Snowbyrd Interview: SXSW 2010

Springing from the San Antonio underground, this foursome delivers a psychedelic glam country pop punk sound unlike any other. Even with the sudden death of drummer Manny Castillo, the loss of their home bar hub Taco Land and a rapid succession of bassists, brothers Chris and Scott Lutz are rocking on toward SXSW with their latest release 'Diosdado,' and their newest bassist Dale Johnson and drummer Ken Robinson. Spinner recently spoke with frontman Chris Lutz about the band, where they've been and where they're heading.

How did your band form?

We grew up in the San Antonio bar scene. Taco Land was the center of activity. It was a very cool place to hang out, learn how to play music and listen to great bands. When the owner, Ram Ayala, was murdered and Taco Land shut down, it was devastating. At the time, Manny and I were in a band called the River City Playboys. We started playing around with the idea of injecting country into our sound. Scott was classically trained in pedal steel guitar and was playing in a mariachi band. I followed him around and loved the randomness of it, the punk do-it-yourself attitude of spontaneously assembling on the street, bursting into three part harmonies upon request, and making an instant party with stripped down acoustic that elicited real raw emotion in a very theatrical way. Manny and I wanted to infuse that flavor into our band and in 2006 we asked Scott to join. When he did, we changed the name to Snowbyrd.

How did you come up with the band name?

Snowbyrd is about traveling in your mind, wanting to be somewhere else. Snowbirds fly from north to south in the winter and south to north in the summer always in search of the next destination. We originally wanted the name Snowbird which was a song we did as the Cleofus Trujillo Trio, but that name was taken so we changed the spelling to a 'y'.

Describe your sound in your own words.

It's a little bit acid country and a whole lot of rock and roll. It's four track-esque like Spoon and Future Clouds and Radar with the lo-fi aesthetic of British 1970s psychedelic glam. Epic like Bowie and ELO. Punk in attitude with a twang and wrapped up in a pop-2-minute-45-second radio-ready format. But mostly it's original.

Beatles or Stones?

Both, and somewhere in between like The Kinks and Thin Lizzy.

What are your musical influences?

For me it's all the B bands -- Beatles, Badfinger, Budgie, Big Star, Byrds. Roger McGuinn is my hero. The Byrds' 'Eight Miles High' takes you to another place where you completely forget where you are in the sound. For Scott, it's the S bands -- Slade, Sweet, Steppenwolf, and Sam the Sham. The list goes on. Having grown up in Texas, country is a deep part of our soul. We're also heavily influenced by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard.

Who were your first celeb crushes?

Joan Jett, Linda Ronstadt and Charo.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Emmylou Harris. She's so cow-punk.

What is in your festival survival kit?

It's survival of the fittest out there. I always bring enough guitar strings and Lone Star Beer to get through the weekend. Scott brings taco money and his cell phone to send pictures from the road.

What is the craziest thing you've ever experienced on tour?

The whole trip to NXNE in Toronto was insane. We got stopped at the border crossing because of some strange issue with Scott being banned from Canada. He wound up having to pay $250 for naturalization papers to become a temporary Canadian citizen just to cross the border. Then we had the classic 'Spinal Tap' experience of showing up at gigs that were cancelled. As luck would have it, we wound up playing venues that were better than the original booking. After finishing a set at a youth hostel, I got swept off into the depths of the Toronto nightlife, lost track of time and came within minutes of missing our ride back home.

How do you stay in touch with your fans?

We have MySpace and Facebook pages, but we like to text our core fans invites to our shows. It gives us a more personal connection to them.

What are you most looking forward to at SXSW?

I love wandering around and stumbling upon all the fresh new acts. This is our third time at SXSW. It'll be great playing the Saustex showcase and seeing Scott play with the Hickoids.

What is your biggest vice?

Nothing too wicked, our biggest vice lately has been drooling over photos of fancy Russian microphones on the web. We're so passionate about building our River Road Studio, we've spent every waking hour learning older recording techniques that create the magic that exists on albums like the Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds' and the Beatles 'Revolver.' You need vintage equipment to get that sound. My 1968 Burns of London double six string practically writes songs on its own

What's next?

Producing local bands like The Headshrinkers. We are also producing our next release ourselves and having a blast with all the happy accidents along the way. Watch for a double album from us later this year.

How do you define success?

We're already there. We perform for the love of doing it, for the joy of good tone. Creatively, we feel we're at a high point and have carved out a niche that sounds exciting to us and others. It would be nice to be millionaires so we can quit our day jobs and still have money to get dressed up in our glam cowboy outfits and put on a rock show for kicks and smoke. We'd love it even more if Lone Star Beer signed on as a sponsor, we drink enough of it on stage. But as long as each album gets better and fans continue to wear our tee shirts, that's success.


Martine Paris is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.