by MJ Peters
Saturday, SNACKTIME opened for Fitz & the Tantrums on their Man on the Moon tour at the House of Blues in Boston, MA. The band, based out of Philadelphia, brought a truly unmatched energy that left the crowd feeling joyful going into Fitz & the Tantrum’s set. SNACKTIME is made up of 7 members: Nico, Sam, Austin, Larry, Eric, Michael and Ben. Coming from various backgrounds, the crew met in Philadelphia and was founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2020.
In the weeks leading up to the show, I got the chance to chat with Sam Gellerstein and Eric Sherman. We touched on many subjects, including musical influences, the dynamic of a large band, an upcoming album, and reflecting on performing at the iconic Newport Folk Festival.
The following interview has been edited for clarity.
MJ Peters: So you guys are joining Fitz & the Tantrums next week in New York to start your leg with them. How are you guys feeling just going into it?
Sam Gellerstein: We’ve been kind of in and out of spot dates here and there, little runs back and forth. But to do a little bit more substantial one is really exciting, and we can’t wait to meet all the folks in that band and start making the fun connection of that, that kind of bond that you really only share by driving far distances with each other.
MJP: I bet, that’s awesome. I saw you guys also played some pretty exciting festivals like Newport Folk, Boston Calling, and Ottawa Jazz Fest. When you’re approaching a new show, does your mindset kind of change if you’re playing a festival vs. playing a set opening for someone?
Eric Sherman: That’s a good question. I think I think for us, in any situation, whenever we’re able to get in front of a new audience in any capacity, that’s gold. You know? I remember when we were sunshaking at Newport, and the gates opened at 10 am, and people flooded in and started running in front of their spots. They were, by 11:00, when we started to play, they were very ready to hear some music. I feel like it’s a llittle different than if you’re doing an opening slot when they haven’t bought in yet, they don’t know who we are, and I feel like it’s a lot of fun for us to sort of get the audience to go from ‘who are these people?’ to ‘okay, that’s kinda cool’. Then, when we’re able to kinda get them bought into us, that’s an awesome feeling. You know?
MJP: Do you guys have a takeaway that you hope that people walk away from after seeing you guys play for the first time?
SG: Something we always say at the end of our set is regardless on if you decide to follow us on Instagram or follow us or on Spotify or anything like that, it’s all about walking away from our set, with the ability to be kind to one another. To take a step back, look to your left, look to your right, and treat whoever you’re with 5% better. Because with our music, it’s so much fun to play, but we really are trying to make the world a better place, and leave each place better than we found it. I think that it’s really important, especially in this time where there’s lots of division, lots of hatred, and lots of, call it the ‘upper management of the world’, trying to separate us for their own profit. We’re trying to circumvent that and make people care about each other and realize that we should be sticking up for one another and helping each other out.
MJP: Definitely. Sam, I remember reading in a previous article that you guys grew up on the Newport Live albums
SG: I mean, one of the most important records to me was, Ellington and that’s such an important record. Obviously, the Bob Dylan stuff is so cool, but mainly the, Newport Ellington ’56 was huge for me growing up, in a jazz world, but that’s still to this day, I think still reverberates in music. Like, the fact that there was a riot during the set is so cool. I don’t know if you know the story about Paul Gonsalves as a saxophone player, he played such a amazing long solo that the whole crowd got whipped into a frenzy, and they had to have the cops come in and break it up because it was so crazy. And you know Newport was very fun, but definitely more of a relaxed festival, so I can only imagine what it was like in 1956 in terms of the vibes. So it was really cool.
MJP: Wow I definitely have to look into that! Ellington was someone that I was gonna bring up, how have early influences, like, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, how they have kinda shaped the SNACKTIME sound or ethos today?
SG: For me the reason that SNACKTIME is so cool is because of the fact that we all come from seven different perspectives, seven different places, we were raised by seven different sets of parents. And the music is so informed by not only soul and funk, but also hardcore, pop and rock. And I think how that kind of all blends into one thing like SNACKTIME is really special for us. So our inspirations range from music that came out a month ago to early jazz 1920s stuff. It’s all over the place and that’s where the cool thing about American music is that, in a way, there’s still so much of a way to make a an impact on a really young country’s history’s music.
MJP: Sam you mentioned how big the band is. With seven people, so many players and personalities, what’s the creative process like when you guys are writing and arranging your music?
SG: It’s really fun. Basically, whether it starts with a song, that any one of us could have come up with, we could just share the demo and then if people are excited, we say, “okay let’s take this and let’s learn it” and then Larry, our guitar player goes, “okay let’s try it this way” and Austin, our drummer goes, “can I try it this way?” And regardless of what the song is, when it comes in, I think once it comes out of everyone’s scope of what they’re able to do and how they play their parts is when it becomes a SNACKTIME song. We’re currently in the process of really digging in on our first studio album. We have an EP out and we have a live record up. We’re trying to work on our first studio record, and we’re really taking a lot of time to go into the finer points of songwriting and part building and being really finicky on exactly what we want to do. So it’s been really exciting, and, it’s a really cool process because everyone, like I said, comes from a bunch of different perspectives. And to take all those inspirations and distill it into one beautiful thing is really cool.
