^{Picture: Gary Williamson}

To invoke the old music biz cliché: artists have a lifetime to write their debut album with that difficult follow-up being cobbled together in hotel rooms and at soundchecks. That may have been true before the pandemic, but for long periods over the past two years musicians have had nothing but time: a luxury or a curse, depending on circumstances.

Being largely upbeat types, The Snuts would err towards the former. But not every band can say they scored a debut number-one album during a national lockdown.

‘We were just determined not to let that slow us down momentum-wise,’ says frontman Jack Cochrane. ‘So, it was a good time to look at what we were trying to become as a band and take a breath to do that.’

The Snuts are all about the progression. Formed at school in Whitburn in 2015, they moved steadily through the ranks of indie hopefuls to join their West Lothian neighbours Lewis Capaldi and Susan Boyle at the top of the charts with debut calling card WL. It wasn’t an easy birth. ‘We didn’t know what we were doing,’ says Cochrane. ‘We started the first half in America and I don’t think we’d even been abroad before. We were stuck in LA, which is a really depressing place if you don’t know what’s going on. We were just really naïve to how it all worked. And terrified: is anyone going to like this?’

^{Picture: Gary Williamson}

In stark contrast, their second album (due out in early October) was recorded in isolation with the pressure off. ‘Having been through that experience we are much less precious. I think the preciousness can put a chokehold on your music and this time we were very free and open, and not filled with pointless ego. Now when we’re writing songs, we’re trying to look at it from a more conversational point, less introverted, trying to look at the big picture, not just our small town and our culture.’

Never one to sit still, Cochrane is already writing for a third album before the second is out, and in the meantime, the taster singles ‘Burn The Empire’ and ‘Zuckerpunch’ (about state and social-media control respectively) are out there and ready to be showcased at The Snuts’ forthcoming TRNSMT appearance.

Having grown up with T In The Park as a distant totem, the band have cultivated their own growth-relationship with its successor. ‘The first shout we ever got for TRNSMT, we were still kids who didn’t know how to play our guitars yet,’ says Cochrane. ‘So, it’s been a big part of the progression for us as a band: first time super amateur, second time semi pro. This time we want to show how far we’ve come in front of a home crowd. We’ve got lots of big surprises. We’re going to go right out there with this one.’

The Snuts play the Main Stage at TRNSMT on Saturday 9 July.