Bob Lanzetti: ‘In Snarky Puppy we’re almost always game for the same thing’

You probably know that Snarky Puppy are back in Australia, for a series of concerts showcasing their signature concoction of grooves. Guitarist Bob Lanzetti has been part of the band from the very beginning, and has experienced their meteoric and unstoppable rise. Here he shares his own backstory, sheds light on the secret elements that make the Snarky Puppy sound, and learns some things about their schedule from us.

Before we talk about the tour, I’d like to get into a little bit about your musical background; you’ve made an astonishing amount of music over the course of your career. I was curious about your relocation to Texas: the U .S. is a big place and there must be lots of options in terms of going to study places; what drew you to there of all places?

It’s funny because the only reason I went to Texas was just because I had heard good things about the University of North Texas, where I went to college. I didn’t get into the schools I applied to initially, in New Jersey and in New York, because they were really difficult programs — one of them accepted one guitar player or something in the year that I auditioned and one of them actually didn’t accept any guitar player, I guess they felt nobody was good enough to come at all, It’s really funny. So I didn’t go to school for a year, then the following year I figured I should try and branch out a little bit, in case I don’t get in again. So I applied to those schools again and didn’t get in, but I got into North Texas. So it was like this, I had heard good things about it and I got in, so I figured I would go. It was as simple as that. But it’s crazy how that happens because I’m so glad that it worked out that way, otherwise I wouldn’t even have met the band.

What was your focus back then? Was it always an ambition of yours to be a jazz guitarist?

I definitely enjoyed studying jazz and I went through a big jazz phase, but I was also always into a lot of other stuff. I was always really into funk guitar and funk music in general. I was really into rock. At the time I went to North Texas, I was really into Radiohead, Prince, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, stuff like that, but then also tons of jazz music as well. I did go through a phase where I was playing mostly jazz for a couple of years, but I kind of always knew that I was going to do something jazz adjacent.

The people that you’ve worked with, some of them really jump out to me as being jazz-adjacent — someone like David Fiuczynski, for instance, what a unique approach to the instrument! What are some concepts that you took from those early teachers that allowed you to think outside the box when it came to the guitar?

Yeah, he’s a great example of that, because he was as much into things like John McLaughlin as he was into like Bad Brains and he was not afraid to marry those two worlds. It was a cool combination of elements, and that was an eye -opening thing to me at the time, to say, “yeah, you can add all of this stuff into the same thing.” He was also really into avant-garde classical music, 20th century classical music, which is an influence on me as well.

You mentioned Prince before and I just can’t let the name go by without bringing it up. Do you consider him to be an influence, compositionally or arrangement-wise, or as an instrumentalist?

I think in every way. Definitely as a guitar player, especially as a rhythm guitar player, he’s one of my favorites, but also as a lead player too; definitely as a singer, definitely as a producer, as a songwriter, all of it. He’s a big influence on everyone in Snarky Puppy. Everybody in Snarky Puppy really likes Prince. I think I can say that. We are seeing these waves now of Minneapolis-adjacent music; Cory Wong, he’s from Minneapolis, but the music that he makes is a few steps in evolution beyond what Prince was doing in the ’80s; and Prince, of course, himself evolved his own sound continuously. So I can definitely hear the links between Corey Wong, Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck, all those sorts of groups.

Let’s talk about Snarky Puppy: you are a founding member, you were there since the inception the collective. Do you always tour with them or do you dip in and out?

Most of the band kind of dips in and out. There are three guitar players, but live, there’s usually only one of us at a time. So we all just kind of take turns. And we’ve all been in the band for a long time. Chris McQueen and I were there from the beginning. And then Mark Lettieri came a couple years later.

There’s a couple of people, like Justin Stanton and a couple of the horn players, who are there almost all the time.

I’ve talked to Michael League about this before, but I’m interested in your perspective. In terms of the collective writing that that takes place, are there moments where you are just like nodding to an idea and you who has the right of veto in this democracy?

Well, it doesn’t happen that often, because most of the time, if something doesn’t feel right, most of us – if not everyone – can feel it; and when something is right, almost everybody can feel it as well. So it’s pretty rare that people would be split on their opinion. We’re usually almost always game for the same thing.

Is it like a modular concept, where one person will write the A section, one person will write the B section, and you’re looking for like a certain number of sections in the composition? Or does one person bring the idea and you all workshop it?

No, one person will actually write the whole song almost always, and then we will kind of edit certain things together, while rehearsing, and we’ll try different instruments, and if something doesn’t feel quite right, we’ll shift things here and there, but usually the song is written by one person.

In terms of arranging it, do you come up with your own part or is that sort of dictated?

Sometimes, a melody or something will be written, or a chord progression, but often, if there’s a section where there’s funky guitar stuff for instance, that will usually just be myself, Mark and Chris sort of working something out together.

What’s your favorite song that you’ve brought to the table?

Well, I play ‘Anomynous’ a lot in my band as well. So I like that one. I also like ‘Simple Life‘. It’s kind of just like a bunch of little loops that tune, but it’s kind of fun — and I like the way it sounds like sonically on the record too.

You guys are just constantly recording as you tour. Is that right? I know that you were looking for studio time while you’re here in Melbourne.

Oh I didn’t even know that. We don’t always do that, but once in a while, if there’s something happening, we’ll record in various places here and there; but that’s usually not a normal thing, so I’m curious what we’re going to record in Melbourne.