Snapped Ankles’s message is often fragmented, but ultimately seems to straddle a strong dichotomy between nature and capitalism – the latter firmly tongue in cheek, of course.
I encountered them once, at a festival, which was not dissimilar to stumbling into a laser-lambasted forest rave where Ewoks had doubled in size and earthy, metallic clanging was a tribal beat of choice. Primal rhythms. A motorik pulse. An organic, chaotic desire to create something from their immediate surroundings and watch it grow. I had no idea what was going on but naturally, they piqued interest. These aren’t just a bunch of blokes that dress like ditches after all.
The collective’s new video for their track Drink & Glide is a depiction of the demise of our communities – municipal, grey-suited brokers, united in their desire to break down the fundaments of the ‘woodwose’ and his adopted warehouse habitat. It’s common knowledge that East London and its eclectic warehouse scene is under threat from tall, shiny canyons of foreign investment, literally blocking out the light. Snapped Ankles have always resented this and Drink & Glide is another selection from the canon that mocks this, but it’s even better than that, cause it makes you dance, too.
How come you decided on making the estate agents do yoga in the video?
The song and video review how corporate mindfulness has commandeered the new age of 60’s counter-cultural ideology.
You’ve spoken candidly in previous interviews about how the estate agent was your next disguise of choice – what made you actually decide to go with property developers in particular?
They are the new devils in our village…
The ghillie suits are obviously an imperative cog to your art; do you think the usage of foliage stems from an insecurity to being bare on stage?
The ghillie suits, whilst representing the forest devils and pagan carnivals also unify the group behind a common mask.
What aspects of the occult do you find the most fascinating?
Probably how the pagan fears and superstitions still prevail today but in new forms. A great book to read on this that influences some of the themes on the album is Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information by Eric Davies.
What would you ultimately like to be able to do with your music?
We are happy to have more than the people in the band hear it so pleased its going further than the forest walls. “IF A TREE HITS A DRUM IN THE FOREST AND NO ONE IS AROUND TO HEAR IT, DOES IT MAKE A SOUND?”
Header Photo by Kasia Wozniak