Interviews: Ecce Shnak

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Art Rock band, Ecce Shnak, from the USA. Check out the interview, follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE, and also check the music videos at the end of the interview.

"Behold the... whatever you want it to be!" Part Latin philosophical nod to Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo and part "personal nonsense," the name Ecce Shnak serves as the perfect mission statement for a band that refuses to sit still. Emerging from a 15-year evolution and currently anchored by a powerhouse New York City lineup, the group is a living bridge between "weirdos who want to feel normal and normies who want to get weird."

Led by a composer who views the myriad of musical genres as a reflection of the human soul, Ecce Shnak fearlessly navigates a sonic landscape where art-rock, math-metal, hip-hop, and indie-tech collide. Whether they are sharing the stage with 90s icons like EMF and Spacehog or hosting multidisciplinary residencies featuring everything from magicians to black metal, this is a band dedicated to "scuffing their knees in the mess" of creativity to bring back something truly transcendent.

With a history of eclectic collaborations—ranging from street-savvy hip-hop producers to a forthcoming project with Freedom First (featuring death-row advocate Keith LaMar)—Ecce Shnak continues to follow their Muse wherever she leads. Fans can look forward to their next full-length evolution, "Dandy Variances," slated for release in Spring 2026.

1. Where did you get the idea for your band name - is there a story behind that?

In a combination of Latin and personal nonsense, "Ecce Shnak" means, "Hey, look at this." "Ecce" in Latin means "Behold!" "Shnak" is a word I came up with as a young guy that means whatever you want it to mean. When I was wondering what the band name should be when I started the band 15 years ago, my dear friend Eddie reminded me of the autobiography of one of my favorite writers, Friedrich Nietzsche. His autobiography was called "Ecce Homo." Nietzsche got the name for his book from a tradition in Christian art. There is a scene in the life of Jesus Christ that is referred to as the "Ecce Homo" (meaning "behold the man") scene in the life of Jesus. Jesus was a controversial figure in Nietzsche's estimation. He was richly ambivalent about and fascinated by Jesus and his moral outlook on the world, as one can see throughout his writings.

2. Why did you want to play the genres you've decided to pursue in your music?

I have never been able to keep my tastes in one place. I have loved so many styles as a listener throughout my life, and so as a composer, I am compelled to try my hand at writing in whatever styles are compelling to me. I feel that the myriad musical styles human beings have created reflect the myriad capacities of our souls and experiences, both as individuals and as communities, and so I write in all of these styles to understand and explore my own soul and the human soul generally as best as I can.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed? BTW, how did that end up happening?

We did not know each other before the band was formed. I have had various versions of the band, again, for the past 15 years. The most recent lineup of the band is all New Yorkers. I met the drummer through Craigslist, the other singer at a show of the previous lineup when she was still only a concertgoer, and the two guitarists through a former member of the band.

4. Tell us about the two separate EPs that you released this year - and this new remix, released last week

The two EPs are hopefully compelling glimpses into the Ecce Shnak sound. "Shadows Grow Fangs" is a 5-song, 17-ish-minute journey through whole-grain art-rock, hip-hop, math-metal, tech-y indie-rock, and the only folk song on the Ecce Shnak catalogue, "Stroll With Me." That song is an homage to a dear friend of mine who chose to take her life about a decade ago. The "Backroom Sessions" EP is a 4-song live performance of songs we had already released on other albums: "Shadows Grow Fangs," "Letters to German Vasquez Rubio," and our only full-length album, "Metamorphejawns." I feel the most amount of pride in these two records for one particular reason, namely that they are the first releases that feature the other singer in Ecce Shnak, Bella Komodromos. She is a transcendently badass singer and bandmate. She understands everything I write as soon as I show it to her, and I couldn't be prouder of her performances on these albums. She also has a fantastic Baroque pop solo project of her own called Bella Litsa. You *must* check it out if you are a fan of PJ Harvey, Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple, and other songstress heroines.

DJ and producer Eskei83's remix of our song "Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy" is a wonderful step forward in the development of the Ecce Shnak oeuvre. 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 reworking 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. 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.

