About three-and-a-half years ago, Snowden was a bedroom project of then-hermetic singer/songwriter Jordan Jeffares. Since then, Jeffares—with the help of his older brother/Snowden’s manager, Preston Jeffares—assembled a band, began courting the blogosphere, tweaked the group’s lineup, played hard-to-get with some major labels, signed with venerable indie Jade Tree and got a purple Dodge minivan. Oh, and along way, there’s been a lot of buzz.
Recently Snowden—Jeffares along with guitarist Dave Payne, bassist Corinne Lee and drummer Chandler Rentz—brought the dour, dancey, dark pop nuggets that populate its debut album Anti-Anti to NYC for the CMJ Music Marathon.
We asked Jeffares how it feels taking Snowden from the bedroom to the Bowery Ballroom—where it’ll play this Tuesday with British hype machine ¡Forward, Russia!
NYP: You guys played four shows at CMJ earlier this month. Sounds like it was pretty much a real marathon for you guys.
Jeffares: I thought four shows was normal until someone told me it wasn’t. I wish we could’ve played more. Once we got there on the first day, it was a rush to get everything done. On top of the shows, there were in-studios and stuff during the day. At the end it definitely felt like we’d been running around for a while.
You just wrapped up your first full U.S. tour. Did you find it stressful?
I got more of a perception at how huge the U.S. is. Our average drive was about eight to nine hours. Most people would kill to be able to see the country that way. For lodging, at one end of the spectrum were the hairdressers in Salt Lake City with the immaculate loft where we slept on feather beds and bathed in a Jacuzzi. At the other end was tiny $30-a-night motel in south Idaho where the owner had to come in throughout the night to handle a black fly infestation. We had great gigs in all of the big cities, which I expected, but there were a couple of surprises in the smaller towns. Who would’ve known that we would get an encore in Boise?
How is the first tour to Europe?
We’re touring on our own this time, some shows opening and some headlining. We’re getting used to drinking beer or coffee three times a day in order to use Internet cafés.
They tell us that all of Europe spoils indie bands except for the U.K. That said, the shows have been good in the U.K., but the crowds are really stiff in some places. Of course, we’re only half way through, so they still have time to warm up.
Are you NME fodder yet?
I think we’re going to “save rock ’n’ roll” in December or something. Maybe we’ll save post-punk or something. Something is always getting “saved” at the glossies.
Nov. 28. Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 7:30, $14.
