With a funk sound whose sole desire is to “give your hips a snack,” a six-piece band from Denver is on the road, taking its infectious live show to the East Coast, including a performance at the storied Bitter End in Greenwich Village on Saturday, May 2.
The Hip Snacks, together only since 2022, have already released their second album, “Out On A Limb,” last week. With new songs in the mix and a show booked in NYC, we thought it would be a good time to check in with Ben Suarez, the bassist who started the group with lead singer Kara Durante, now his wife.
How would you describe this era of the band as you are transitioning from a successful regional act to a bigger national footprint?
It’s exciting! This period in our lengthy tenure as a band (three years next month!) feels full of change. We’ve taken a big leap forward bringing our music to new cities, spreading the word about who we are and what we’re about. There are more shows. New music. About a year and a half ago we started seeing people at our shows singing our lyrics even in a town we’d never been to before.
We’ve also taken on tons of new roles and responsibilities as a self-managed, independent act. Since releasing our first record, “What Lies Ahead,” Kara and I got married, bought our first house. Now, a few of the lads are getting married soon, and we just welcomed a new drummer, Dave Auerbach. He rips! Our first larger tour outside of Colorado last summer helped us realize we had an audience developing around the country that really wanted us to come play for them. Some experiences we’ve had since releasing our debut album have been surreal, and we wanted to get right back into the studio with the fresh batch of songs we’d been cooking up. Playing festivals like FloydFest, stages like Levitt Pavilion in Denver, seeing the country because of music is something I’ll never take for granted. The opportunities we’ve had over the past year are what we’ve always wanted out of careers in music.
How do you strategize about where and when to play, and with whom?
Our approach of where and when to play is still evolving, but it starts with our community. At least half of the support acts on this tour were recommended by friends currently living in those cities. They heard we were coming, or coming back, and texts started flowing in: “You gotta team up with these guys”… “You HAVE to team up with HER,” etc. We have plenty of Midwest, East Coast and Mid-Atlantic roots among our members, so we started in the markets where each of us got our start before moving to Colorado. We started the band with backyard BBQs and free shows, and we just want to take that feeling of community and getting together around the country with us. I started this band with my now-wife so that I could keep getting everyone I loved together for good times as long as we possibly could.
Where to play comes down to where we’re seeing that community grow online. Toledo and Columbus, for example, have held us down since we started, with music fans who first supported Ricky’s former touring act, Conscious Pilot, and then were so supportive of The Hip Snacks when we toured there for the first time last year. We’ll go anywhere, though! We’re hungry, and we hope our listeners all over are coming out for fresh snacks!
Finding bands to work with exposes us to so many great acts. The live music scene at the independent level is a challenge, but it’s still thriving. There will always be killer acts coming up in every city looking to team up and throw down an amazing show for a reasonable ticket price. We look for people that have that same spirit we do.
What was the band’s intention going into making “Out On A Limb”?
I wanted to tell Kara’s story. She didn’t start singing for other people until five years into our relationship. Seeing her perform with such passion and confidence on stages nationwide, you wouldn’t believe she used to freeze up if someone asked her to sing in front of them. She’s always been an amazing singer and supported my independent music dreams while I toured with previous projects. The album’s title track is about Kara making her decision to share her voice with us.
When she stepped up to the mic on a tiny island in Panama in 2018 and blew the guests away for her first-ever live performance, I knew she had this incredible side of her that should be shown. Fast forward to today and everywhere I turn her loose on an audience, she’s winning them over with the first few notes she sings.
We also had such an amazing response from “What Lies Ahead” that we couldn’t wait to get back into the studio with our producer Steve Avedis and do it all again. Seriously, without budget constraints, we would live in Colorado Sound Studios and track songs every single day.
Who writes the songs in the band?
We all do. A lot of times, one person or a pair will have an idea, work it up into a groove or come up with a hook, and then we turn it over to the band to be interpreted. For lyrics, we tend to write them in the same smaller groups, and when we turn them over to Kara, we mostly let her run with it. She and I have been together for so long that I can just suggest a theme to the song, give her the lyrics, and get out of the way. She always seems to interpret the words and how to phrase them just as I intended.
After working closely with Felipe (Cantuaria) and Ricky for the early stages of the songs on our first record, an exciting change this time around was getting to write more with Adam (Schini). He and I collaborated on “Out On A Limb” and “Can’t Without You.” We also welcomed more nearly fully written songs from Adam and Ricky.
Adam brought “Easy,” “Counting On You” and “Never Getting Back” to the band nearly fully written, and Ricky brought us “When You’re Around.”
How have the singles been received by listeners so far?
Really well! Getting messages like “This is my favorite song of the last five years!” is cool to experience. Sending those texts out to the band to let them know we’re actually hitting with people all over the world is crazy. I’ve been DM’ing with people in Portuguese in Brazil who rock hard with us (shout out to Felipe’s roots!).
How do you think the album compares to your debut album?
I’m really proud of what we accomplished. It’s more cohesive. Layered. The percussion added by our good friend and Denver legend Will Trask is just one of the many additions that took these songs to new heights.
Everyone contributed more to the whole. Our producer Steve knew how each of us operated and how to get the best out of us. It features more of our individual influences, rather than being a reflection of the collection of song ideas I had when we set out to write “What Lies Ahead”.
How would you describe your live show?
Explosive. Sweaty. In your face. We lure you into a groove, woo you with love songs, and then start blasting emphatic guitar, synth and organ solos to achieve our nightly goal: to give your hips a snack. We want you moving at our shows. Getting lost in the moment. We sure will be.
At your shows, do you build in some room to improv? Do you change setlists up?
Always! We’re all live music and music festival lifers, and we want our shows to reflect what we’ve enjoyed over the years. Fresh approaches to our catalogue each and every night, debut originals, covers with a twist. We’ve worked hard to earn our descriptor as “Jam-Adjacent,” and we love to build the moments in a song up to thundering peaks.
We are always changing setlists. We always write them, too, but if we get into a room and need to make a change, we’re not afraid to switch up on a dime.
When you met Kara, what were some musical interests you had in common?
The Motet, The Allman Brothers, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Lotus, The Bridge/Cris Jacobs, The Dead, JJ Grey.
Similarly, what drew you two to connecting with the other bandmates as they came along?
We moved to Denver to form this band. Thanks to a dear friend, Tara, who had already been living in Colorado for years, we were introduced to Felipe and our former drummer Dylan (French) early on in 2022, met Ricky (Feria) at a church gig we all had, and met Adam at the local Denver jam. We all shared similar interests and after our first show, we knew we had something special on our hands.
What are some of the more memorable moments the band has had, whether a certain show or getting to play with a certain musician you admire?
Every chance we get to perform with Maggie Rose is a treat. She and her team treat us so well. FloydFest was a beautiful experience, performing live for so many engaged music lovers. Supporting Andy Frasco to close out the ski season at Copper Mountain ’25 was a trip. Following it up with opening day at Vail supporting Blu DeTiger really had us pinching ourselves.
What are some things you’d like to see the band accomplish in the next few years?
We really want to get our music to the western side of the US, take our music to the international markets where we are getting listened to like Brazil, Italy, New Zealand and more. It’s still crazy to see just how far all over the world there are people enjoying our music. Most of all, we want to keep making the kind of music that people take to heart and enjoy in simple moments.
The Hip Snacks ‘Out On A Limb’ Tour w/ Emily Clark, The Bitter End (147 Bleecker St.), Saturday, May 2, 9 p.m. Ticket info here.
Photos by: Jessica Dnea
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