5. As a songwriter, who or what generally inspires you to write your songs?

Good goshdarn... So many things! I follow my Muse as best as I can from whatever her prompt might be to wherever she takes me. It can be a striking statement, a melody, a drumbeat, or a harmony that pops into my imagination or that I stumble upon out and about in the world. It can be a funny, infuriating, perplexing, or heartbreaking experience or thing I hear about. It can be a composer, a historical figure, or a relationship with a person I know. Whatever the Muse tosses at me in whatever form, I try to follow it as best as I can. I let the elements of the music transform into each other. What lyrics are suggested by a drumbeat? What melodies can best harmonize with a guitar line? What emotional landscapes does this or that harmony hurtle us into? Follow, follow, follow! Scuff your knees in the mess and come back with whatever you find along the way and however it changes you.

6. Tell us about what seems to be a regular NYC concert series you're involved in.

I don't know exactly what you are referring to here, but we did have a residency at Berlin, a wonderful, cozy venue in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in the Summer and Fall of 2024, and we later played several shows that were loosely thematically intertwined at the Red Pavilion in Bushwick. Both of those concert series featured a mix of musical styles in our band and the other bands and musical acts we played with. We invited the bands we played with to reflect and build upon the mix of styles in our music and were overjoyed to play with them (hardcore band Rebelmatic, black metal band Prostitution, hip hop artist Jymmy Kafka, queer-forward metal band MZZTR, thereminist Kellfire Bray, and various small classical chamber ensembles, among others). We also featured other art genres, including live-painting, Burlesque dancers, a magician, and stand-up comedian Brittany Carney.

7. About your recent U.S. tour with EMF and Spacehog? Tell us about this experience and your surprise appearance in the UK with EMF?

The tour with EMF and Spacehog this past June was one of, if not the most, transcendently wonderful experiences of my life. We made lifelong friends and were unspeakably honored to share a stage with these '90s-rock titans. These themes that we grew up hearing on the radio were, after all, just made by people like us. It was a fascinating and beautifully surreal experience to meet and befriend the makers of this music in real life. We had an incredible photographer, videographer, and van driver for the tour that allowed us to actually rest, recuperate, and hang with each other on the drives. We listened to all kinds of music on the 4- to 6- to even on 10-hour drives from venue to venue. The drive from Denver to Phoenix was astonishingly, awesomely, almost heartbreakingly beautiful as we drove through Monument State Park.

8. Whom would you like to collaborate with (soon or down the road)?

We would be overjoyed to share stages with Gogol Bordello, Deerhoof, Turnstile, or even Dillinger Escape Plan when they have occasional reunion tours, among others, someday. I will need to sharpen my chops at this before I really commit to it, but I have had a hankering to try my hand at hip-hop production at some point. I should probably just say "fuck it!" already and start goofing around and see what I come up with on this tip. A dear friend of mine from high school goes by Child Actor. He is a hip-hop producer who has worked with Billy Woods, so I suppose I could ask him to mentor me towards this end. I am kind of taking my time with it, but I am also working on contributing vocals to a potential project with Richard Steel, the lead guitarist from Spacehog. The instrumentals are fantastic, whole-grain 90's grunge songs. Again, I am taking my time with them, but it is an honor to work on it. The other singer in our band, Bella Komodromos, has her own excellent baroque pop act called Bella Litsa. Fans of Ecce Shnak as well as heroine songstress divas like Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple, and PJ Harvey will love Bella Litsa! Finally, we are beginning to work on an EP with Freedom First, an incredible jazz ensemble fronted by Brooklyn-based jazz keyboardist Albert Marques and Keith LaMar, an innocent man who is on death row in the state of Ohio. LaMar is the vocalist in the band. He has contributed his beautiful, compelling spoken vocals advocating for his freedom and carceral justice generally from his cell over the phone over the band's dazzlingly beautiful jazz instrumentals.

