“You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little vague, but I’m just speechless,” Davidson says. “It’s a proud moment, you know? We never expected it could go like this. It was ‘Stand here, mic up, three, two, one, you’re on.’ It was only after that we came up with all these cool things we could have said about Larry.”
Chances are the lads will get another chance down the road. Even if you’re not a fan of their raucous sound – though, really, charismatic rock numbers siphoned through a bluesy lens, what’s not to love? – you have to give them props for dedication. They just kicked off an album tour that will take them through until at least the end of November, and likely further. While their commitment has been unwavering, they’ve come a long way since their fledgling early days.
“I guess … things are very different,” says Davidson. “We’re simply not the same band who made [debut LP] Too Late to Pray. It’s almost eight years later. We aren’t the same people as when we started, and that’s neither a good or bad thing. It simply is. There’s a myriad of experience that has influenced the music since then. That has changed, evolved. I definitely hear a cry of consistency in there. I think we’ve been consistent, it all makes sense to me, but whether we make sense to other people… fuck. Life conspires to make us what it will. Yes, we’re a different band. But you can’t have it any other way.”
Again, that laugh. “We really never saw ourselves as just a blues band. We were a bunch of rock musicians who played the blues for a time. Quite honestly, we were wearing a costume. The Snowdroppers came together for a very specific purpose, and then just happened to keep going. The more we played, the more we started to resent that costume, both morally and sonically. So maybe starting in something that could be considered a genre band – that sort of blues revival – all of a sudden, playing outside those genres, yeah, you might start to split your audience. But you might also find a new one.”
With two singles from Business doing the rounds – Devil Child and Love Letters – you get a fine sense of how the band has changed over time. Though distinctly different songs in tone and temperament, they’re nonetheless uniquely-Snowdroppers. You feel no matter the vehicle, it’s always going to be pretty clear who’s driving.
“This album has had a mixed response so far. Some people have said, ‘Oh, it’s a departure.’ But for me it really bridges a gap. We just want to write good songs, and who wants to write an album of the same fucking song, you know? I feel like both Devil Child and Love Letters are very representative of us as a band. I know Paulie K [bass] originally wanted to do an album that wouldn’t refer to love at all, to kind of write around it, but never refer to it. But that went out the window pretty quick. I don’t think we’re ever likely to make anything like a concept album. You never know, though. I mean,” he laughs, “No one’s going to buy this record, so we have to try something.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
