What’s the upper limit for how many members you can have in a band?
Take one look at the revered instrumental act Snarky Puppy, and the question of an ‘upper limit’ seems stupid.
The band (or rather, the “family”, as Snarky Puppy founder Michael League puts it) has had around 40 members play for them over the 21 years they’ve been around. The result is an instrumental act brimming with cerebral energy, boasting a captivating catalogue of jazz, funk, soul and world music.
Check out our gig guide, our stage guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
The five-time Grammy award winners are touring again in Australia for the release of their remastered and remixed version of 2014’s We Like It Here.
Bob Lanzetti, guitarist and founding member of Snarky Puppy, states the obvious: when you have so many players, the band’s sound eschews external labels. The only label that suffices is the label of Snarky Puppy itself.
“Everyone in the band brings something else to the table,” Lanzetti says. When that table seats 40 people, all with their own idiosyncrasies, you can picture the diversified musical cuisine that everyone brings. Thus, it’s important for the band not to go by a single label or genre.
“We’re not like, ‘Okay, we’re a jazz band or we’re a funk band,'” Lanzetti says. “Everything is up for grabs: orchestral stuff, folk music from different countries, rock, jazz, gospel… everything.”
One listen to their catalogue, and it’s clear the band can jump between stank face-inducing bass lines, horn-hollering hooks, ethereal harmonies and galvanising guitar solos like it’s no one’s business.
But before the band could boast five Grammy awards and 300,000 monthly listeners, Snarky Puppy was more of a self-managed project fueled by a drive only youthful university students could possess.
Lanzetti was studying music at the University of North Texas when he met the spearhead of the band, Michael League, in 2004. Putting together a 10-piece ensemble, the band embodied the stereotypical touring life, going from state to state with very little money to their names.
“For years, it was just us in a van that would break down half the time. We were sleeping on the floor of random people that we would meet after gigs, just anything, because we had to save as much money as possible. We didn’t have any money,” Lanzetti says.
Now, the band obviously has a little more money than when they started off. The year of 2008 saw Snarky Puppy ramp up their touring schedule, and 2013 was when the band could afford hotel rooms consistently (this is a bigger deal than it seems). The release of the band’s most iconic album, We Like It Here, went viral in 2014, and the hype was unavoidable.
In order to keep the income flowing sustainably, Snarky Puppy utilises their love for education to not only give younger, more disadvantaged future musicians a chance, but also to earn another source of income. Through musical clinics and workshops, the touring members will run their own clinics during the day and then play shows at night.
“You can’t make a million dollars selling records anymore, so diversifying what you’re doing is the best way to make ends meet,” says Lanzetti.
Diversifying musical influences also make ends meet – sonically, at least. Perhaps the only constant in the band’s style (aside from their ridiculous talent, of course) is their worldly sound, and such a large roster of musicians means they’re bound to encounter new music from all over the world.
“Some people have checked out more Cuban music than other people, some people have checked out more Brazilian, some people have checked out more Indian music. So it’s kind of what individual members have studied, where we’ve travelled and just being open to it all.”
The open-minded ethos of the band enables them to make connections with other musicians, no matter where they’re from or what language they speak. This is crucial for a band that tours all over the world, as often musicians from the country they’re visiting will play some shows with Snarky Puppy.
“The thing about music is that there’s no language barrier once you’re playing. We played with an ensemble in Istanbul, for example. A lot of the guys in that group didn’t speak English at all, or very little, so it was hard to communicate,” he says.
“There’s a lot of little cues that you can give each other musically, that make you say, ‘Oh, yeah, I know what you’re talking about.’ And so when we started playing, they just felt like our homies.”
For tickets to see Snarky Puppy on their Australian tour this May, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Destroy All Lines.
