’
‘Cosmic Electronica’ does precisely what the title suggests and feels more like a Fatboy Slim track than it does a four-piece indie band. It offers a wave of euphoria that showcases The Snuts at their most experimental, and they reap the rewards for their ingenuity which Cochrane puts down to his bandmates’ creativity.
“I was actually quite uncomfortable with it when we first started making it, to be honest with you,” Cochrane admits. “In our downtime, we listened to a lot of The Chemical Brothers, Gorillaz, and stuff like that. So, the boys and Nat were just making this fucking mad beat while me and Coffee were talking in the studio. While we were doing that, the boys were making mayhem in the other corner. I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on over there? Those cunts have lost their minds,'” he half-jokes.
He continues: “We were talking technology and its influence on us as humans, AI listening to your conversations and stuff like that, which then fed into me and Coffee’s lyrics. What I really love about that track is it was an opportunity for the boys to shine musically, and that’s them unedited.”
‘Yesterday’
‘Yesterday’ is the rawest moment on the record and starkly contrasts with ‘Cosmic Electronica’ as they strip everything back as Cochrane alone with an acoustic guitar and his crippling doubts despite achieving his wildest childhood dreams.
“‘Yesterday’ was written when I wasn’t feeling it, and that happens a lot when you’re on tour all the time and have these pressures,” he admits. “It’s such a privilege to be able to do it, but it’s fucking sad a lot of the time, and you get on stage and feel like you shouldn’t be there. That song is just pure imposter syndrome.”
The Glaswegian continues: “Even when I’m in the studio, I’m like, ‘How the fuck did I end up here?’ I’m with two of the best producers in the world, my band are amazing, I’ve got this great opportunity to make this record, the last record did well, the tickets do well, and I think, ‘Why the fuck have I ended up here?’ So, I went to a room by myself, and I was just like, ‘Fuck whatever is going on, there’s too much for my brain to process right now,’ and went back to basics.”
‘Blah Blah Blah’
Burn The Empire finishes in bombastic fashion with ‘Blah Blah Blah’, which is a reminder to think independently and not let the tabloid press decide your thoughts. Thankfully, it’s done with much more rock ‘n’ roll than my synopsis suggests.
Speaking of the track from a musical perspective, Cochrane says: “I think that song sounds like a musical. I think the record as a long-listen does have that musical aspect, and it’s not one tempo or vibe.”
While talking about the lyrics, he adds: “We were talking about mass media manipulation and how one day The Scottish Sun can say one thing, then in England, The Sun says the opposite. People are becoming more racist and more homophobic thanks to bullshit things in the Daily Mail that are being fed to them because I don’t actually think people have that in them, and it’s just fucking madness. The only people who get to debate nowadays is extremists, and you don’t hear any rational points anymore. It’s just fucking nonsense.”
