10th June 2024

How The Snuts are on a mission to make mental health a priority in the music industry

Name: Campaign Against Living Miserably
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Swapping tour bus hangovers for hot yoga and breaking away from their record label to release their third album independently, The Snuts are doing things their way, and doing it brilliantly. We spoke with bassist Callum, who told us why they want to create a safe space for young musicians and how a ten minute chat with your mate could make all the difference.

“It’s definitely going to plan - which is nice after we decided to break away from our label and do it ourselves,” says Callum. It certainly seems to be going to plan. After the anger and politics of second album Burn the Empire, their latest Millennials - released in February and which reached number 2 in the album charts - was a more personal affair, drawing together snapshots from the lives of the people the band know. You can hear it on the ups and downs of life on “YoYo” or “Deep Diving” which tackle the mental health epidemic sweeping The Snuts’ generation.

The result is probably their best album yet, and it’s no wonder that the band describe it as their free-est record. Following increasing pressure from their record label to promote themselves on social media, the band decided to take a break - heading to the Highlands with no plans but making some music. They returned with their third album and the decision to leave their label and release the record in their own way.

“In the midst of Burn the Empire, we started to feel a real disconnect from the way the label wanted us to represent ourselves and the way that we wanted to represent ourselves. We suddenly realised with that record that it was meant to be one that was focused on social issues and one of the most prominent ones was the cost of living crisis. We felt like everybody was skint and they just wanted to push this record in everybody's faces. It felt really against our moral fibre and we actually didn't want to do that.”

“So we decided to head up to the Highlands after the tour for Burn the Empire and just have a bit of fun and record some music. It was about a sense of release rather than going with the intention to record an album or start a project.”

“It's worth just taking just a ten minute conversation, because those ten minutes could be absolutely critical."

But, empowered by that sense of freedom, they created Millennials and let the record label know they would be releasing it themselves. “It was a tense conversation to start with, but a lot of big decisions in life can come from tense conversations,” Callum says. Thankfully it’s more than worked out. ”It's been the easiest record to promote, the easiest record to record, and the easiest record to play live because there's just no pressure.”

They’ve done it all on their own terms - and on their own label. A label they called Happy Artist Records - the name inspired by rejecting the cliched idea of the tortured artist. “I grew up seeing my favourite artists really push themselves and they were obviously struggling. They pushed their bodies to the absolute limits and loads of them died. As time goes on you start to realise where your values lie and I would definitely rather have a decent family around me and enjoy life than be a burnt out star.”

Early in their career someone had told them ‘there's nothing worse than a happy artist'. “That sentence stuck with us and it became a running joke. In light of the situations that unfolded it became almost like a mantra and it was a goal to be a happy artist as opposed to being unhappy. When all this happened it made so much sense to call our own label Happy Artist Records.”

And they want the label to be exactly that: a happy place - to create a healthier and safer environment for young artists. They’re ambitious about how the label can become a beacon for how they want other labels to be. “We really hope in the next five to ten years we can build a space where artists can promote themselves the way they want to and the way they feel most comfortable. If that means being on social media 24/7 that’s fine, but that just wasn't who we want it to be. We just want to create a safe space where people are releasing music they want to and they can just be themselves. That’s music in its purest form.”

And as they get a little older and wiser, they’re living that ideal on tour too - making sure they’re looking after themselves. “On the Burn the Empire tour I think we were really stressed after everything with the label and I think that really showed because we were partying, smashing tequila just to get on stage. But with this tour it’s been different. This tour we've been hitting the gym, Jack's just done a hot yoga session haha and we're just trying to exercise. We're trying to get out to see stuff rather than sitting on a bus feeling rough as fuck, not leaving the bus until four o'clock in afternoon because you can't face the day.”

"We just want to create a safe space where people are releasing music they want to and they can just be themselves."

This focus on treating themselves better means checking in on their mental health as well. ”Mental wellbeing is such an important strand of life and it's super important that the conversation is absolutely normalised to the point that nobody feels that knot in their chest when they've got a difficult thing to say and it’s just something we can easily tap into and reach out to someone”.

We know first hand at CALM how important it is to check in on mates and family when you’re worried they’re going through stuff - but we also know how difficult it can seem to reach out that first time (we have loads of advice on how to help you do that). And Callum is articulate about how losing your sense of ego is crucial when you’re reaching out to someone struggling. “When it comes to mental health it’s important to step away from your ego and think ‘why are they being like that?’ because if somebody's never normally like that and they're suddenly being different, chances are they're not just being a dick, but maybe something's happened.”

And he echoes something that we bang on about at CALM - how vital it is to take the time to check in on your mates. “It's worth just taking just a ten minute conversation, because those ten minutes could be absolutely critical and that person might feel 1,000 times better the next day because of it.” Amen to that.