By Your Hand

It all began innocently enough as a follow-up to the album he’d released with fellow Melbourne luminary Dan Luscombe in 2002 (as Rob Snarski & Dan Luscombe) titled There Is Nothing Here That Belongs To You, but a series of events transpired that not only made the record Snarski’s debut solo outing but in the process reinvigorated his love of creating and sharing music.

“Dan and I spent a fair amount of time working on it, and then things started to unravel,” he recalls resignedly. “We had some problems along the way with corrupt hard drives, then one of the computers got stolen and it got to the point where I was going to give up on it. Either that or we do something really, really sparse – I just needed to get those songs out of my system. That’s when I met Andrew Fuller, who convinced me to start a Pledge[Music] campaign, which is the crowdfunding that has helped to finance this record. The response to that was overwhelming, and essentially it’s what’s helped finish and finance the recording. We were working with [producer] Shane O’Mara and we were coming home from his place one day and I was dropping Dan off, and Dan simply turned to me and said, ‘I think this should be your solo record,’ At that point I was kind of flabbergasted and stunned and I just thought, ‘Why? Where has this come from?’ I wasn’t sure whether to accept it as a gift or think of it as a punch in the face, because I wasn’t sure where he was coming from, but then I thought, ‘You know what? You’re right!’ so I accepted it as a gift and from that moment I started making all of the decisions.

“It’s an odd situation because I never intended it to be a solo record, but I’m pleased that it is and I’m pleased that I’m playing with a different group of people to recreate the songs live. So it’s been fantastic, and such a relief to actually finish it as well because at one point I’d run out of money and curled up in a ball and thought, ‘Fuck this, it’s never going to finish and it’s cursed.’”

The eventual collection of songs is as gorgeous as anything he’s played on in the past, covering vast vistas of emotional terrain.

“It was pretty much just a collection of songs that I felt sat well together, and it wasn’t really until I’d thought of a title and was having to sequence the songs that I started thinking of the themes and how they interlink, and finding some common ground,” he reflects. “To me it’s about all of the elements that shape us as people, so there’s different themes like rejection and infidelity and sexuality and contentment, love, break-ups, loss, addiction, self-harm, loneliness, resilience, reunions, there’s a folk tale in there – they all seemed to work together for me.”

And while harnessing people power brought the album to life, Snarski’s inaugural foray into crowdfunding ultimately achieved more than merely saving the project.

“I’m happy every aspect of [Wounded Bird] – I like the packaging, I like the sound of it and I love that people helped support it,” he marvels. “Everything I’ve done as part of that Pledge campaign has been a joyous experience, musically and emotionally. I was really reluctant to get involved because I didn’t think that I was the sort of person that could waltz into someone’s else house and start a conversation or make them dinner, or hold an acoustic house concert in front of 20 people in their lounge room – I’ve preferred it to some of the gigs that I’ve done! It’s a new way of looking at things for me, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

“When we hit our target within a week it was overwhelming – I just couldn’t believe it. And given that it was such a pain in the ass and a struggle to get to that point, I’d just thought, ‘You know what? We’re only halfway through this record, I’ve run out of money and I don’t really know how I’m going to pay for this.’ I juggle enough work as it is, so I didn’t know where the money was going to come from and it was really a lifesaver in terms of finishing the record. I really am thankful, and less cynical.”