Battlesnake - ATG 2026

Hello, we are Battlesnake. I'm Sam and I'm Elliot. And we're at ATG. It's very exciting to chat with you guys, as I've just been mentioning, you've been one of the bands of our summer. I've never done as many festivals in one summer and you've been the highlight of the ones that you've played at Band of the summer. Thank you. Congratulations on being so busy. No, it's been I I lost my voice totally yesterday, so you've I've managed to recover just in time to talk to you guys and enjoy the silent disco set that you'll be doing. Which I also saw you do, uh, that's the reason I've, it feels like so I mean you played twice at Trees. Saw the silent disco set there and then the main stage set. Uh, the main stage was at the same pri same time as everyone else dressing up. They literally do a fancy dress competition on the Saturday at Dreams. So as you were playing, we were surrounded, you weren't the only ones in costume. I did not realise. It was abso it was absolutely bonkers. Can I ask, to start us off, what have been some highlights of your summer, this summer of the festivals and you've been in this part of the world again. Getting interviewed by Andy Guitar. I mean that's obviously there we go, that's number one, that's number one. But what, what else, any Spinal Tap moments, there must have been a few. I mean 11 that comes to mind, so many probably. too many to even talk about really. Which ones can you share on camera? Yeah blood stuck and I remember seeing your guitarist rather than coming out in uh into the audience, he was going across the stage being pushed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Play the guitar solos. At at 10:45 in the morning was a total surprise to us. Yeah, of course, cause we were like we, we're gonna get there, we're gonna be playing to nobody, it's gonna be cool cause we're playing Bloodstock, but you know, whatever, and then we get there and it's like fucking. And then there's 1 million people watching us. I think there was a million, yeah, 14 billion. Um, but what other, I mean we've just been, we, we wrote an album on the road which is really incredibly stupid, um, and recorded it as well. Oh, incredible. We've just been all over and I don't know. We're tired. Yes. That's how it looked, I, I know when you're, you're having to play later, I think you start at 11 p.m. or just after. It's a whole thing show day to go, we've gotta keep it in the tank for then we finished at like 2 o'clock in the morning last night at in southern Germany. Oh, so it's been an easy 24 hours for you guys. 45 minutes. But I'm sure you'll be raring to go tonight. What's one of your favourite songs in particular to uh on your live set this year? New, the new song I Killed Satan. Yeah, you got apocalypse. Because they're new and fun. Yeah. It must be nice to have a couple of new ones to throw in there. Yeah, and I remember the lyrics. That's important. It's an important first step to doing a gig. I mean sing them low enough and you can just, you can style it out for sure, but ah yes, we'll just put the demon voice on and then sort it. How about yourself? favourite song? Yeah, on the set that you're playing tonight I love, I love Shepherd Hunter. I always love playing Shepherd Hunter because it's just immediate impact straight away, you just see everybody just like understands what it is immediately, that's why I like it. But also like the end of the set. With um Nightmare King and Let There Be Rock, yeah, cos it's just fucking chaos, it's just chaos. I will, I will, I will concur with that, as have been the er cover of Let There Be Rock that you guys do, it's just wonderful to um see you guys let fly on on certain ones and we'll see if they let us fly tonight because you can always let I mean you're the last band so last time we flew they cut our sound off. They cut our sound off. Well it's, it's technically a silent disco, so I mean I can't cut the sound out. Hide, hide that button, you'll be fine. And um what is, I wanna ask you about the theatricality of the band. How was it? For I cos I, I'm aware of where they come from, from some of your influence, but I'm, I'm excited to dive deeper with that cos you got, you don't hold back on stage, do you? No, oh, yeah, sometimes, sometimes, Sam is a different person on stage. Sometimes I look at Sam and I'm like, he's not there, he's not with us anymore, he's, he's not there looking at his eyes, it's like he's not the same person, it's kind of strange. Do you think that's what it takes? Do you have to keep so much in the tank for the stage performance? No, I've, I don't think it matters how much energy I have before, you know, it just always happens. It Births from me miraculously. What was the question? I'm excited to see where this comes from, and we do find that everyone, cause that has to be embraced by the band, you guys are very much a rock band at its core. And you do set up in the same way, you just