The Amazing Snakeheads… Legless

Interview: The Amazing Snakeheads

Published on January 17th, 2014 | Jonny Abrams

The Amazing Snakeheads are gearing up to the release of their debut album on the prestigious Domino label, home also to Animal Collective and The Arctic Monkeys, so it seemed like an opportune time to fire some questions at the Glasgow trio’s bassist William Coombe.

First, though, get a load of the electrifying noise they make…

Is there a full album in the works?

It’s done, coming out in April. It’s taken me by surprise: there’s more on it than just bass, guitar and drums – but it sounds evil, in a good way! It sounds menacing, a wee bit unresting. We’re all really happy with it and we can’t wait for it to come out.

I get a real sense of early Pixies from listening to “The Truth Serum” and I was wondering who your main influences are…

See, it’s weird for us when people say we sound like this or that – we like rock and roll, but when we all met we were listening to soul, R’n’B, all sorts of crazy stuff. I can’t hear it myself.

It’s down to somebody’s individual taste: some people might hear this, some people might hear that, which is great. But it’s not something we’ve ever really consciously thought about.

Did you consider making “Testifying Time” longer than 75 seconds?

No, never. That was one of the first songs that we learned to play together and it was meant for impact – it’s just balls to the wall, there are no airs or graces or anything fancy about it, it’s just a minute and three seconds of just going for it.

How did you come to the attention of Domino?

Laurence [Bell, Domino founder] came up to see us at Broadcast in Glasgow, there were a few other people there too. After the gig Laurence came up to us, we got chatting, then one thing led to another. It was basically as simple as that.

Other than that, what have been your highlights of being in The Amazing Snakeheads so far? The gig in Paris with Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand must have been fun…

Aye, Paris was an experience. Just to get an opportunity to go over there with your pals and play music – it’s not exactly a hard life, know what I mean?

On the NME Radar tour, we played Brighton and it was brilliant. To be honest, it’s all been great – it’s been a bit of a whirlwind this last year, so it’s hard to pick out best bits. Can’t complain.

Finally, do you have a favourite album from last year?

I don’t really listen to a lot of new music, it’s all old stuff. The last gig I went to see was The Stone Roses in Glasgow, that was brilliant.

William Coombe, thank you.

SEE ALSO: William talks to our sister site Football Burp about his beloved Rangers FC

Artists: the amazing snakeheads

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.