🤘 I was the sixth most read story last year
In Provo Music Magazine. And that’s pretty cool!
In Provo Music Magazine. And that’s pretty cool!
I get it. I have no business asking you to listen to my songs. I’m an amateur musician after all.
But if you stream my latest records (all professionally mixed and mastered), I’m confident you’ll hear a handful of catchy melodies that could arguably air on popular radio.
Promise they don’t suck. Only one way to find out.
The Breakers (2023):
All songs written, recorded, and produced by Blake Snow. Co-production, mixing, and mastering by Adam Miele. Additional bass, guitar, and backing vocals by Derick Pulham. Additional drumming by Steve Hill.
Less Bad (2022):
All songs written, recorded, and produced by Blake Snow. Co-production, mixing, and mastering by Adam Miele. Continue reading…
Hey power pop, indie rock fans. In support of my new third album, The Breakers, coming this fall, I’ve recently released a couple of “hit” singles with my new band that are now streaming on your favorite music store:
In case you missed it, earlier this year I released Fancy Hotel and Word Games, all streaming on all major music stores (including Amazon).
Thanks for listening, liking, following, and sharing my music. If you’re local, my supporting band The Breakers and I are playing at the famous Velour in Provo on Thursday, August 24 at 7:30. Hope to see you there! 🤘💪🙏
Stream (or download) on:
Until I get around to writing a condensed, more interesting story, here’s a chronology of mostly personal events:
1979. Born in Moscow, Idaho to goodly parents named Brent and Cathy Snow as the fourth child of six and second son in the family. Moved to Oklahoma one month later.
1985. Started my formal education at Westwood Elementary School in Stillwater, Oklahoma while my father taught psychology at Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!). Said formal schooling would last me 17 consecutive years (gulp) across three state programs.
1986. Exposed to my first home computer and modern video game console after my mother bought a colored IBM PCjr and some neighborhood friends scored a Nintendo Entertainment System. The love affair with technology, personal computers, and video games had begun.
My new single, Fancy Hotel, released today on all major music stores: Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube Music, YouTube, and more. It’s the lead single from my forthcoming third album, out later this year.
I wrote the song in the same hotel room I photographed for the cover art, while on assignment for Paste Magazine in Spain. It’s one of the darkest songs I’ve ever written. But since my optimistic self was the one writing it, the chorus is actually super uplifting. So I’m proud of the mixed feelings it captures, something all of us experience in our own headspace.
I’m also proud of the cover art, which is equally dark. But light is still beaming through the windows. Because there’s always hope. Lyrics after the break. Continue reading…
I was recently interviewed by the likable Zach Collier of Provo Music Magazine. He did a fantastic job capturing what my music is about. I hope you read the whole profile and listen to my latest album if you haven’t already. Thank you.
Written in three quarters time and featuring an accordion and upright bass, here is my latest single. New album out now if you haven’t heard it already. Thanks for listening and sharing.
See also: My first two albums, EP, and singles
My band played our first show last week. As you can see from the 33 minute performance, the crowd and venue were fantastic. Thanks for watching.
Hope you can make it, local readers. Thanks for listening to my music. 🤘
Hey friends—I’m live streaming my new album on YouTube next Saturday before it hits stores the following Monday. I’m trying to get 1,000 music fans to attend. Will you please join us for the 51 minute listening party, live chat, and good vibrations? Thanks for your support! 🙏🕺🤘 https://youtu.be/R-kfrzaVFJs
After six months of work, my second full-length album, Less Bad, drops January 31 on all major music stores!
All 14 songs were written, arranged, recorded, sung, and produced by me. The album was mixed and mastered by Adam Miele, my talented brother-in-law whose music has been featured in a SuperBowl commercial. In addition to his sonic mastery, Adam co-produced and played ginormous drums and additional keyboards on songs 3, 8, and 12. Track 9 features studio musician Matt Giella on trumpet. Song 11 was co-written by my good friend Derick Pulham, who also provided backing vocals and additional guitars. You can listen to the lead single and video here.
With their help, this record sounds bigger than it otherwise would. If you like the album, I hope you’ll check out my first record, Mr. Mustache, now streaming on all major stores.
I’m putting the finishing touches on my second album right now. I’m very excited to share it with the world in the coming weeks and months.
Until then, I wanted to look back at my first album, Mr. Mustache (streaming on your favorite music store) released last fall. While I believe every song should speak for itself, as a writer I’m also big on context, if not over explaining things until they are crystal clear.
To that end, here is why I wrote each of these songs, how they came to life, and what the recording process was like:
I wrote this song to cheer my Father on. He died yesterday after a two-year battle with stroke-induced dementia. He was an amazing dad. I hope you hug yours the next time you see him.
My bassist and good friend Austin Birchett and I submitted one of my songs to the 2021 Tiny Desk Contest. You can see our entry here. Thanks for watching.
I launched a YouTube channel several years ago solely out of curiosity.
To date I’ve uploaded 38 videos, half of which are songs from my debut record.
Most of my videos have a few dozen total views, but a few surprisingly have numbered in the thousands. They are as follows:
Thanks for watching!
