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ON THE RISE
Sometimes life just slides on by at an unfathomable pace, something that Buffalo based rapper Spendit incorporated that into his single “Hold Up” off his first EP titled Check.
“The meaning of ‘Hold Up’ basically describes my life,” said Spendit, who grew up on the lower west side of Buffalo. “I’m always looking to make some money, you know? So it was like, what’s the next best thing or how can I make some more money? That’s where it comes from: life moving too fast. I feel like life really do move too fast, and if you let the opportunity slip, you might be losing out on some money.”
Spendit was not always a musician, and was far more focused on playing basketball when he was young. His brother Akaey was a musician, but he didn’t think it was for him before he even really gave it a chance. He didn’t pick up music until the end of middle school going into high school
Akaey was always into music, making beats, and since their rooms were so close Spendit would hear it all day. He rejected the love of music early on because of that, but eventually it started to kick in his head. He joked that it was forced on him to the point where he could easily just start rapping on his beats.
“I could just flow on it,” Spendit said. “I can’t even say it’s like a hidden talent. I feel like I just never tried, and when I did try, boom, it was that.”
Spendit added, “I started to accept that I might be good at music. I started free-styling but I wasn’t really recording anything. From then, that’s when I started getting told I might need to actually write something down and go to the studio, or just record in the studio and see what comes up.”
With “Hold Up”, Spendit received a beat from his brother Akaey. Losart is Spendit’s producer, and he said the three of them are the “posse” creating tunes.
Spendit wrote to the beat three different times. His first time he felt the beat was too good for what he wrote, scratched it out, and went for it again. This second try wasn’t what he wanted either, and the trial and error continued.
“I went back to ‘Hold Up’ again, I finally finished it, and I polished it,” Spendit said. “Those other songs are in the waiting room, man. There’s no way I’m just gonna throw them in the garbage. The songs were good, they just didn’t hit the same. So yeah, I’m going to release them sooner and later but I’ll have to send them to Losart to make beats around it.”
Spendit grew up listening to the likes of 2Pac, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and finally Drake later as he got older. While he has his own original style, he was also heavily influenced by his musical heroes.
“They played a huge role in how I rap now,” Spendit said.
The new EP, Check, didn’t take very long to put together although he sat on it for a year because he was coming to the realization of what he really wanted to do. He knew if he released it, the door was open and this was his life.
“My music is like live in the moment, man,” Spendit explained. “You know, life is moving fast. If you’re always thinking about the future, or the past, life is just going to slip right past by you. That’s how fast life goes on. I feel like I’m in the moment. Tomorrow’s no guarantee. You can’t change the past so really live in the moment and don’t take nothing for granted.”
Spendit is hard at work, writing, performing live in the upstate New York and Pennsylvania area, and by the beginning of next year he plans to have another EP out. He also plans to shoot more music videos.
“I want more videos so they can really match the songs,” said Spendit. “I want my fans to really see who Spendit is. I just got here.”
He added, “I don’t think there’s anyone better who just started. I don’t think there’s anyone hungrier. I will never release anything I wouldn’t listen myself, anything that’s not quality. They’ll always get 100% from me. Nothing less.”
Spendit’s music can be found on all major platforms.
Spotify
“Hold Up”
YouTube
Apple Music
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
ON THE RISE
As they prepare to unveil their fourth album, ‘Joy In Short Moments’, The Snuts have spoken with NME about how stepping away from touring gave them the chance to reflect on some of life’s biggest challenges and bring greater attention to mental health.
Their first album since 2024’s upbeat ‘Millenials’ follows a rare break from the road over the past year. During that time, frontman Jack Cochrane also experienced a major change in his personal life as he welcomed his first child.
Along with getting used to fatherhood, the singer began thinking about deeper questions that the demanding touring lifestyle had previously left little room to consider. His reflections on growing up, dealing with loss and understanding what success really means gradually found their way into his writing, eventually shaping the direction of the band's more personal new album.
