There's Nothing Stranger Than Competing With Your Heroes

In 2014 the cult jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance with a live cover of Brenda Russell's It's Something led by Lalah Hathaway — outvying Melbourne's Hiatus Kaiyote. It was the first time an Australian act had been nominated in an R&B category and the local media massively hyped it up. Luckily, everyone everywhere loves Snarky Puppy.

Snarky Puppy's bandleader Michael League laughs off the idea of ever scoping out his competition Down Under, stressing that it's all love among the musicians. "Well, first off, I would never call any band in the world 'competition', because that's of course not why anyone makes music, I think — or it's definitely not why we're supposed to make music," he says from a San Francisco hotel. "I'm a huge fan of Hiatus Kaiyote. In fact, many of the guys in our band are friends with many of the people in that band. We've been playing festivals and gigs with them for years. But, actually, at the time of that Grammy ceremony, it was our first nomination as well and we had not met them yet. [But] it's like an unnecessary discomfort, because neither band had anything to do with that situation. Like I said, we're fans of theirs so it's so weird."

"I'm a huge fan of Hiatus Kaiyote. In fact, many of the guys in our band are friends with many of the people in that band.

An even weirder scenario occurred when Snarky Puppy also claimed last year's Best Contemporary Instrumental Album Grammy for 2015's Sylva project with the Netherlands' Metropole Orkest. "We were nominated in the same category as Marcus Miller and Bill Frisell, who are heroes of mine," League recalls. "It's so strange to go up and accept an award when your heroes were in the same category. You just kind of feel like a jerk, but you didn't do anything! We didn't want it to be like that. That's just the nature of awards." And League is accruing quite a collection of Grammys in his Brooklyn base. Snarky Puppy recently collected another Grammy in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category for 2016's studio album Culcha Vulcha. 

A student in the University of North Texas' jazz studies program, League conceived Snarky Puppy during the early noughties as an instrumental outfit with pals. He'd become bassist, composer and producer. Snarky Puppy released an acoustic debut, The Only Constant, independently in 2006. Today Snarky Puppy is more of a collective than a band, with over 20 distinguished members, some international, in rotation. Invariably, Snarky Puppy are classified as 'jazz fusion' — the genre back in vogue with records like David Bowie's Blackstar. However, League feels that the term has long been superseded in a pop culture where hybridisation is pervasive. "I don't really think of us as a fusion band. I mean, I'm totally aware of why we're considered that, because of the aesthetic and using analog synthesisers and the inclusion of rock and funk and stuff into a jazz idiom. But I think at this point 'fusion' as a word is kinda like calling something 'world music' — it's so broad."

Snarky Puppy have an impressive discography. Ironically, they're most renowned for what League calls "special projects" — such as the live, vocal-oriented Family Dinner charity series. Indeed, Snarky Puppy's Grammy-winning Something (they dropped the 'It's') featured on the first volume. Still, Family Dinner finds Snarky Puppy recording with lesser-known guests, typically allies, rather than superstars (Laura Mvula showing on the second edition). "We don't like being around drama," League quips. The buzz Sylva represented another side-project. This worried League. "The things that we got recognised for were the things that were not what we normally do. I think a lotta people found out about us through these special projects and maybe weren't aware of what we do the other 99% of the time. So, for us, it's cool to have this nomination for Culcha Vulcha and to see it doing so well — because you start thinking, 'Well, maybe people only like us when we're not being ourselves'."

Since 2012, Snarky Puppy have issued their music through their own label, GroundUP Music. They remain a word-of-mouth phenom. "I don't think anyone in our band plays music to be successful," League says. "We just play music to be fulfilled and inspired."

League will be visiting Australia twice in 2017. He's just launched a global supergroup, Bokante (a Creole word for 'exchange'), encompassing Snarky Puppy members and others. They'll be performing their inaugural international date at WOMADelaide. Then, in April, Snarky Puppy will make their Bluesfest premiere — League himself excited to catch co-headliner Bonnie Raitt. "I've never seen her live and I'm such a huge fan." As to what to expect from Snarky Puppy? "We'll be playing a lotta music from Culcha Vulcha, combined with a mixture of music from all of our previous albums — all of the normal Snarky Puppy records, not the special projects."