image credit: Sam McGill
When in 2015, four boys at a local school in Whitburn formed a band, the idea that they would have a number 1 album just six years later may have seemed alien. Now, in 2026, The Snuts are an established act found high up festival lineups around the UK and Europe, and I sat down with guitarist Joe McGillveray to see how the Scottish band are feeling after the release of their fourth studio ablum, Joy in Short Moments.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reception to it”, he told me. “It was always a worry that after taking a bit of a break from the last one, with some of the guys in the band having their first kid and things, that it would be more difficult to come back with another album after a bit of time.”
“It’s been positive across the board though. We’ve been doing in-stores this week which really lets you connect with people and actually see people and talk to them and they seem to be really enjoying the album. I personally think it’s some of the best music we’ve done as well so it’s nice to hear that that’s reciprocated”.
Do you think it’s different to anything you’ve done before?
“I think it is a little bit different from what we’ve done before because in the past we’ve always made a lot of effort to avoid what we would see as cliches. If there was a riff that was a bit too ‘Oasis-y’ or a chorus that was a bit too ‘Coldplay’ then we’d try and steer away from that a wee bit, but I think this time we’ve just gone for it. That’s us four records in now and it’s certainly the longest job I’ve ever had, so we’re very confident in what we’re doing, as opposed to what other people think about what we’re doing.”
You’ve taken the album on tour and only recently got back from the US. How did you find that and how did the audiences over there take to the new songs?
“Well we’ve been to the US a few times but for me this was definitely the most enjoyable one. Just because it’s such a big place it feels like you need to drive all the way across and back and it just takes so long, but this time we only did some cities on the East Coast – Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington D.C., so it was really cool.”
When I asked about how the crowd take to the songs and whether the band can play the same set that they do at home, McGillveray remarked that “it’s such a cliche but there really is no crowd like a Scottish crowd. In America they’re just so polite – there’s no noise in between songs and there were no spilled pints on the floor after the gig – in fact in a lot of places there’s actually a two-drink minimum to even be allowed into the venue because they need to actively convince people to drink!”
He laughed at the look on my face and said he was glad to speak to another Scottish person who found it just as shocking as he did. “Most people here get angry at the four-drink maximum!”
What’s your favourite of the new songs to play live?
“I’ve really enjoyed PTS. It’s such a big anthemic chorus and it’s just lyrically so good, and I can say that because I didn’t write it. We’ve played it in in-stores and it seems to connect with people so I’m really excited to play it in bigger rooms and to bigger audiences.”
Speaking of bigger audiences, you’re due to play at Murrayfield ahead of Scotland vs New Zealand in a few days’ time, how are you feeling about that one?
Well actually, things have been so busy recently that I only learned about that a few days ago. I think that’s going to be a scary one to be honest. Because we do it all the time, you almost forget the feeling of walking out to a really big crowd – we supported Kings of Leon in a huge arena in Leeds and it was the first show we’d played in a wee while and then you walk out and it’s like ‘oh, there’s 10,000 people!”.
“You’ve got to fight every survival instinct in your body because you just want to run away. I think we’ll get through it no problem though, you can always rely on a Scottish crowd.”
Before The Snuts went full-time, three of the band were tradesmen and you were in between university and other jobs, so just how hard is it for a band today to take that plunge ago full-time?
“Well we had done years of full-time work and then rehearsing after finishing in our horrible wee practice room in Livingston for two or three hours, every single night of the week. We had been at it for a good while and only went full-time at a point when we were getting signed and it was clear that things were going well.”
“The difference today is that record labels only really care about your social media presence and getting eyeballs and streams and numbers. Personally though, I worry about the longevity of that. Being a touring musician is a genuinely difficult thing to do mentally and emotionally and I worry about people blowing up because they’ve had a good TikTok career or Instagram following.”
“They might be good artists or talented creatives but it worries me that they might blow up a bit too quickly without having had that experience of playing 200 capacity venues and then panicking when they get to the bigger shows and not being able to come back from that because they’ve not got the experience of the smaller shows.”
He went on to tell me that young musicians need to “focus on what matters – releasing music, playing shows and connecting with an audience”. McGillveray’s advice for any young band is quite simple – “listen to lots of music, consume lots of art, read books and focus on what matters. The stuff around about it will come after if you are able to find satisfaction in just being an artist.”
The Snuts continue to set a perfect example as their new album, Joy In Short Moments, currently sits at Number 4 in the UK album charts. This is their fourth consecutive Top 5 album and you can see the West Lothian band play their new songs alongside their classics all across the UK in November, December and January, before a massive headline show at Glasgow’s SEC Centre in July 2027.
Music Editor for the Strathclyde Telegraph 2026/27
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