9. What kind of people love Ecce Shnak? Maybe you have a few words specifically for your fans?

Ecce Shnak fans are people who are seeking transcendent unity in the wild complexities of life, in the political madnesses in which we live, and in the joyful stylistic tumult that is contemporary music. They are weirdos that want to feel normal and normies that want to get weird. They are metalheads that want looseness, classical and jazz musicians that want to headbang, and pop listeners that want to explore rarer terrain than usual. We have tremendous gratitude to our fans. We cannot wait to share with them our new album "Dandy Variances" with you all, which we are hoping to release in the spring of 2026.

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that?

Most of us have, by the whim of the random Fates, been granted reprieve from that experience, but we have other kinds of anxieties that have thrown us off in other ways. If I had to give advice to those who struggle with stage fright, I would offer a couple of thoughts. We should try to remember the fact that all of us have been in the audience before. Sometimes we really want to see the band or bands we are about to see and care about them tremendously. Sometimes, we just happen to be at a show and are not really paying that much attention to the music. Regardless, every concertgoer is just another person, just like the performers. All of us use the potty, tie our shoes in the morning, feel grief, fear, love, lust, rage, and boredom, and might snore when we sleep. Whether we are Paul Mcartney or or Corey Taylor or somebody playing covers at an open mic, all of us are mortal and yes, come from and return to stardust. It doesn't mean we shouldn't take ourselves seriously or worry about how we will do. We should, however, take some of the pressure off ourselves from changing the world in some cosmic way. We should try, as best as we can, to feel gratitude to play any music at all to anyone, whether people feel indifferent to it, hate it, or adore it. The chance to play music at all is a mind-bogglingly precious opportunity. It is important that we enjoy it as much as we can while we have it, with hopes for some kind of success or another, no expectations.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

It is hard for me to prioritize this kind of thing, so I will just offer this: some of the most important artists to me as a lover of music are Deerhoof, Gogol Bordello, the Roots, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, Harry Partch, Fugazi, John Coltrane, Meshuggah, Benjamin Britten, Bjork, Converge, T.V. on the Radio, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Talib Kweli, Gyorgy Ligeti, Frank Zappa, Mos Def, Cat Power, Nina Simone, Claude Debussy, Blackstar, Rancid, the Buzzcocks, the Clash, Sigur Ros, Franz Liszt, and the great composers of the classical guitar repertoire.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

There was a wonderfully touching moment after the last show of our West Coast tour in Las Vegas this past June. Our drummer, Henry, signed his drumsticks and gave them to a fan who had asked for an autograph but didn't have anything for him to sign. Dude was a dude's dude with tatts and a gruff tone of voice and a pottymouth, but he was so moved he cried with gratitude!

13. What do you think of our website?

Holy Hell!-- breathingthecore.com is a voluminous trove of musicological insights of heavy music, advocacy for seemingly countless bands worldwide, and a cultural meeting place for people who love or who are at least curious about heavy music. It reminds me of a funny thing I heard someone say: "There are at least 1,000 kinds of metal." I had always thought this was hyperbole, but looking at the "genres" tab, I wonder if it might actually be a good estimate! There is an incredible wealth of music that is available to us in this fraught 21st Century. This wealth of music can be an invaluable comfort to us all, and yet it can also feel so daunting that we might be demoralized from ever trying to dig into it all. Websites like yours allow music lovers a chance to make patient and focused use of the internet to expand our musical joy and understanding on the heavy side of the street. In the "Testimonials" section, one can see how much the bands featured on this website appreciate it. It is an honor to answer these questions and to be invited into the community of bands you advocate for.

14. You folks are really prolific - what else do you have coming up?

As I mentioned before, we have a new record coming out next Spring, "Dandy Variances." We will be releasing four music videos to accompany this record. We are tremendously excited to share it with you all and with music lovers generally. We will also be touring the East Coast with EMF and Jesus Jones this February. Finally, for our fans in the UK, check us out on our dates with EMF in the first week of June 2026 in your country. Again, we are preposterously excited!

With unending respect, love, and gratitude

Davey/Dave/David Roush (singer/composer/bassist) and Ecce Shnak!

Ecce Shnak - Katy's Wart [Animated Music Feelm Version]  https://youtu.be/rX9wxPoZpu0

'Fight Song (Live)' video  https://youtu.be/iefg1KKwcho

'Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy' (original version)  https://youtu.be/Kn3ALhMULbo