Quality Americana

Today we feature a modern soul album from the Denver based Hip Snacks. 

The group is fronted by vocalist Kara Durante, who formed the group while living in Maryland along with her husband Ben Suarez before moving to Colorado. They met guitarist Felipe Cantuaria and drummer Dylan French while at a local open mic and guitarist Ricky Feria and keyboardist Adam Schini on the jam scene after getting to town.

Finding the Groove

Schini grew up in California before pursuing music at college in Vermont. He later moved to Colorado to find a music home and took up work in the ski industry. 

“I was pretty dead set on trying to find some musicians to play with,” Schini said. “I ended up going to this local jam- a lot of funk and jazz tunes that they were playing.” 

Shini said he had to force himself to attend weekly to break out of his shell. 

“It was definitely a big ask for myself because I also work a day job,” Schini said. “I was going out every single week just forcing myself to meet some musicians.” 

That’s where he met Cantuaria and Suarez, who were looking for a keyboardist to join the Hip Snacks. 

“I keep telling myself that if I wasn’t there every single week then maybe we wouldn’t have crossed paths,” Schini said. “I sort of forced myself into a situation where I would get the opportunity.”

Growing Up

Schini grew up on the piano, taking lessons early on with his family. 

“My parents bought an electric keyboard and then signed everybody up for piano lessons,” Schini said, “both my parents and then my brother… I was the only one who stuck with it.” 

Schini switched over to guitar as a teenager and came back to the keyboard after college to join a rock band. 

“I really kind of really enjoyed the sounds that you can create with a keyboard,” Schini said. “It can be way more versatile than a guitar. I feel almost more useful on a keyboard if that makes any sense.”

Collective Unit

The group all contributed to the songwriting on the second album, with Schini contributing several of his own. 

“Sometimes we’ll go over to someone’s house and spend some time workshopping a song,” Schini said. “Other times one individual will just bring a complete song to the table and we’ll give it a little bit of treatment and decide whether or not it fits our sound.”

“If it’s a good song, I think everybody will do whatever they can to make it fit because I don’t think we’re stuck so much in trying to capture a certain sound. I think we all appreciate different types of inspirations and can be a band that performs songs that we like to play- what we like to hear rather than sticking ourselves in a box so to speak.”

Schini said that the second album has a more collaborative feel than the debut after spending time together as a group.  

“It feels more us, I think,” Schini said. “You’ve kind of got to check your pride at the door and be happy with the end result because you know you’re in a room with musicians who are good.”

Never Getting Back

“Never Getting Back” follows a love story where long distance quickly creates problems for the characters.  

“That song came out almost on accident,” Schini said. “I was sitting by myself at home, I had just hurt myself skiing the day before so I wasn’t really able to do much. I recorded a demo the next night and sent it to Ben and he was like ‘yeah, we’re going to put this on the album by any means necessary.’”

Denver Vibes

Schini said there’s a great diversity in the Denver music scene for the HIp Snacks to fit in. 

“It feels smaller than you would actually think,” Schini said, “but just saturated with incredible talent. There’s so many good players out here.” 

Schini said the funk jam they all met at had members show up from Lettuce, Talk, The John T, and many others that would tour through town. 

“I think the Denver music scene is one of the best music scenes in the country,” Schini said. “If you know where to go, you can find a lot of great music.”

Support the Artists

Out On A Limb was recorded by Steve Avedis at Colorado Sounds Studios.

The Hip Snacks are setting out on a summer tour to promote the new album. More information about dates can be found here.