Our Fresh Find artist this month is London, Ontario’s SnakeBite! SnakeBite was voted London’s Best Country Band in 2014 and they have been lighting up South-Western Ontario for quite a few years now. They recently opened up for Jason Blaine and George Canyon this past summer and they are currently working on a new album. Read more about SnakeBite below in our Q&A below and scroll down to listen to their current single “All Night Long”!
Q: How did “SnakeBite” come to be formed?
A: SnakeBite started out as basically a duo with Paul Lowry singing & myself (Marty Marsh) playing acoustic guitar. A close friend has a rock band and we opened up for them at a party and we both loved the feeling of playing on stage and SnakeBite was born right then and there!
Q: What made you choose to pursue a career in country music?
A: Both our parents influenced our love of country music as I remember my Mom and Dad playing classic country on the stereo all day long and Paul’s Mom would have him stand on a chair at 6 years old singing Johnny Cash songs at family functions. In the 90’s when Garth Brooks and Travis Tritt hit the scene that “new country” rocking sound and over the top live show really struck a chord with both of us.
Q: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never listened to your music before?
A: We like to use the slogan… “put a little kick in your country”… we have that rock n’ roll influence as all members of the band have played in rock roll bands (except Paul the singer). We have been compared to Black Hawk on a few occasions as James Vermue (Bass), Eric Demyunck (Lead Guitar) and Shawn Tasker (Drums) provide 3 part harmony to Paul’s country voice and we don’t mind as we all loved the Black Hawk CDs from the early 90s.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your new single “All Night Long”? What was the songwriting process for it like?
A: “All Night Long” was co-written with a friend named Derek Babanin, we were at my house on a weekend writing and we had run in to a bit of writer’s block. I live on a river so Derek put on a pair of old rubber boots and went for a walk down to the river… There was on old hammock between two trees and it gave him the first line of the song, “fireflies lighting up the sound in my head, white cot swinging on a river bed”… after that it took about 45 minutes and we had the melody and the lyrics banged out. The next morning I grabbed my electric guitar and the riff that came out sounded perfect for the song I sent it to the guys in the band and they were all were saying “yes sounds pretty good”… the first time we played it live the crowd reaction was awesome so we new we had a pretty good song.
Q: You opened up for George Canyon at the Western Fair in London, ON – what was that like?
A: We were so excited to open up for George as in 2013 we had an opportunity to open for George at the International Plowing Match but due to a torrential rainfall the night before the IPM had to cancel… So as luck would have it our second shot at opening for the Canadian superstar at the Western Fair in London, ON also ended up being cancelled due to rain as it was an outside show. George was gracious enough do a small intimate acoustic set for some radio station winners and he invited us also where he joked about how we might be “bad luck”.
Q: Your currently working on an album, what can fans expect?
A: The album is about 70% finished and the fans can expect a rocking country sound… along with “All Night Long” the lead single there is the title track called “My Road”, which is a song about growing up and making your own choices sometimes they may not be the right choices but at least they are your own! “Beautiful Girls” has an infectious groove and is a song about fads and the one fad all the guys in SnakeBite love is the look we see all around of girls wearing baseball hats with a little pony tails sticking out of the back. There is also our shot at honoring the classic country sound as we go retro for a song called “I wish I Wrote that Song” along with a fun summer ditty about getting “Laid Back”.
Q: What else have you got coming up that fans can look forward to?
A: Working on the CD is taking up most of our time right now… we have some local shows coming up in London area you can check our Facebook Page or website for details.
