Interview: NOAH SCHNACKY, CMC Rocks Festival, QLD, Australia

I had the privilege of speaking to rising star Noah Schnacky at CMC Rocks (read about that here) in what turned out to be one of the most interesting and insightful interviews that I've ever had - read on to find out what he got up to during his time in Australia, using social media as a means to connect with his fans, and what making music means to him. Enjoy! 

Ciara’s Country (CC): Hi Noah, pleasure to see you again after meeting you recently at C2C in London!

Noah Schnacky (NS): What a whirlwind we’ve had!

CC: What has this week been like?

NS: It’s been insane. This is my first time ever overseas, so to go from London straight to Australia, straight back to Florida, then to Italy, is the craziest experience of seeing the world I could have ever imagined. The people are so different, yet so beautiful wherever you go, for different reasons. In London, I love that they’re like true connoisseurs of music. Then you go to Australia, and people are so energetic for it and have so much wild enthusiasm because this is the big country fest they look forward to every year. It’s quite an experience.

CC: How have you enjoyed your time in Australia?

NS: It’s been the coolest journey ever. We’ve done so much more than I ever thought we would. We’ve already found out favourite places. We love Grilled – it’s the most amazing burger joint I’ve ever been to, everything is so fresh. They have fresh food figured out over here and it’s awesome. I love The Coffee Club. There’s this one at Eagle Street Pier that overlooks the river that we go to every morning for breakfast. We’re just having the funnest time. It’s like vacation but we get to perform too so it’s a double whammy.

CC: And you’ve been having a lot of new experiences here too?

NS: Yeah, we saw kangaroos for the first time. I fed one! We saw a bunch of koalas and held them. Loads of touristy things but we’ve also done a lot of city searching and meeting the people, making our way around. I had someone for the first time ever come up to me and ask if I was American and then say I had a cool accent. I never thought anyone would ever say my accent was cool!

CC: I would totally agree with that. American accents are extremely cool! As are Aussie accents, and we’re here at CMC Rocks – how amazing for you to play on the Main Stages here for your first time in Australia. Will we be hearing new music in your sets?

NS: Yeah, we’ll be playing a ton of new music. What’s crazy for me is the songs we’ve already released. Literally the last year has been us in the studio, creating music and releasing it independently. This is the first time we’ve ever really got outside of that to experience what we’ve done and the connection we’ve had with fans. I just posted on Instagram the fans interaction on the first night of the festival and how intense they were singing back the song. Every person knew the lyrics to our songs. It was almost a spiritual experience. You go your whole life thinking maybe one day that’ll happen to you, and I just wasn’t ready for it. It shocked me. It hit me by surprise and rocked my world that they knew the words and were singing louder than me!

CC: Your songs have done very well on Spotify – I think this shows just how well that travel across the world.

NS: Well, Spotify and all the streaming services have been huge helps for us. Something that’s been really big for me since I grew up listening to country radio, is that we’ll be going out to all the outlets this year and getting the songs to everybody’s ears. I hope so, anyway! It’s going to be crazy.

CC: And you got your start on Instagram, is that right?

NS: Yeah. About three or four years ago, I decided that music is what I wanted to do, and I wanted to reach an audience to remind people that they’re loved, and I knew that music was the best way for me to do that. That’s what I’m all about, that’s who I am. I started releasing covers on Instagram and over the years I’ve been responding to DMs, because that’s something I love to do. I noticed that when I responded to a DM, their friends would respond back and then that would turn into four, then ten, then a hundred, and before I knew it I was responding to hundreds of DMs every night. Once we had about half a million followers, that’s when we decided to release our first single and that’s when we decided to release our first single. We went from zero to a million streams in eight days. Spotify saw it at about 1.4 million and put it on their playlist and it just skyrocketed, and the next thing we knew we were next to names like Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney. That was the most mindblowing experience because I’m just this kid from Orlando, and to think that my name could be next to something like that didn’t feel real.

CC: Good company to be in.

NS: The best!

