Deer Park Avenue on dreaming up melodies, why they’re “IRL people” and why the song is boss.

Fronted by sisters Sarah Snyder on vocals and guitar and Steph Snyder on vocals and drums, Deer Park Avenue have forged a singular sound that fuses soulful anthems, infectious pop hooks, buzzing riffs, and what they like to call “ambient grunge.”

The band’s meteoric rise has led to international tours and performances supporting artists like Palaye Royal and Bebe Rexha, as well as TV appearances in the US and Europe. Hailing from Long Island by way of Northern California, the Snyder sisters are now based in Munich, where they took a break from wrapping up new music projects with Grammy-winning producer Reto Peter to talk about their songwriting process, forming a connection with fans, and how Audix microphones help them serve their musical muse in the most authentic way.

You have roots in church music; can you walk us through the journey from that to forming a rock band?

We were kids – just 9 or 10; we were living on Long Island, and our church was this old, traditional white steeple church. Our first band was actually drums, guitar, and the church organ, which was a really interesting mix.

The music director was a bass guitarist named Jim Fielder; he was one of the founding members of Blood, Sweat & Tears. He taught us so much about listening to each other, how to be a band, how to perform. We learned that there's a way to play music with people and for people that is actually for them, to connect with them and make sure they're connecting with the music. Sometimes bands don't get that. It's all about trying to show off chops or make it about, "look how cool we are."

That's a really normal thing if you're insecure and starting out, that you want to prove something to people. But for us, it was the opposite. It was, disappear and let the music connect with people; be there for them, and then that's how you'll get what you need, too.

That ethos has guided us as a live band. We go to a dive bar, a club, we can play for 50 people, 100 people, 5,000 people, 10,000 people, and it's the same MO. It's, are people connecting? Are they having a good time? Are we giving them something that's going to make their day better? Because if their day is better, then our day is better.

It can be hard in the music industry. There's a lot of competition, of course, and there’s pressure to prove yourself. One of the things that Jim taught us is that in music, it's not about proving yourself. It's everybody playing together, being part of a family, a community, and just trying to lift everybody up at the same time.

Sounds like you had great mentors!

Our cousin, Gregg Bissonette, is an amazing drummer; he's played with all kinds of people, Ringo Star and David Lee Roth. And his brother Matt is a bass player; he's touring with Elton John right now. They both have this amazing work ethic, this way of mentoring and showing you what music is actually about.

We had that early on, and it really grounded us. It was all about just playing for the song, being musical; be there, be present in the moment, work on your skills, get better, but make sure that you're connected with the band, that you're playing together.

What is your songwriting process like?

Steph: It's funny how it's worked out because there've been a lot of times where one of us will have lyrics but no music, and then the other one's like, "Oh, I've got music, but no lyrics." And they end up fitting together really well.

Sarah: We don't have a process the way that a lot of people describe their process, because I think for us, songwriting kind of is our process, if that makes sense. It's how we process our emotions, how we process life. You don't know what to do with it. And as a musician, you take it to music. That's what brought us to music in the first place.

Steph: Sometimes it's as practical as, "When I'm thinking of rhymes, I can't get stuck in negative self-talk."

Sarah: Our process is also very spontaneous. People will talk about songwriting exercises and ways to get over writer's block to perfect your craft. And we do that, and we teach that in our songwriting camps.

But for us, the best songs usually happen when we dream of a melody. Or, you'll go to bed at night, and as you're falling asleep you get that lyric that sounds like it's going to be a good fit for what you've been tossing around in your head. That opportunity is almost always inconvenient, and it's at a terrible time, but you just have to stop what you're doing and write down those lyrics or record that melody or whatever it is. The muse is very strict sometimes about your time.

You’re both into recording technology; how does that inform your creative process? As a drummer and guitar player, your sound is a big part of your songs. Are you thinking about that as you're writing?

Sarah: I think for us, technology is a tool for us to get what we want out of it. So, we'll have something in our heads that we want to do, and then we look for the technology that will help us achieve that. For me, it's about guitar pedals. What am I going to use to create that sound? What kind of atmosphere can I make out of these materials? For Steph, it's the same thing with the drums.

You have a new EP coming out this winter and an album coming out next year. What has it been like collaborating with producer Reto Peter?

This is our second time doing an album with him. It's so nice to work with somebody where you don't have to really explain yourself too much, and they just kind of get you. And that's how we have felt with Reto. Our ongoing joke is that we bring Reto these pieces of cardboard, and he builds a mansion out of it.

When people think of him, they might think of rock records: Green Day, Modest Mouse. Were you looking for a specific sound for your new projects?

Sarah: To be honest, a lot of these sounds that we were looking for didn't exist. Cave, which is our first single, we've been calling it ambient grunge. It's got this ambient guitar soundscape in there, but it's a grunge song, and it's got this really heavy fuzz sound. And the vocals go between very light and airy into very intense and almost kind of growly.

