INTERVIEW: Snakes With Tits

Image: Andi Tabolt

The name Snakes With Tits will elicit different responses from different readers. Sheltered minds may leap to the comical literal image, or ponder how such a biological and evolutionary impossibility would function in practice. For those less fortunate, however, these words will evoke anything but an innocent, carefree moniker.

“I was working in a job with no prospects of promotion, with a manager who’d call all women ‘snakes with tits,’” reveals Shellie Critchlow, leader of the Tyneside quartet now proudly sporting the slur. “I was on a break from music at the time, but the feminist in me heard the term and wanted to take back the power.”

“I find myself being very cautious when I explain the name,” admits bandmate Ben Dawson-Punshon. “‘I’m in a band called Snakes With Tits’ sounds very different coming from a guy. I worry that people automatically think I’m feeding into the thing we’re railing against.”

“Like we’re a band full of incels!” Shellie quips.

An idea whose roots date back over a decade, vocalist/bassist Shellie formed the group in 2023 alongside drummer Kim Blue and guitarist Scott Jackson. Second guitarist Ben, meanwhile, joined their ranks in 2024, recruited to beef-up their burgeoning sound. Amid a line-up of veterans, Kim is enjoying a novel experience: “I’ve been learning drums for four years, and this is my first band – I couldn’t be happier!” she exclaims.

There’s a lot of preconceptions that we’re some kind of novelty band – I think some people are still quite surprised when they find what we do can actually be quite serious.

“We’re not trying to have any specific sound,” states Shellie, as we turn to a rousing palette spanning – and by no means limited to – sumptuous, fuzzy garage-rock, thundering psychedelic basslines and contemplative shoegaze. “We all have diverse tastes, so if we think an idea sounds good we’ll just go with it. There’s a lot of preconceptions that we’re some kind of novelty band – I think some people are still quite surprised when they find what we do can actually be quite serious.”

It’s a genre resistant mantra for which they’ve coined their own label – “radgewave mamgaze” – and one mined with intoxicating results on debut EP Tangents. Recorded with Chris McManus (Pit Pony) at Newcastle’s Blank Studios following a successful crowdfunder (“That in itself was intimidating – you want to give people their money’s worth!” – Scott), the five-track release jumps from propulsive, punchy rockers such as Tyranny to the pensive, dreamlike Garage Pasty – a number Shellie claims was intended to be “the most beautiful song you’ve ever heard, but then it has that title and it only has a chorus!”

Perhaps most strikingly of all, The Dark is a slab of weighty, introspective catharsis penned during a period of isolation and depression. “I was living on my own for the first time in a number of years, in a flat with only one window. I wasn’t well,” Shellie reflects. When her vision for the band finally came to fruition, The Dark was an obvious number to revisit. “My Dad had just passed away when we began rehearsing too,” she adds; a circumstance which only enhances the final song’s poignancy.

With a month of touring surrounding Tangents’ release and plans to develop ideas ahead of an eventual album, 2025 is the year Snakes With Tits intend to bite back.

Snakes With Tits’ debut EP, Tangents, is released on Friday 14th February.