Nashville’s Snooper return with Worldwide, an electrified collision of punk speed, electronic textures, and surreal world-building that proves their chaos is sharper, stranger and more unstoppable than ever.

Snooper come across like a band that can’t sit still. Twitchy, restless, and bursting with ideas that move as fast as the songs they write, their energy spills out beyond the stage and the studio. Their new album Worldwide captures that hyperactive spirit but also pushes it further, stretching the raw, jagged immediacy of their debut into something stranger, more experimental, and defiantly hard to pin down.

“We are Snooper, a band based in Nashville, Tennessee. We make fast music that is hard to categorise into one specific genre,” they explain. “Having previously played in Hardcore and Punk bands, Connor Cummins, the guitarist and primary song writer of Snooper, draws musical influences from all over. We (Blair and Connor) like to play fast. We like to make music that makes people want to move. We like to bring a lot of energy to a stage and we like loud, punchy music. Currently, we have been drawing inspiration from electronic music. We care deeply about how the music is presented in a live setting and have created a world around the music by adding visual elements to our live shows.”

That world building, sonic, visual and conceptual, has been given new space to breathe thanks to legendary producer John Congleton, who worked with the band on Worldwide. “John allowed out these songs to have room to breathe. We demoed all of the songs at home, before going into the studio with John. At home, we record everything with Connor’s 8 track. This style of analog recording is inherently limiting, which is what we love about it. While loyal to this method of demoing songs, we were able to really experiment in the studio with John. Since the majority of these songs had never been played live, we felt completely free to follow them in whatever direction they ended up being taken. This was a completely new experience for us as the songs on our previous record, Super Snooper, were all rerecorded songs. We think of Super Snooper as being more of a live studio recording. Worldwide is a totally different story.”

That willingness to leap into the unknown shows up in tracks like ‘Pom Pom,’ a song that turns cheerleading into self-empowerment. “To be completely honest, this song was inspired by The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” Blair says, grinning. “I don’t know anything about football, but I loved the recent docuseries about the team’s cheerleaders that came out this year on Netflix. I could go on and on, but I watched that docuseries at a time when I was home, redeveloping my own sense of self worth. I think it’s important to cheer for yourself. It’s also important to sit things out from time to time and to really take a close look at what you’re supporting.”

Snooper’s relationship with performance is rooted in connection, born out of the isolation of the pandemic and sharpened into something visceral once the world reopened. “I (Blair) originally saw Snooper as a recording project. I thought Snooper would be a great project to exist online. I hoped that Connor would write the music and I could make music videos and that we would create this weird niche internet art thing. Connor loves playing music live so it was inevitable that we would play live at some point, but Snooper started at the point in the pandemic when it really felt like it was never going to end. The world felt really weird (and scary and lonely) at that time and I think that’s important to note. I think when the pandemic did end and people could enjoy live music again, it felt really important to connect with the audience as much as possible because it had previously felt very difficult to do so. We have always cared to connect with the crowd, in fact I think it is the most important thing about being a band. We try to bring as much energy as we possibly can to our live shows.”

That manic energy is balanced by humour and a streak of self-awareness. “Snooper is very serious!!! Just kidding, but I do think it’s funny how serious some people take their music. Snooper is imperfect. We know that. It’s a creative project. It is a space for experimentation that we have carved out and invited others into. Snooper shows are an experience that we figure out together in real time. I love puppeteering at a Snooper show because that’s how I connect with the crowd. I personally love when bands perform instead of when they just play their instruments on stage. We take our music seriously and there is a difference between being silly and having fun. We have fun!”

Part of that fun comes from their visual universe, which has become inseparable from the music. “I think that creating a visual world around your band is so fun. I am actually pretty obsessed with the idea of world building and adding characters to this world. I like to think that different characters represent different eras of the band and I think as the band continues to grow, our visual world also continues to expand. It is fun to keep things fresh and exciting while remaining anchored to what we initially started by tying everything together with familiar visual elements. The bug has become a mascot of sorts for us and it’s fun to see how he changes with our music. Our music changes, but some elements of the band are timeless.”

What makes Worldwide so vital is Snooper’s willingness to embrace risk. “We used to only write songs that we felt could easily be reproduced and played in live settings, so we wouldn’t take risks or experiment too much in the studio,” they admit. This time around, the band pushed themselves far past that comfort zone. “On Worldwide we added more electronic percussion, different effects on vocals and instruments, creating two separate experiences instead of keeping the recordings limited to what could be reproduced exactly the same in a live setting.” The result is an album that treats the stage and the record as two different playgrounds, both chaotic but never bound by the same rules.

That spirit of unpredictability ties back to the artists Snooper are absorbing and reshaping into their own vision. “Personally I’m most inspired by what some people call ‘future music,’ which is basically artists who are blending multiple genres,” they say. “Yves Tumor, Machine Girl, The Garden, 100 Gecs, Jane Remover, TAGABOW… Turnstile as well. I think when someone says “this band used to be (genre) but aren’t anymore” and others say “no they are still (genre) it’s just different” then you have created something that is hard to classify, future music!” Worldwide doesn’t just take from these influences, it speaks the same hybrid language, existing somewhere between punk chaos and the disorienting sheen of electronic invention.

Spend any time with Snooper and it becomes clear that their world is built not just on riffs and visuals but on the details of everyday obsessions. Blair lights up when they talk about “Freak Nature Puppets, Italian ice from Publix, thinking about the elaborate dinner parties I am going to host for my friends (only thinking about them), Feeble Little Horse, Sun Electric, getting my nails done with my mom, Abwarts, cool videos on YouTube.” Connor, meanwhile, reels off a list of his own current fixations: “N/A Lagers, Humbuckers, Memphis Rap, Steel City Dance Discs, Carpet Company socks, smokehouse almonds, Warp Records, Japanese cuisine, Country Teasers.” These touchpoints, at once trivial and profound, seep into the sound and personality of the band, feeding their energy with a sense of curiosity and humour.

But Snooper are just as clear-eyed about what they reject as what they embrace. “I.C.E. and how the US government is synthesizing division and weaponizing fear,” Blair says sharply. “I also hate the way women and trans rights are being threatened.” Connor echoes the frustration from a different angle: “Trump, inflation, everyone in small music scenes shit talking each other, public genocide becoming almost like a reality tv show, being sick, gear breaking on tour/at shows, Sweetwater only sending you the worst candy.” That balance between joy and fury, silliness and seriousness, is part of what makes Snooper tick: they move fast, they play loud, they connect with the crowd, but they never lose sight of the wider world they’re thrashing against.

On the road with The Hives, Snooper found a glimpse of their future selves. “Watching all of the Hives, particularly Pelle, go crazy on stage night after night was something that will stick with me. When you think about bands long term you sometimes wonder ‘will I be able to perform like this every night when I’m older?’ They are proof that energy transcends time!”

Worldwide feels less like a conventional punk record and more like an invitation into Snooper’s ever-mutating universe, where speed, humour, visual spectacle, and raw emotion all collide. They’re not interested in fitting into genre boxes or reproducing the same show every night. They want to create an experience that is alive, unpredictable, and impossible to stand still through. As they put it themselves, the mission is simple but powerful: “I hope Worldwide makes people want to move!!!”