Interview with ECCE SHNAK

All answers by David Roush, frontman and songwriter of Ecce Shnak.

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music, what would you be doing today?

 As goofy as it sounds, I guess I would have to say that music got me into music. For better or for worse, whether or not I am ever successful or whether or not anybody likes it, I have always known I needed to be a musician in some form or another. Before I committed to it professionally, I had a brief period I was working towards becoming a psychotherapist. That was fascinating work, and I might have done an okay job at it. However, the dog-shite American system burned the hell out of me. I couldn't provide the people I wanted to help with the help that I could give them, not because either of us couldn't take part in a relationship of care, but because our dogshite system put all kinds of horrible interferences between caretakers and those that need care. In particular, the insurance system is the primary interference, but it is certainly not the only one,

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

I like to play with my pets. I have a cat Billie and a dog Joey. They are indescribably precious and wonderful beings. They directly influence my music because they fascinate me and comfort me, so much so that I have written songs about them. 

In addition, I draw. I am not a talented visual artist, but I have a hell of a lot of fun. I do stylized set lists for my band (you can peep those at @dayvshnak on Instagram), and I also do goofy-ass abstract, surreal almost "figure-based" drawings, too. I have even started fuffing around with making erotic art. It is hilariously goofy, but it is better than pornography for many obvious reasons. I think I am getting better at this goofy hobby of mine the more I do it. I think I am too shy to share it with the world, but maybe some day.

How long has your band been around? Also, please tell me about the dynamic of the band of what brought you all together.

I have had different versions of my band since I was 25 years old, which is almost 15 years ago. Though the band started in Philadelphia in 2011, I moved to New York City to find musicians to play the music I write in 2016. This city has some of the most talented musicians in the world. I have found 4 of them. They also happen to be unbelievably cool, funny, caring, fascinating, creative people. We spend the beginning of each of our rehearsals talking with each other just as people before we challenge ourselves as artists and collaborators. 

Where are you based and how did that influence your music?

I grew up in New Haven, CT. It is a goofy little city but also a profoundly sad and serious little city. Some people think it's a hub of elitist WASP intelligentsia, because it is. Other people are scared of it because it's an American city. I think there are truths in all of this. Its music and the music of Connecticut generally are all over the map. There is weird art-music, but a shit ton of hardcore and punk rock bands as well, and even some decent hip hop acts, too. People need music because life generally and life in America is madness, in New Haven and everywhere.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

In a combination of Latin and personal nonsense, "Ecce Shnak" means, "Hey, look at this!" The word "ecce" in Latin means "Behold!" The word "shnak" is a word I came up with when I was about 13 years old to use as a catch-all for any darn thing. I think I overheard the Yiddish word "shnokkered" from a family friend and transformed it into "shnak" without realizing it. "Ecce Shnak" is also a metamorphosis of the title of the autobiography of one of my favorite authors, Friedrich Nietzsche. His autobigraphy is called Ecce Homo, which means "Behold the man." Nietzsche got his title from a figure he obsessed over (in plenty of very contradictory ways): Jesus Christ! There is a scene from Christian art that art historians refer to as the "ecce homo" scene. Even though Nietzsche viciously shit-talked Jesus, he also admired him and was fascinated by him, too. He is honest about his own wildly mercurial ego. He basically felt the same way about himself, hence the name of his autobiography. So yeah, it's a complicated bunch of associations, images, autobiographical secrets, and jokes. I think, for me, the name of the band means, "Hey, check this out!" The music is basically my journal opened up to the world (or what I would want to show to any old person, anyway) for those interested to peruse and make what they want to of it. 

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

We recently played in Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan. This is one of my favorite parts of the city. Charlie Parker lived in an apartment adjacent to the park. Every walk of life in the city walks through Tompkins, from the crustiest punk to the shmanciest yuppy, and that is a fascinating, psychologically enriching melange of folx. My doggie and I play fetch in the skate park alongside the skaters. I have cerebral palsy and my dog is a dog, so neither of us can skate, but this allows both of us to enact our little skate-punk fantasies as well as we can. My doggie was at the show at Tompkins Square Park, and even chimed in on a couple of choruses with the help of the other singer of the band, Bella, putting her mic up to him barking every so often.

We have done Shnakfests before, little festivals where we have featured an exciting mix of musicians from various genres: metal bands, indie rock bands, hip hop artists, and classical musicians. This is how we like it.

Finally, we recently did a burlesque-heavy six-date residency at Berlin in Manhattan and the Red Pavilion in Brooklyn. Our friend and artistic producer Shelton kicked ass at bringing in wonderful dancers, drag-performers, and other musicians that helped express a sauciness and a naughtiness in the music that has always been latent in it.