After more than a year of interviews, reporting, writing, editing, revisions, proofreading, and a couple of months of quarantine (hence the two month delay), I’m excited to announce the release of my second book, Measuring History: How One Unsung Company Quietly Changed The World. We were suppose to do a big book launch party in Texas but that was cancelled for COVID.
Nevertheless, I’m immensely proud of the result and look forward to celebrating and promoting the book over the next several months and into the new year. If you liked my first book, I hope you’ll consider reading this one about a special “little” company from Austin that changed the world in a big, albeit unseen way.
Book description here:
In 1976, three engineers from Austin, Texas created something that would one day touch the lives of more than half of the developed world. Neither “starting a revolution” nor “changing the world” was included in their mission statement. But with the help of some very smart people, a little dumb luck, and a lot of inventive customers, that’s exactly what happened.
From its humble beginnings in a garage and narrowly avoiding a burnt-down headquarters, to making it to space and being honored by the Inventors Hall of Fame, this is the story of how National Instruments (NI) made history. It might not be sexy. It might not be cool. But it’s a true tale that just might change how you see the world.
Thanks for considering it, reading, reviewing on Amazon, and forwarding to all your reader friends.
Like 2020 in general, music this year has been both good and bad. It hasn’t been the best since both releases and events are at all-time lows. But there’s been some really good stuff from the little that has been released. Pending any surprise release this winter, these are my favorite albums so far this year:
HONORABLE MENTION: Mr. Mustache by yours truly. I think it’s the best album by an unsigned artist this year, and not far off from sounding, acting, and producing something you’d expect from a professional team of musicians and producers. Now streaming on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube Music, Amazon and more. Favorite song: Shrug. I hope you enjoy it.
When a friend recently asked Blake Snow if he was quitting his day job to become a full-time musician, he answered “No.” But that doesn’t mean his debut album, Mr. Mustache, is a joke or something not worth supporting (or even touring). “It’s a synth-laden rock record that I take very seriously,” Snow says.
Written, recorded, and produced entirely in quarantine, Mr. Mustache is the public culmination of more than 25 years of homegrown songwriting, recording, and performing. “I wouldn’t say this record saved my life, but it definitely saved my sanity during lockdown,” Snow says. “I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I had making it.”
Standout tracks include the lead single, Turn A Corner, the moody Control What You Can, the playful Mr. Mustache, and Snow’s personal favorite, Shrug, which also happens to be his go-to coping mechanism for the current madness.
Listen to the full-length album now on:
Photo by my son, Max Snow
My first album, Mr. Mustache, was released on all major music stores today. I’m proud and excited to share the record with the world. Here are 10 things you should know:
After my family played the record for this first time this morning, my wife asked in earnest, “Will you cut your mustache now?” I said, “Yes.” But only after my album release party tomorrow!
Thanks for listening and sharing with anyone who might like it.
PS—If you would review the album on your favorite music service, it would really help it reach more people. Thank you.
I was a mess the first two weeks of quarantine. My wife of 17 years said she had never seen me so stressed.
What did I do to cope?
I started writing music at a frantic pace and recorded 18 original songs in the first three months of shutdown. Twelve of those songs made it on my debut album that’s available for streaming and download on August 20.
One of the songs that really help me move from stress to at least some kind of clarity was called “Control What You Can.” With exception to the bridge, it ‘s only two chords and it has an uneasy feeling, the same feeling most of us felt when the world changed.
But in spite of the uneasy sound, I wrote the encouraging lyrics for myself, pleading to “control what I could” when there was so much I couldn’t control. It was a wonderful realization that help me turn a corner; from stress into action.
When I went to record the song, it was late at night. With my floor lamp and headphones on, I spent several hours on the production and immediately knew I had captured a special sound, arguably the most professional track on the the entire album. By the end, I recorded a simple but righteous guitar solo and sung my heart out during an extended outro.
This is that song. It’s pretty moody. And although the music doesn’t sound very uplifting, the lyrics completely are, which is a juxtaposition that I really like and hope you do to.
I’m incredibly proud of the album and what it did for me during quarantine. I hope you mark your calendars and enjoy as many songs as possible. Here is the track listing:
Thanks for giving it a chance. I know it seems weird to have a writer release an album, but I hope you take it as serious as I have. I think you’ll find there are some redeeming, heartfelt songs inside.
Like many of you reading this, the last four months have been the most eventful, strangest, and unsettling spring of my life. But it’s also been one of the best (i.e. bonding with family, completing my second book, starting a band).
In that time, I also wrote, produced, sung, and recorded 16 original songs. I just finished the last one this week and just need to make some finishing touches and final mastering before independently releasing the album to Spotify, Apple, and Amazon Music in the coming weeks.
I’m incredibly proud of the result and grateful for it helping me to cope with this fearful new, but still incredibly beautiful world. I can’t wait for you to hear the whole thing.
Until then, here is the “lead single” entitled Turn A Corner.
With age, I’ve started a habit of condensing my thoughts, ideas, and beliefs into short “quotables.” Here are some of my more Confucius-quality ones, formatted and ready to share—how conceited of me!