Ecce Shnak: “It is our earnest hope that the song provides comfort, encouragement, and joyous levity to LGBTQ+ people and their allies”
Ecce Shnak continues to push the boundaries of genre, blending math-metal, art rock, classical influences, and electronic elements into a sound that’s as unpredictable as it is captivating. With their latest re-imagining, “Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy (Kill Em Mix)”, they’ve teamed up with renowned electronic artist Eskei83 to transform one of their most dynamic tracks into a drum-and-bass powerhouse. The collaboration reflects not only the band’s adventurous spirit but also their ability to reinterpret their own work in fresh and unexpected ways.
By Sandra Pinto
As Ecce Shnak prepares for their upcoming album Dandy Variances, their music continues to explore profound themes of friendship, love, human struggle, and radical acceptance, all delivered with a touch of whimsy and theatricality. Their live performances are known for their energy, intensity, and unique rituals that connect the band to each other and their audience. In this interview, we dive into the creative process behind the “Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy (Kill Em Mix)” remix, the evolution of the band, their upcoming album, and the social and musical philosophies that drive their work.
Our manager, Beth Narducci, and a friend of hers who is a big fan of dance music connected us with Eskei83. Eskei83 hit us with a great first draft that featured his re-working of our guitar riff as the basic drum-and-bass groove in his version. We then asked him to find more spots for the nuanced vocals of the original. He incorporated this note beautifully on the second and final draft.
The original ‘Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy’ has already made big waves. What was it about this track that inspired you to revisit it and collaborate on this re-imagined version?
Considering all of the songs on our EP “Shadows Grow Fangs,” we thought the dynamic bombast and vocal range of “Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy” could inspire something like what Eskei83 ultimately heard and achieved. We imagined that the math-metal guitar riff could be transformed into a techno bassline and the mix of shouted and sung vocals could provide for a compelling range of sounds in a new version. We were right!
“Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy” is a fusion of my mathcore influences (Dillinger Escape Plan being the most prominent) and my classical influences as a composer. I draw on what I think is a wide range of periods and sounds from classical music. On this track, the classical sounds are drawing from choral music, art-song, and opera, most prominently in the slow, dirge-like outro. On the metal/”throat” side of the vocals, I am drawing on my love of Fugazi, Candiria, and System of a Down.
Tell us about your upcoming album ‘Dandy Variances’, slated for release in the spring. Can you give us a sneak peek of what to expect from the album in terms of sound, themes, and the overall vibe?
This album will be a continuation and hopefully an augmentation of Ecce Shnak’s synthesis of pop music, classical music, and heavy music. There are indie rock songs, eccentric heavy songs like “Jeremy’ Utilitarian Sadboy,” and even a jazz ballad with Bop-era harmony. Thematically, my lyrics explore themes of friendship and love, human struggles for economic and social justice, and radical acceptance of life in the face of death, impermanence, and oblivion, among other things.
You’ve mentioned before that your music explores profound themes with an element of madness and whimsy. Can you expand on this?
While I hope listeners find my lyrical themes profound, I hope I didn’t use that word myself, as that’s not my business to call what I write “profound.” I find myself both afraid of death, impermanence , and oblivion and also compelled by it. If I were immortal, I think my life would be a boring, maybe even horrifyingly meaningless, static imprisonment. For that reason, I despise the tech-oligarchs idiotic goal of trying to achieve immortality, both for the existential cowardice they are motivated by, but also and more importantly because of the extreme harm they are causing on human beings and other lifeforms at large. Data centers and other harmful technologies have already and will continue to wreak horrific harms on poor, working, and disproportionately socially marginalized people (people of color and non-Americans). Meanwhile, life obviously requires levity, and so I write about light-hearted things, too. Love, sex, friendship, food, and more trivial/low-stakes interpersonal conflicts (e.g. meaningless arguments with old friends) that most of us find ourselves in from time to time.
We are the leanest and I think most compelling lineup of the band hitherto. There have been as many as eight people in previous versions of Ecce Shnak, but we are a quintet now. This makes for a much more focused sonic and visual presentation as a live band. Also, I am finally playing an instrument, not only singing! I have played bass in the band since May of 2024. For some weird reason, until two Mays ago, I had never thought I could handle both jobs, but I have risen to the task with the help of my supportive bandmates, a great bass teacher, and my own focused study. Our tour with EMF and Spacehog this past June was 15 days of the happiest day of my life. It was basically an absolute joy for the whole goshdarn stretch. We made lifelong friends and were more deeply acquainted with absolutely fantastic music over that little, precious, unforgettable while.
You’ve also collaborated with EMF on the track ‘LGBTQ+ Lover’. Can you talk about the importance of creating safe spaces for marginalized communities through music, and what that collaboration meant to you personally?
It’s hard to overstate how honored I am to have been asked to contribute to that song. Bella and I performed the song with EMF for 3 of the 11 performances on the tour, and again, that was truly one of the highlights of my life. The cruelty wrought upon LGBTQ and other marginalized people is one of the most infuriating, saddening, and anxiety-inducing phenomena in our fraught world. I was lucky enough to have met and made dear friends with people in the Queer community as a young dude, but for those who are alienated from that community, music can and should be one of the primary means to invite them into allyship and solidarity. It is our earnest hope that the song provides comfort, encouragement, and joyous levity to LGBTQ+ people and their allies.
Ecce Shnak has a very unique live presence. How do you bring that energy and intensity to your performances, and what can fans expect from your upcoming live shows and showcases?
We make it a point to speak with each other without our instruments in our hands or our amps/monitors turned on for about the first hour of every 3-hour rehearsal. We use randomized prompts to shoot the shit with each other before we play any music. We call this our “check-in.” It is invaluable to us for our feeling of connection with each other, and it helps us embody the music spiritually, interpersonally, and physically in rehearsal and performance. Before our concerts, we do a much shorter version of the check-in with Tarot cards. We are overjoyed to be touring the East Coast with EMF and Jesus Jones this February and with EMF in the UK in June of 2026. We hope to produce a festival in NYC called Shnaklfest with EMF and other bands in the Spring of 2026.