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

All of the above places are my favorites so far. I am excited to play a festival with Ecce Shnak before my death. As long as nobody pulls any dumb-guy Woodstock 99 crapola, I would love for there to be a bazillion people rocking the whole hell out. I think something Red Rocks would the phattest venue for such a show.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

I have imagined a tour with Gogol Bordello, Deerhoof, and Ecce Shnak for most of our career. If I were to learn that this might ever take place, I would shit myself immediately with glee. I would also be utterly overjoyed if Bjork or Aurora ever wanted us on board, or if we could open for the Dillinger Escape Plan, now that those guys are cranking out some reunion shows. If the Roots invited us to one of their Picnics, I would also temporarily die with joy but immediately come back to life so as not to miss out.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

Fuff the haters. It is an unbelievable honor to have any musical inspiration at all, no matter what it becomes or where it goes. Don't let anyone ruin it for you. As corny as it sounds, it is true that they are just picking on you because they have low self-esteem or some other issue in their soul that they are compensating for in an ungracious way. So fuff them. 

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

I can't possibly choose a single song that means the most to me, but one song that comes to mind that I love to play is called, "Craig's List Jawn: ¡Yay/¡Nay!" It is a strange love-song that is a musical synthesis of rhythmic-phasing-based math-metal (like Meshuggah) and classical art song (like Benjamin Britten or Richard Strauss). It is about a former girlfriend whom I still adore in a basic friend-way, even though we caringly and respectfully broke up with each other about a decade ago. It feels like an affirmation of the idea that a love can survive the relationship in which it was created. 

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

That song "Craig's List Jawn" is a biggie. The songs "Velociraptory Swayze" and "Larry, Sleepover Friend" are maybe our most warmly flirtatious or charming songs, so people tend to enjoy those a lot. I love them, too. Our very heaviest song, "Katy's Wart," the last song on our album "Joke Oso," is a neurological exploding volcano for me. The vocal is totally extra and I don't have to sing. It is a blabbing and screaming song that we put at the end of our sets. I completely let loose and let my ant-fascist freak fly, throwing in a lot of deserved "fuqq you's" to the prime bigots/plutocrats that are (currently, anyway) running and ruining the world.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

I am the composer of the music. By the wild, absurd hands of Fate, I am able to afford to pay incredibly talented, brilliant musicians to play the music I write almost note-for-note. They are skilled interpreters and brilliant communicators, both in the literal sense and as artists. I write something, often record it with my dear friend and primary producer, a musician based in Philadelphia named Jeff Lucci, and then I take my writings and recordings to my fabulous band, and we arrange it live. 

I am inspired by human madness, human love, human cruelty, human flaw, human justice, human comedy, human heartbreak. I am terrified of things, amazed by them, in love with them, and amused by them. Because I can't help but write music, again, whether it's any good or not, these fascinations with human beings and with absurd life on Earth find their way into the subject matter of my lyrics. 

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

I believe that there is no "apolitical" music. Politics is maybe just the imperfect human attempt to negotiate the sharing of power, so we can't really avoid it. Some music is obviously expressly political. Other music is political by accident. When I write expressly political music, my goal is to advance four principles: de-militarization and decarceration; the protection and regeneration of the Earth's biosphere; economic justice to working and poor people worldwide; and social justice for socially marginalized people. When it is less expressly political, I like to talk about funny things I have seen or that happened to me, absurd meaningless events or imaginings, love, sex, friendship, the gods, and death.

Do you have any new singles, videos, or albums out that you would like to tell me and your fans about?

Yes! Ecce Shnak has recently released the second of our singles from our new 5-song EP, "Shadows Grow Fangs." The EP is slated to be fully released by February 7th of 2025. So far, we have released two singles from the EP, a Queen-soaked mathpunk song about a 18th-century British philosopher of utilitarianism called "Jeremy, Utliitarian Homeslice," and a much more straight-forward, whole grain rock song, "Prayer on Love." Both are a little bit more than two minutes long, but are wildly different from each other. The third single is an art-hip-hop track about the internet called, "The Internet." If Tyler the Creator and Primus ate mushrooms together and riffed on this subject it might sound like this track. The last two songs will be released with the EP. The title track, "Shadows Grow Fangs," is the longest song on the record. It is a poppier take on Ecce Shnak's math-kink. Lyrically, it is a meditation on loneliness and the confusions people suffer about our relationships with others, even our loved ones, especially when that loneliness becomes terrifying. The EP closes with a folk-song about a loved one of mine who took her own life about a decade ago. It is the only song in the Ecce Shnak catalogue that is just me and my guitar. It is called, "Stroll With Me."

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

We hope to release this EP, a full-length not long after that, and still another album shortly after that full-length that will be very wayward remixes of American pop music. In the very long run, we will release a film project I have been working on for more than five years. I also hope to write an opera. Through all of this, we want to exponentially grow the Ecce Shnak fanbase, play with and open for those bands I mentioned above and others, and play the hell out of some festivals. 

In your own words, how can your fans best keep up to date with you, any socials you want people to check out?

We are working on a fabulous website. Until then, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok (unless the dingbat right-wing has its way) at @eccshnak and just hit up the Ecce Shnak page on Youtube. There are many fabulous videos from previous albums that new Ecce Shnaks fans might ravenously consume.