CC: I definitely noticed when doing my research that you have brilliant interaction with your fans – loads of people mentioning you responding to them and how much it matters to them. I think that’s so important when you’re trying to grow and get fans who really care about you, and that’s not necessarily something we’ve seen in country music yet in terms of that social influence.

NS: Thank you. That’s what I’m here for – at the end of the day, I believe I was given this platform so that I could do that on a bigger scale. For example, when we went to London, we went and surprised a fan in Reading. It was the coolest thing ever. We left the city, never having used the train system there and got to Reading, hopped on a bus for like eighteen stops and showed up at this random address that we found from her mum! We didn’t even tell her mum that we were coming, and we knocked on their door and nobody answered because nobody was home… We got back on the bus, did a full loop of the town, came back an hour later and ended up knocking on her door when she was there. We walked in and sat down with her parents, and she absolutely freaked out. That to me is what it’s all about. That’s why I was given this influence and that’s why I’m going to continue to do music, to remind people that they’re loved and they’re not alone. If I can be that to somebody, maybe someone else will say ‘if he can do that for that girl, he can do it for me’. If I can inspire people and remind them that they’re loved, that’s what I’m here for.

CC: I’ve seen across all your socials that you and your fans use the anchor emoji a lot – what does that mean?

NS: It’s a play on words. I’m anchored to my fans and my fans are anchored to each other, and that’s just how it goes. I’ve had a lot of people come into and out of my life, a lot of hurt in my past with friends who’ve left my side because they thought I could give them something and when they found out I’m just a normal person, they left me. Something that’s been very consistent throughout my life is my fans having my back and caring about me; and vice versa, me for them. The anchor was a way for us as a community – if you look at my followers, there’s thousands upon thousands of people who have anchors by their names – and when you see someone with anchors by their name, it’s an open invitation to get into their life. I’ve even seen fans link up on social media because of the anchors, and then three or four months later, enter into a relationship over social media, moving to the state to be by each other. Or one not having a family and moving in with another one states away. I’ve seen some come down to Florida where my family is located just to be a part of the community we’re in. I think what we’re doing is bringing people together, and that was my main goal with everything we’re doing, so that’s what the anchor us. Me being anchored to them and us being anchored to each other.

CC: I think that comes across in your music as well.

NS: Yeah, well the reason I wrote Hello Beautiful and Maybe We Will is that I know the power of music. I know a movie can change your perspective in two and a half hours, but a song can do that in two and a half minutes. It can bring you to tears, it can bring you new joy, it can remind you life is worth living in that short amount of time. I wanted to use my songs to remind people they’re loved. With the story of Hello Beautiful I wanted to remind girls everywhere that that’s what they should be looking for – a guy who loves them relentlessly, is willing to wait and chase them, and knows what he wants. It’s the same for Maybe We Will.

CC: What’s your favourite song to perform?

NS: Right now, my favourite non-released song is the opener we have today (That Guy), so I hope you like that one. Released songs, it’s probably Maybe We Will. We just started stripping it down. There are so many people singing those lyrics so loud, I can barely sing the song myself. To see a crowd of ten or twenty thousand people singing back your lyrics is a heartwarming experience to say the least. That’s probably my favourite moment of the set.

CC: I’ll be there watching! To finish up the interview, what is one question you’ve never been asked in an interview but would love to be?

NS: Let me think… Maybe what’s my goal with all of this? What’s the point? At the end of the day, if the point is to make money, it’s just a bigger house, more empty rooms that you’ll never be able to fill; if the point is to make music to be a legend, eventually all legends disappear. My purpose, the reason I do this is because I want to change people for generations. I want to inspire people in their own lives and remind them that they’re loved. If I can change other people, that’ll change how they act with their children, and their children’s children, and I really think that’s what it’s all about for me. Just legacy.

CC: What a deep and insightful answer. That’s a good purpose to have. Thank you so much for chatting to me!

NS: Thank you. 

I hope you enjoyed my interview with the lovely Noah Schnacky! What surprised you most about his answers? Were you a fan before? Drop me a comment below and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more interviews and reviews with your favourite artists coming soon - thanks for reading!