ES: I agree. I think, like, you know, regardless of the initial sort of musical idea that comes in, it’s cool to kinda see you know, it’s like there’s things there’s things that Michael think of that I’ll never think or Nico will think of that. It’s like that’s I feel like the sort of greatest possible aim of being in a a group of any kind. Right? It’s like the synthesis of everybody is something that any single individual could never do themselves. You know? And I feel like that’s really apparent, at least to me in our process that, like, oh, wow. This happened. This happened. This happened. And you listen to the song at the end. You’re like, woah. Like, even the course of three or four hours, we’re working on a song. And by the end of that time, it’s like, dang. We really did a lot today. You know? And you can really hear it and feel that.
MJP: Wait, how did you guys all meet?
SG: The band, before we started, was kind of built up upon a bunch of really great session musicians and gigging musicians of the city. I knew a lot of the guys from when I first moved to Philly, and then those guys were in a different band that were in a band with Eric and Mike. Basically, it was just, we all met in Philadelphia. Ben’s my best friend from high school. But, yeah, we kinda all just were in Philadelphia at the same time, and COVID happened. And I had an event that I was doing called SNACKTIME, which got shut down because of the pandemic, and then we needed to play some music outside. So the call went out to some guys to start to play some music outside again, and it really worked for us.
MJP: Philly has such a rich musical history, and musical heritage. And so as to how has being a band from Philly kind of influenced the way that you approach music?
ES: In every way. I feel in every era of music, there’s prominent musicians and bands that have come out of Philly, right? There’s The Roots and then if you go down on Broad Street in Philly, there’s the Philly Walk Of Fame and every time I go down there I’m like “oh that person was from Philly, that person was from Philly”, you know what I mean? and all the jazz greats also spend time there and the Philadelphia Soul stuff out of Philadelphia International Records. I didn’t grow up in Philly, I grew up in New York, and so I’m still sort of learning the history of the city and I feel like any city that has been around has their own sort of culture and musical history. And I feel like it takes time to learn it, understand it. And a lot of guys in our band grew up in Philly and literally live and breathe that stuff. I feel like you can really hear that when you hear them play. We say all the time, we’re SNACKTIME from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Those two things are inseparable. The fact that we came from that place matters to who we are, what we do, and how we do it. It’s very much, you can’t separate the idea of SNACKTIME from the place that we were founded in.
MJP: If you could collab with any Philly artist, any era, dead or alive, who would you want it to be and why?
ES: BEN FRANKLIN
SG: haha Ben Franklin for sure…but there’s so many great ones. You know? It would be so cool to put some stuff out with Tierra Whack, but in the same way, I would love to hear Lee Morgan and his thoughts on our music. There are just so many, and just to be able to work with all the Gamble and Huff artists, and all the Sound of Philadelphia people. To be able to have that amazing string section at our disposal in that studio. I went to college across the street from the old Sound of Philadelphia recording studio, and there’s just so much magic in there. I feel like if we had been able to have that disposal of artists, at that time, it would have been awesome. I would have loved to have gone on tour with the OJ’s. It would have been cool. So, yeah, there’s lots of good stuff.
MJP: I know you guys played Boston before and were at Boston Calling. What’s your relationship with the city like, and do you have any outstanding memories from past shows or visits?
ES: Yeah we’ve been there, what? Three times, four times? And every time we go there, we play a different venue, which is cool. We’ve been there with LuckyChops, then went up with Portugal Man, then we were at Boston Calling and then Levitate Festival before that which was super cool. I have family up there and friends, so I feel like that’s always a good opportunity to see them. I feel like it’s really developing here you know? I think as any group, you have to spend time there. You have to keep on being a presence in different cities, and I feel like Boston’s probably one of the places that we’ve been the most out of any place at this point.
SG: Boston’s been a really cool sort of litmus test to see, like, when we come back to be like, “okay cool who’s coming back again?”. Boston definitely feels like one of the markets in which people are returning to see us, which has been awesome. A special memory I have from Boston is, there’s a ramen spot that I always wanted to go to for upwards of ten years. The first time we were going to go, it didn’t end up working out with the sound check time. But then when I was able to go the second time, me and a bunch of the other guys went.
And the place is called Yume Wo Katare. And at the end, it’s kinda set up like a school with like a classroom. So at the end, you’re supposed to stand up and talk to the class and tell them what your dream is. And if you get 10 dreams in thirty seconds, you get to spin the wheel. So I spun the wheel and got a free bowl of ramen. So I’m very excited to hopefully cash in on that next time we’re in Boston. But, yeah, it’s a really cool place. Me and Ben went to Dylan’s, which is, the first bathhouse in America, which is pretty crazy. Wow. Old, interesting, and fun. Nice.
MJP: How do you guys envision the SNACKTIME sound or identity evolving over the next few years?
SG: We are going to continue to try to write the best song possible. We’re gonna continue to try to say what we mean, how we mean it, when we want to, and just try to make people feel something, appreciate something or to-feel hurt or to-feel loved in our songs because we are in a very interesting time. I think people, they need the catharsis of music. So we’re gonna continue to make really good music and continue to make people dance and party.
MJP: Time frame for that studio record?
SG: Realistically, end of the year/early next year. I’d imagine we have a pretty complete package but we’ll have some more songs coming out later this year. We’re working on a bunch of stuff right now. So just keep it locked on at SNACKTIME on Instagram and all of our socials, you won’t be disappointed that you did.
To learn more about SNACKTIME or see them on tour, visit their website!
Follow SNACKTIME on Instagram @SNACKTIME and listen to their newest single ENOUGH!
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