The Australian punk band has been praised by Billy Corgan and Karen O for their explosive live act and uncompromising politics. Their new album is a sonic evolution – but the scrappy spirit remains
t’s 10pm on a Saturday night in Melbourne and the crowd at the Croxton is getting restless. Burly men in flannels, young women of colour, teenagers double-fisting beers, people with purple hair or grey – all are waiting for the same thing.
The morning before the show I meet the band at a studio tucked away in an industrial pocket of Melbourne’s inner north – the headquarters of Sundowner, their management company. The Sniffers are all running late, rolling in one by one: bassist Gus Romer, immediately extending his hand; guitarist Declan Mehrtens with his signature shaggy mop; drummer Bryce Wilson, boyish and shy.
It’s a distinctly Australian sound that had the Guardian’s UK’s music critic Michael Hann reaching for new genre titles: “ The Croxton show raised almost $14,000 through merch and door sales for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. “They are one of those few punk bands that actually embody punk,” says Phoebe Lunny, the guitarist and singer of Lambrini Girls, who opened for the Sniffers in the US and Canada over the North American summer. “They also champion safe spaces and advocate for Palestine at every performance … It’s a commitment to both their pit and using their platform.
Writing the album was a fast, loose process, with the band jamming out tracks on the fly. “The more you have to play a song, the more stale and less excitement is in it,” Mehrtens says.at the recent Bigsound conference in Brisbane, she shared some of the phrases that have been slung at her throughout her career: “Goddamn slut”, “bourgeois sellout”.
Besides, she’s having way too much fun to listen to joyless purists who think the band have betrayed punk’s ideals by partnering with Gucci or pushing their sonic boundaries. “If you don’t like us because we’ve gone to explore different things and you feel abandoned, like we left your scene or something, then that’s on you for having weird attachment styles, motherfucker.”– Taylor’s voice takes on a smoother, more tender sheen above a rumbling build.
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