The Skinny On... Snapped Ankles

At the end of March, dance-forward, London-based post-punks Snapped Ankles released their fourth studio album, the intoxicating Hard Times Furious Dancing. The title says it all – in hard times, what else is there to do but dance? Headlining the opening night of this year's Hidden Door arts festival, where they play alongside Mermaid Chunky, Bikini Body, Pearling, Roller Disco Death Party and more, Snapped Ankles invite you into their ghillie-suited world of escapism with big energy, big motorik beats, and big, bold statements. Ahead of their performance, frontman Austin Ankles takes on this month's Q&A.

What’s your favourite place to visit?
Dungeness. Where else can you picnic among nuclear detritus and sea-smashed shingle while being spiritually haunted by Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage and the Cold War concrete listening ears? It’s like the ghost of Jack Parsons built a garden out of radiation and longing. 

What's your favourite food?
Mushrooms. Fungal, feral, and fundamentally smarter than most people I know. Mycelium networks mirror neural networks – except more honest, more connected, and less obsessed with Elon Musk and the other insane Cornucopians.

What's your favourite colour?
Green, because, as Ursula K. Le Guin warned us in a whisper filtered through moss: "The word for world is forest." It’s the hue of camouflage, trickery, photosynthesis, and vengeance.

Who was your hero growing up?
Alvin Lucier. The only man who could make a room sing back at itself. I Am Sitting in a Room was my childhood lullaby – yes, I was raised by experimental frequencies and gently malicious oscillations.

Whose work inspires you now?
Still Alvin Lucier. If his ghost could loop itself in a reverb chamber for all eternity, I’d sign the guestbook with a steel wire in blood and static.

What three people would you invite to your dinner party and what are you cooking?
Alvin Lucier, John Higgs, and Alice Walker. I’d serve a single, unsettling caramelised garlic quiche. Cold. With too much nutmeg. We’d discuss quantum weirdness, ecstatic protest, and whether or not the quiche is sentient. (It is.)

What’s your all-time favourite album?
Transa by Caetano Veloso. It’s exile and ecstasy in one breath. It makes melancholy wear lipstick and samba in circles. It’s what I’d imagine would play in Jack Parsons' rocket lab just before something exploded beautifully.

What book would you take to a desert island?
The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley. Not for the content, but for the confusion. Perfect for talking back to the sea and summoning storms when bored. Plus, it makes excellent kindling for when you finally lose your mind.

Who’s the worst?
Anyone who says “just saying” at the end of a sentence… Congratulations, you’re a devil’s intern at best.

When did you last cry?
I cried at a field recording of wind whistling through the Singing Ringing Tree in Lancashire. Tears of awe. And allergies. Possibly cursed.

What are you most scared of?
Being trapped in a departure lounge with no exits or water, no dissonance, and no mushrooms. Eternal small talk and other tourists are hell.

Tell us a secret?
I once tried to summon Jack Parsons' ghost during a lunar eclipse using only a theremin and expired cheese. Something answered. It hasn’t stopped humming.

If you could be reincarnated as an animal, which animal would it be and why?
A raven, naturally. Trickster, scavenger, prophet, poet. Plus, I could hang out at Tower of London and whisper spoilers in tourists' ears.

I'd love to know more about your latest album – what inspired Hard Times Furious Dancing?
Alice Walker lit the fuse. Dancing as defiance, as spellwork, as survival. The world bans joy when it’s organised. This album is a waltz through outlawed hope and ecstatic resistance. Kind of if a riot learned how to bolero!

What's your favourite thing about the album and what do you hope people get out of listening to it?
My favourite thing? That it exists in spite of everything. I hope it makes people move like they’re shaking off centuries. Like they’re conjuring something on mushrooms. Like they’re laughing at doom and daring it to dance.

You're playing at Hidden Door in Edinburgh in June, what can people expect on the night? Any surprises up your ghillie-suited sleeves?
Expect noise and logs. Expect grace and barks. Expect a disembodied voice whispering Jack Parsons’ rocket equations backwards. Expect something bathed in greenlight. Expect fungi. And yes, the ghillie suit may contain secrets. Possibly snacks.

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Hard Times Furious Dancing is out now via The Leaf Label; Snapped Ankles play Hidden Door, The Paper Factory, Edinburgh, 11 Jun
Hidden Door Festival runs from 11-15 Jun; for info and tickets head to hiddendoorarts.org