Equal parts performance art and egg punk band, Snõõper have made quite the name for themselves these past few years as they’ve rocketed from the Nashville DIY scene to worldwide (ha!) audiences, touring with the likes of The Hives most recently. This comes after the band’s newest release Worldwide—out via Third Man—in which we see the group hone their signature sound with a new confidence, allowing for a bolder and even catchier release than Snõõper’s debut Super Snõõper.
Hot off their European tour, vocalist Blair Tramel spoke with New Noise Magazine about the new record, her papier-mâché creations, touring with the Hives and much more.
Where did the idea first come from to make giant paper maché creations?
I have been making papier-mâché heads for a really long time. I think I was first was introduced to papier-mâché by an artist named Brett Douglas Hunter. His stuff is amazing—Look him up! He does mostly concrete/cement work now, but he started out with papier-mâché, and I was really inspired by that!
I started making my own heads in about 2016, maybe. At the time, I was doing a lot of video art—specifically stop motion and weird animated shorts. I was really into the idea of starting a public access show at the time and started making papier-mâché heads simply because I thought they were funny to put on people. Every time a friend came over, I started putting papier-mâché heads on them and we’d make videos and it was just a fun way to hang out.
Snõõper as a formal project started mostly because I wanted a reason to make animated videos. I have always been into the idea of playing music, but visual art has always been what’s linked me to that possibility. I’ve made things for bands—videos, flyers, backgrounds, props, art, etc.—for years, but Snõõper became the one place to channel all of my art making.
I actually never really thought to bring the papier-mâché into the live shows, but it all worked out pretty randomly. We played a house show in North Carolina and it was Connor’s birthday. We had brought some of my papier-mâché heads on that mini tour over to NC because we were just being silly. We were also stopping at our friend Lil Ugly Mane’s house along the way, and we knew he was into weird papier-mâché and puppet stuff.
Anyways, at the show, our friend who drove down with us was pretty drunk, and he put on one of the papier-mâché heads during that show, and people thought it was really funny. He couldn’t see at all and I think he might have had a negative experience being in the head, but there are still videos of that somewhere.
After that, we decided to try making a puppet backpack to elevate the heads above the crowd. Shoutout to Jamin Orall from Jeff the Brotherhood for showing me Bread and Puppet Theater; I learned to make a puppet backpack from Why Cheap Art Manifesto of Bead and Puppet’s. This band loves Bread and Puppet Theater … Check them out!
After experimenting with several other papier-mâché heads, I made the Bug puppet for a short video I was trying to make about mosquitos. We happened to be playing a show around the time that I finished the mosquito head, and we thought it would be funny to bring it out during a show. The rest is history. I continue to make all sorts of different characters that slowly have been making their way into Snõõper’s world. I’ve continued to add layers of plaster to the Bug over the years to reinforce it. Sometimes it gets really tossed around. The Bug nose is made from a gas nozzle.
I can’t imagine it would be easy to tour with the Bug and the other papier-mâché items. What’s your process like for taking them on tour?
It really isn’t easy, but it feels like these things have become part of our show and it wouldn’t be fair to not bring them at this point. I think they say it takes 30 days of consistently doing something in order to form a habit, and we’ve played over 30 shows with all of the props at this point, so now we feel like we can’t go back.
If we tour on another continent, I usually fly in a day or two early to build things there. We take the van as much as possible with us within the US, which has been hard as it requires us to drive a lot more than most bands. We have a trailer now and that’s helpful. I also continue to find ways to build stuff in more compact ways. Most recently, I built these giant speakers that actually fold down flat—That was huge for us!
How was your tour with The Hives? What do you think you’ll take with you from that experience?
Being on tour with The Hives was an incredible experience. I think people who aren’t longtime fans underestimate how much energy they have on stage. Pelle and Nick specifically move nonstop and have tons of stage moves. They were all very easy to talk to and genuinely interested in what we were up to.
The European leg felt extra special. We never thought we would play such legendary venues, let alone arenas EVER. We are very honored to have been asked to support them on that run.
Do you have a personal favorite song from Worldwide? I’d love to hear why, if so!
My personal favorite song is the title track “Worldwide.” That song felt like a breakthrough to a new era for us and came together so effortlessly. All the fun synth effects and aux percussion are what we’ve always wanted to incorporate into the band, so this felt like the beginning of a new era for us.
As a band, how do you feel like you’ve evolved from Super Snõõper to Worldwide?
Super Snõõper was a compilation of demos, played exactly how they are live, but in a studio. We didn’t experiment at all because we just wanted to show everyone how the drum machines and speed translated into real life.
Worldwide is us experimenting and trying to use the studio as a tool to transform the songs into something more. We unfortunately didn’t have as much time in the studio as we would have liked, but third time will be the charm!
I can’t believe this year is already coming to an end. What’s 2026 shaping up to look like for the band?
We’re playing some dates in California around a fest that Ceremony puts on called Homesick, which should be fun! Then, we have a tour with one of our favorite bands in March that splits off for a couple days with one of our other favorite bands, Prison Affair.
We have some new demos that we hope to put out as a seven-inch EP on our own label, Electric Outlet, then start working on the next record!
Also, we really hope to tour Japan and Central/South America in 2026. If anyone wants to bring us over let us know!
Is there anything else you’d like to that we didn’t get to?
Shoutout The Hives, Machine Girl, Sextile, Ovlov, Angel Du$t, Happy Death Men, and everyone else who played with us in 2025!
Worldwide is out now, and you can order it from Third Man Records. Follow Snõõper on Instagram for future updates.
Photo Credit: Emily Moses