take it to the more ridiculous, you know, turn it up to 11 than other band rock and roll, baby, yeah, we just like to have fun. And that's something that people have always said, it's like you, you guys look like you're having fun on stage and I'm like. Yeah, isn't that the bloody whole point of this bloody thing? What are we doing? Well, it's tough though, now for, for some people it it isn't, I guess, they're trying to write, you know, take it seriously write the best song we possibly can. I, we always try and write the worst song we possibly can. Yeah, nice. I think that's where um liquid Death came from, you know, the water that's been everywhere, they were like, what's the worst thing we can call literally the healthiest drink in the world. No one will buy liquid and you guys, it's like how far can you take. I wonder what, what are some of the ridiculous ideas that have been vetoed either by yourselves or or someone else, what, what hasn't made the cut? What's too ridiculous for Battlesnake wanted to make that song all about food related. Oh no, I have farming related, um, like agricultural um themes. Then he wanted to write a song that had purely agricultural themes, which I don't know, thinking about it now, make the cut next time. As our as our songs get worse and worse. How about one of the new singles, is there a story behind one of those, what, what led to the birth of those? Well, it's true, true stories, um, I guess history, yeah. Like human history led to the those songs. That was about it. And uh and yeah hold this, you might feel more powerful. We found these ancient texts in Syria and we unearthed them. They were buried in the earth. Weren't they, Elliot? And we found them and we've been slowly deciphering them. Uh, as the years go by, and each new album is a new chapter of these ancient religious texts that we have found, I think that's really exciting. I mean it's, it's rather better than just writing another song about, you know, love or something or something with love in it. Yeah well, we don't write them, so who knows, maybe the, maybe the next, maybe the the the the next chapter could be about love. We don't know yet, we haven't um uh translated it yet. Indeed. And what are, what's a favourite uh guitar solo that you guys play on the set, which one do you like? Yeah, I can't wait for that one. Um, What's my favourite guitar solo in the whole set? What comes to mind? Oh, it would be, it would be. Um, the Key of Solomon where with Dan at the end, is that, yeah, where, where we go, um, double time Thrash and Dan, it's just a big Dan fucking. Frashy, shreddy solo, yeah, yeah, I just love it cos it's, we get this robotic perfection out, you know, Rock and roll man, and if there was one battle sake song that you think everyone watching this video should learn, like one riff to do the gateway riff into this, where, where should you know, someone who's an intermediate guitar player, where should they start? They should start a Mud Apocalypse cos it's our newest song. I'll go with that. It's also, it's also like a bit trickier in different ways than our past stuff like um. Yeah, cause Nick the drummer recently learned how to use the double kick. And he spent like 6 months only doing that. Oh I bet that was a that was fun for everyone else, but it's really like opened up this world for us. Um, rhythmically in the guitars, which is really cool. I just step it up a lot, I mean talk about bloodstock, it's pretty much all you hear at every stage is double kick. It's like a definitive thing of certain genres. Yeah, of course, yeah, and we've done something, we've added something really cool to the double kicks which if you listen to the song, you will hear it. So you know how, who was it, who did the, who did the typewriter thing? Yeah, alright, we've done something cooler. Ah, OK, well, I'll look forward to it. When, when is that gonna crop up in the set, so I'm ready for it. Well, the next single it will be on. Ah, nice, OK. Look at me go. I'm not fully plugging. I'm not even, it's like it's your band we're talking about. I'm fully doing it. When, when can we expect the next single? um in. Maybe 6 weeks I think. Yeah, yeah, I've spread them out. Yeah, I didn't even know that. If Sam, that's not a surprise to anybody. Well, I won't keep you any longer cos I know it's a show day, but thank you so much for chatting with us. Can't wait for you guys to crown this festival and indeed my, my personal summer of like summer festival is gonna be really cool. You're a sweetheart. You are the sweetest man I've ever met in my whole life. You should sing Andy a song, OK. Andy, my beautiful Andy. He comes, his second name is Guitar, and we are on par. Last name's Crowley. Uh, what? My last name's not Andy Crowley. I'm actually Mr. Crowley. Mr. Crow. I know he says it wrong, it's not Crowley, it's Crowley. Holy. Over and out Battlesnake and Andy Guitar Crowley, clap him off, Molly clap him off.