No one's doing that. People actually told us, “You should stylise your sound because it's easier to market. It's easier to get you on bigger playlists if you'll stylize your sound to sound exactly like these 20 bands." There’s nothing wrong with that; we love those 20 bands. But for us, it was, "This is what we're hearing."

Steph: What really draws us to Reto is his openness, his honesty, his creativity. If he hears something, and it's good and it makes sense, and that's what we want to get out of it, then that's what we do.

Sarah: Our main thing is, if this is what the song needs, this is what the song gets. The song is the boss. You're going to go out there and give the song what it needs and present it in the best way possible so that people can hopefully connect with it, enjoy it, think about it, maybe even be disturbed by it. That's what art does. It makes you dig a little deeper and think a little harder.

What is your strategy for building your brand and reaching new fans?

Steph: We do love to play live, and I think that has been really good for us with growing a fan base.

Sarah: Yeah, we're very much IRL people. Playing out here in Europe, there are so many festivals. There are some really cool mid-range clubs, 300 to 500 people. These intimate shows are so much fun for us. Some of the best compliments we've ever had after a show have just been people saying, "I was having such a bad day, and this is the best thing that's happened."

What is performing in Europe like?

It's so much fun to play in Europe. The audiences are just so interested in original music. When we came out here, we’d play two or three covers, and the one criticism that we would get was, "Why'd you play so many covers?"

We would say, "Oh, because in America, everybody wants a cover song in there." And they would say, "Well, we want original music. We can hear covers on the radio. Why would we want that?" That was eye opening: We can be as original as we want to be and do our thing.

With so much writing, recording, and gigging, how do you balance it all?

It's really important to surround yourself with people who are watching out for you, who have your best interests at heart, but also hold you accountable. Are you being the person you need to be? Are you taking care of the things you need to take care of, physically and spiritually? Having that community is so important. So, beyond marketing and getting your name out there, it has to start from that place of who you are.

You don't find your balance until you find your imbalance, at least in our experience. We've gotten to points where we've toured way too long and way too hard. And we were like, "Okay, was all of that necessary? What can we learn from this? What can we do better next time?” We're guided by our failures – or perceived failures, the mistakes that we think that we've made. Those are the things that shape us and guide us and mould us into the people that we're meant to be.

When did you get into recording?

During lockdown, we had time on our hands, and so we just experimented. We had some Audix mics from the drum kit, and so we would experiment with recording percussion or recording just room sound. From there, then we started learning how to do vocals and comping vocals and just little things like that.

Do you have a home studio?

Sarah: We have a small European flat with a very simple home studio setup. We did a lot of percussion, backing vocals, and extra parts for the album here. I think our favourite studio condenser is the Audix A231. It is such a fun microphone to record with. Everything sounds good. You capture exactly what you're hearing.

We have the Audix A131 too, which we love. And we have a Universal Audio Volt 2 USB interface. That's kind of it: Apple Logic, some studio condensers, and our Volt interface.

It sounds like versatile mics are key to a minimalist recording rig…?

Sarah: Oh, absolutely. We got to a point where we were like, "What else can the 231 do?" We just use it for everything. And we have the Audix PDX720 vocal mic now, so that's going to start making some appearances as well.

Which mics are you using onstage?

Onstage we use Audix OM7s or OM6s. We've used the OMs for ages. They're so good for a loud band. We really love the VX5 as well. For our acoustic stuff we'll use that because it captures so much of the intimacy and the nuance. For the more intimate acoustic shows, those are perfect. And then for the drums, you've got the Studio Elite 8 8-piece mic kit; the SCX-25As are ridiculously good. And we’ve always used the i5 on cabs.

How did you come to collaborate with Audix on your performance of The Cranberries’ Dreams?

We're huge Cranberries fans. Audix were working on a fresh creative vision for their audio community; they asked us to do the song, and to do the video shoot too, which was so much fun. We recorded the song at Munich Sessions Studio with our friends Alex Keogh and Patrick Thompson.

For us, this was a really meaningful project because we had just come out of a difficult time. We recorded our album in two parts. The whole album was about a trial by fire; we went through our own trial by fire in the middle of the project, and we weren't sure we were going to finish it. This was the first release that we had to come back to the music scene and get back to being in people's feeds again and in people's lives again after a bit of a break.

We got connected to Audix through a wonderful fan, Carl Mancuso, back in the early days of Deer Park Avenue, before we even had any gigs. He put us in touch with Cliff Castle, the VP at the time, and we met a bunch of people there. 

For us, that is such an important part of working with a company, because a lot of companies have a lot of great products, and Audix has a huge amount of solid, amazing products. But what drew us to them was that their vision matched our vision. Their ethos matched our ethos. The people were so supportive and so genuine that we feel like we are in good hands.