Holy Shit It's Ten Years Since Snap! Crakk!! released "And the Sea Closed In Over Us"

For those who remember the rickety floor of Sydney's Hopetoun Hotel or a time when Melbourne's Carlton Club had fish tanks, it may come as a surprise that it's been ten years since the release of And the Sea Closed In Over Us, the sole album by little known but highly influential, and much loved, band Snap! Crakk!!

From humble Adelaide beginnings when they were named Snap! Crack! Le-Pop!, after the Rice Bubble cereal characters, the quartet had a sound that pre-empted the emerging electro-indie club/nu rave scene which dominated the mid 2000s. Members went on to be involved in Damn Arms, Gloves, Default Jamerson and bassist Tim Sullivan found himself in London playing in snotty punk bands alongside Tom Vek and Dev Hynes from Test Icicles.

Snap! Crakk!! existed in a time when social media was known as MySpace and the only video documentation of them is a brief appearance on The Presets video 'Are You The One?' Still their music had a lasting impact on a swag of kids with stylish clothes and haircuts who went on to make stylish dancey electro pop music.
We tracked down some members of this short-lived but influential band to find out more about those times. Noisey: You started amidst a rock revival. Guitar bands like Jet and The Vines were cool. Why did you go with synthesizers?
Yama Indra [Synth/Vocals]: Yeah they were the bands getting signed at the time. There were other bands we were influenced by like The Rapture and The Faint. But we were mostly looking back. There was lots of Birthday Party influence and the Little Band scene. When we started it was Depeche Mode, New Order and The Human League. We did a couple of covers like "Errol" by Australian Crawl and "Kilimanjaro" by The Teardrop Explodes. Even some goth like Christian Death because I had a goth firlfriend at the time.
Tim Sullivan [Bass]: It was one of the most organic experiences I've had. We didn't have a drum kit. We had a drum machine. Seriously, we were so broke.
Michael Bray [Guitar/Vocals]: If it was a conscious choice on Yama's part to place the band in opposition to the waves of guitar rock at the time, I can only say that made it more attractive to me. I was interested in the fact that the band was joyfully giving the surrounding music "scene" the middle finger within a style of music that usually celebrates conformity.

What prompted the move to Melbourne?
Yama: Adelaide was kind of small and everybody knew it.
Michael: It was a natural progression. A simple idea became a fact without much discussion. Melbourne had a lot going on and we wanted to be a part of it.

I heard that your music was being played on fashion runways in New York and London. Is there any truth to this? You guys were quite 'fashionable'.
Yama: I don't know anything about that! But as a band we had a pretty strong look. Headbands, tight t-shirts and jeans under our fringes. I was recently talking with one of my girlfriend's friends up here in Sydney who was saying how crazy the affect it had on the way people would dress. She said the first time she saw us it was like we were aliens from the future and that she couldn't believe we weren't gay as the boys who looked like that in Sydney were usually gay.
Tim: They all ended up being our girlfriends [jokes]. I guess when you're in to bands like Duran Duran and Human League it will rub off in some way. I guess we ticked the boxes of for people that had really poor gaydars. What was your greatest achievement?
Yama: I never thought we would play a proper venue. Or play in Melbourne. Supporting bands like Pink Grease and Death From Above 1979 we had the whole crowd going. Tim broke his collarbone at the Pink Grease show slipping on a beer on stage. He kept playing!

Were there any missed opportunities or regrets?
Yama: EMI really wanted to sign us at one point and sent through a rough contract just after they signed Jet. I really wanted to go for it, but someone decided we should get a lawyer and I think that scared them off a bit. They signed Cut Copy to Modular after that if I remember correctly.
Michael: It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if we were creatively mature enough to reign it in here and there, exploit the form and tickle that success dial a little more. We were pretty close on a few occasions, but we found it difficult to make the changes we knew we had to in order to be understood fully and at large. Is that a bummer? I couldn't say without seeing the other ending.

What was the cause for your ultimate demise?
Yama: The way I remember it was that I think Michael decided he didn't want to do it anymore. We always clashed a little bit. Michael and I were living in too close quarters. I think slowly we eroded that love we had through the stress of the band. Marcus was also ready to call it a day and made it easier for him when Michael decided to leave. Michael: Our final completed song was titled "Pushing Water Up Hill with a Broom", and that's what it felt like. What do you think of the current state of electronic music in Australia?
Yama: I think Cut Copy and The Presets kicked down the door for the success of electronic music in Australia a few years earlier. Flume's popularity has taken it up a notch but I think it's inaccurate to claim that he's entirely responsible for the popularity of Australian electronic music. Locally I dig what's going on. I'm friends with a lot of local producers like Touch Sensitive and D-Cup. Do you feel you left a legacy in the local scene?
Yama: There were things that were happening at the same time that I would identify us as being a cog in the wheel. But the things we triggered have now passed. It's hard to draw that thread, loosely I think you could to bands like DZ Deathrays, every time I hear them on the radio I draw conclusions that that sort of sound of that era. There might be a slight eco of it in bands like that. I know that we came out before The Klaxons with both our Damn Arms EP and the Snap Crakk album. We definitely pre-empted that Nu Rave sound. There were a lot of bands that happened in our wake. Bands that either changed after seeing us or popped up after seeing us. I find it quite flattering.
Tim: There were people who would approach you and tell you they appreciated what you did. That was a more personal level rather than a professional level.

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