These Arms Are Snakes: Apocalypse? No!

Recent headlines have read like the end of days. The whole world is in a rapid sate of decline and we are all going to be broke and homeless and eventually die of poverty, right? Ok, so perhaps everything isn’t quite so apocalyptic just yet, but still, there is an undeniable and well-documented sense of global financial turmoil in the air. So what does this mean for those bands who have little or no money, whose names would gather little or no response from most of the general public? Well, before you can say “These Arms Are Who?” (didn't you read that piece last year?), Brian Cook, the Seattle quartet’s resident multi-instrumentalist, has a surprisingly upbeat take on it all.

“I really have nothing. I don’t own a home or a car. I have no savings. I have no retirement plan. That might strike some people as depressing or frightening but I find it pretty liberating.” The idea of being in a band on a grassroots level, somewhat alienated from the riches of the mainstream, is a path taken by many but is often hard to keep up for various reasons - too hard, too long, too broke. Still, for over a decade, Cook – a former member of defunct hardcore troupe Botch - has lived this way, almost hand to mouth, with seemingly no major regrets. “I’ve been autonomous and managed to see and do some amazing things in the last 13 years, while other people I know have just been working their office jobs to amass property and retirement plans that are all in jeopardy.” Rather than rub it in, he continues, self-aware. “Granted, I’m just as fucked as they are but at least I’ve been living my life.”

Video - Horse Girl

Still operating on a level many would dub ‘underground’, These Arms Are Snakes are about to embark on a relentless tour of mostly intimate venues, but long gone are the days when this was compulsory to get ahead. Now it seems anyone with a laptop has the potential to record, showcase, and release music independently online, as well as promote said release with increasingly powerful networking tools. I ask Cook whether he engages with these technological advances – is this the definitive way to make it as a band or does the heart still lie in live music? “Promo and networking is fake and costly,” he dismisses. “Mike Watt once said fIREHOSE (post-Minutemen project) were the inverse of the average rock band. Whereas most bands toured to support a record, fIREHOSE made records to support their tours. I always liked that idea.” Although we seem to be drowning in a sea of download hits and ‘overnight successes’ these days, Cook’s band - despite being active online - have yet to achieve such enormous yet fleeting success, but still seems confident enough to shrug off the growing trend. “Maybe you can become an overnight success on the internet but that doesn’t really seem like the ideal way to do things. The air is already out of the balloon for blog sensations like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tapes n’ Tapes and - at least in America - the Arctic Monkeys. I predict Vampire Weekend to follow that trend.”

Has the blogosphere then levelled the playing field, or simply opened the floodgates, making it harder for a band like TAAS to stand out from the crowd? “I think ultimately, it's kind of a bad thing”, ponders Cook. “While I’m all for a level playing field, I also believe that to be a musician you have to really want it. If you're going to make music, you have to do it despite the odds.” And it seems that attitude is the driving force for the band, which still appears to possess the raw passion required for any band to keep its head above the water.

Now on their (not so difficult) third album, Tail Swallower And Dove – a collection of progressive hardcore blasts, as angry as they are interesting – TAAS show they are still capable of producing music that is lapped up by those who tune in as well as constructing records that are creatively satisfying for the band itself. With nothing to lose but everywhere to go, does it seem like there is or ever will be a limit to what they can achieve? “Who knows?” the four-stringer puzzles. “We’re all pretty active in the music world. Chris (Common, drums) records and produces bands and plays with Mammifer. Ryan (Fredericksen, guitar) just recorded the Narrows full-length. I'm still doing stuff with Russian Circles and Roy. Even if this band becomes inactive, we'll all be doing other projects. To be honest, I’m surprised we've made it this far. We'll keep going as long as it's interesting."

Fortunately there are no signs of These Arms Are Snakes disappearing down the plughole with the world economy just yet, even if none of us can afford the next album.