The Abridged Version:
- Izzie Gomez, frontman for garage, punk and pop infused psychedelic-rock band The Snares explains his musical journey after a performance at “The Stacks,” a concert and conversation series from Abridged by PBS KVIE and Amatoria Fine Art Books.
- Gomez’s parents never had eclectic tastes but he found inspiration and new art with friends and cousins. His wide range of influences include independent films, bossa nova and “old-school blues.”
- Deciding to move to Sacramento and pursue music, he found his bandmates after the pandemic in the thriving DIY music community.
It wasn’t easy to form a band after the COVID-19 pandemic, but The Snares still found each other in the thriving Sacramento DIY music scene.
Slowly, piece by piece, they found what their sound was meant to be. The psychedelic-rock band (with tinges of noise-rock, post punk and pop) has toured America and Europe.
The band brought an energetic performance to “The Stacks,” a new concert series and collaboration between Abridged by PBS KVIE and Amatoria Fine Art Books.
Members Izzie Gomez (guitar, vocals), Lukas Brodie (drums), Danielle Judith (organ, vocals) and Julian Paz (bass) energized the crowd in between the bookshelves in this special intimate performance.
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After the 30-minute set, Gomez sat down with Amatoria owner Miranda Culp to discuss the band’s origins and his inspirations.
Gomez was raised in Tracy and moved to Sacramento to pursue music. He told Culp that his parents, who are Mexican, influenced his journey as an artist. He found his first guitar when he was just a toddler and went on to find inspiration in a variety of genres, including jazz, salsa, pop, folk and blues.
Watch the Q&A or read a condensed version below.
Editor’s note: This Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q&A with Izzie Gomez
Culp: I’m curious, when you were young, can you think of a moment, a song, a band or something that made you think, “I need to pick up a guitar?”
Gomez: By the time I was like 2 or 3 years old, there was a guitar at the house, and I would just drag it around. But then, my parents weren’t avid music listeners for some weird reason. They listened to the Beatles and Michael Jackson and like, Chicago. My mom had a weird Enya CD that was always playing in the car. … They were just playing hits and stuff. I didn’t really start listening to a lot of music until I had some of my older cousins give me these weird compilation CDs. … They gave me Linkin Park and I was hooked. Also, there was some weird, animated music videos that they put on a CD ROM. … It was like, Dragon Ball Z to “In the End” by Linkin Park.
Culp: You seem to me like somebody who was kind of a popular culture junkie. … Were you into movies and comics and stuff like that?
Gomez: I think by the time I got into high school I had friends that got me into cooler movies and independent films. … I had an uncle who got me into jazz pretty early. … He got me into salsa music, which is weird because my parents, like I said, just put on whatever. He would put on a lot of the music that they would dance to and stuff.
Culp: Did you ever play jazz or salsa?
Gomez: I played jazz briefly in high school. And then a little bit in college. … I love bossa nova. Brazilian music. I use that as homework because this stuff (The Snares) is like four chords. If I just did this all the time, I’d probably lose a little bit of the more technical stuff. And I’m not a very technical player, but it’s good to have some of that stuff. … When you’re playing with your bandmates, it’s good to know, this is a C. And even that I mess up.
I love jazz. I think by the time I got into college I was like … “It’s a life study … I’m not going to be that good.” So, I’d rather just write pop tunes that I relate to and other people might relate to more.
Culp: Is there a songwriter that you studied? What are you listening to?
Gomez: I’m a huge fan of João Gilberto. He’s my hero as far as all (music) goes. But from (being) a kid, I think I’d always study one of my favorite musicians and try and learn — not their whole discography but learn how to play their style and copycat them. I was a big fan of Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie.
Culp: And lyrics too?
Gomez: Yeah, well, lyrically, I’m not the best. Like, I have a really bad memory so I make my lyrics nice and tight and real short. But (Gibbard) was a really good lyricist. And there’s great lyricists like David Bowie. I always go, “No one knows what David Bowie’s singing about, but it’s like a hit.” So that taught me a little bit of that stuff. Once I started getting into … folk music. I love folk, and I was really into Bob Dylan — like the ‘64 record that he put out. And … just a lot of the old school blues, like (Sister) Rosetta Tharpe and Mississippi John Hurt. … And then I found a band called Thee Oh Sees and that’s the whole sound. We’re just ripping off Thee Oh Sees. The Oh Sees aren’t from Sacramento. They’re from San Francisco, … but they came here to record for many years with a guy named Chris Woodhouse who had a studio. It was either above or near the Red Museum that we know of now. … When I first moved here that was kind of like the place I was like, “This is really cool.”
Culp: Sacramento has this very DIY, build-it-in-your-garage vibe to it. And the Red Museum sort of like typifies … you’re really just relying on other artists to support you.
Gomez: I think that’s the cool thing about Sac, is it’s not that big, but it’s big enough for there to be lots of different kinds of music.
Culp: How did you meet your band?
Gomez: I moved here during the pandemic and once everything started opening up, I started applying for jobs, and I applied for a teaching position at Guitar Center. And that’s how I met Lukas, our drummer. He was my boss. … We started jamming because when I first moved here, I had one or two buddies that were playing music that were from the small town that I am from … Tracy, California.
My joke is you’ve probably smelled it going through the 5 (Interstate 5). But I had a buddy up here and he was telling me to move up here and start playing music again because I hadn’t played music in a while, and I really wanted to.
When I moved here, we were jamming, and immediately one of our friends moved back to Manteca or something. That’s when we made some switches and had Lukas come and play drums. And then, eventually the bass player moved and we met Julian through the circuit because, in the beginning, Golden Bear was this hub. I always called it a mini renaissance. … Everybody was just sick of being inside. … It was really hard to book shows back then. … You just did a lot of like open mics. So you get on, play two songs and get off.
Through the circuit we met like, people like Sam Eliot, who plays in a band called Demon Wrangler here in town. Julian plays in that band along with his brother. … Eventually met Dani, who also was playing in the circuits and stuff. She plays in a really cool band called Rainbow City Park. And so pretty much everybody in the band is very active in the scene. So, we all got to just kind of meet each other through the scene in Sacramento. And the rest is history. … We immediately started recording a new record and then touring.
Catch up on ‘The Stacks’
- The Snares | Full Performance | The Stacks
- The Snares | StoOpid | The Stacks
- Rituals of Mine | Full Performance | The Stacks