Fans were first introduced to the album earlier this year through ‘Summer Rain’, an emotional track exploring postnatal depression and the “fear of the future”. They later returned during the summer with the more hopeful ‘Defibrillator’, encouraging listeners to move beyond negative thoughts about themselves and find comfort in connecting with other people.
Speaking to NME about the creative shift behind their fourth record, Cochrane explained: “By taking a conscious break from life on the road and making records, my world opened up to let so much more of the real world in,” he said. “For the first time I was living then writing, not writing while trying to live.”
He also described how the change helped the band approach recording differently, adding: “It unlocked a new process that the band had been crying out for,” he continued. “The studio sessions were set up to allow us to be friends and not colleagues. Distraction and external pressures were completely eradicated from the recording environment, allowing us to trust our gut and have the conversations we needed to as humans.”
In the remainder of the interview, Cochrane also discusses his new role as an ambassador for mental health charity CALM and talks about starting a podcast designed to encourage more artists to speak honestly about their personal struggles.
NME: Hi Jack, congratulations on the new album. You’ve said that this record was about addressing the topics that you previously tried to hide from. What kinds of questions did you find yourself confronting?
Jack Cochrane: “I would say mainly, ‘What do I need to be happy?’… Eeek! It’s a big one I know, but having set out with the title ‘Joy In Short Moments’, I was able to spend my time searching for them and allow joy to do what joy does: compound and relieve the stresses of the modern world.”
That’s not the easiest question to find yourself confronting. Did you manage to find any answers along the way?
“Ultimately yes. With the completion of this record I was able to find a much happier healthier version of myself I had been so long yearning for.”
The album sees you deal with new themes, but musically we also see you return to the guitar-led sound from your early days. Did revisiting those roots make you notice how much has changed since you were starting out?
“For sure. We were able to remove any snobbery from the process. We’re no longer new kids on the block and with that came a new found ability to be really honest about the kind of noises we wanted to make and the type of artists that had originally inspired us.”
This album goes hand in hand with you becoming an ambassador for CALM and launching your own podcast dedicated to checking in with fellow artists. Why was it important for you to get involved in the conversation about mental health?
“I think conversations and role models are absolutely essential for young people. I wanted to have more and do my best to be one. Every song on this record was born out of unfiltered, open and honest conversation.”
From talking to people on your podcast, including Louis Tomlinson, and using your platform to open up this dialogue, is there anything interesting that you’ve noticed?
“I think that more often than not, young men are finding it difficult to combat the struggles they are facing in this modern world. To me it feels like there are less and less spaces and opportunities to have meaningful, healing conversations…”
Having had those conversations yourself and explored them on the album, it must be somewhat daunting to now put it out into the world. Is there something that you hope people take from it?
“I’d like people to feel less alone after hearing the record and the themes intertwined with it. I think music is more than just heartbreak and I hoped in the writing of this record I would be able to highlight some more universally relevant topics.”
You have your headline tour coming up next month. What can we expect from the shows?
“Big smiles and big sound all round! It will be the most self assured Snuts tour to date.”
‘Life In Short Moments’ is out now Happy Artist Records in partnership with Virgin Music Group. Their UK and Ireland tour kicks off next month with an opening night in Dundee. Visit here for tickets and check out a list of tour dates below.
NOVEMBER 2026
19 – Dundee, Livehouse
20 – Aberdeen, Beach Ballroom
21 – Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
23 – Dunfermline, Alhambra Theatre
24 – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
26 – Sheffield, Octagon Centre
27 – Nottingham, Rock City
29 – Norwich, UEA
30 – Hull, City Hall
DECEMBER 2026
1 – Bristol, Prospect Hall
3 – Leeds, O2 Academy
4 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
8 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
9 – Portsmouth, Guildhall
10 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
JANUARY 2027
26 – Belfast, Limelight
27 – Galway, Róisín Dubh
28 – Dublin, Academy
