the sniffs will return once they’ve recovered from their arm injuries

“I injured my tricep,” said the Sniffs’ frontman James D., who was sitting at a picnic table on the sidewalk outside a bar in the Takoma Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. “I was playing a lot of fast power chords in sequence and somehow damaged my right tricep. I have hypermobility, so it makes stuff more likely to injure. I also got tendonitis in my elbows two years ago.” The pain was getting to his rotator cuffs, so he arrived to this interview fresh from physical therapy, which he’d been doing for a month. 

Wildly, he’s not the only member of the 13-year-old D.C. punk band the Sniffs dealing with an arm issue at the moment. “Our drummer Lennon injured his elbow—he has some tendon issues.” Their bassist Chach was dealing with a rotator cuff injury that lasted a few months, but at the time of our chat in late May, he’s doing better. Currently, the Sniffs are on hold after releasing their sixth record VI on Bandcamp last summer. It’s a record of sneering post-punk with a melodic bent toward garage rock. What started as a straightforward garage rock band has morphed gradually into more of a post-hardcore project. “I really like odd time signatures,” James said.

He decided to call the band the Sniffs because of a nickname some old bandmates had given him. “They called me Jimmy Sniffs because of my allergies,” he said. “The first few shows I wore sunglasses when I played because I had this whole idea that I’m gonna have this attitude and be arrogant and offensive. Our demo has some dumb songs in it. We kind of abandoned that.” He wants to be called James D. in this piece, and it’s honestly tempting to only refer to him as Jimmy Sniffs. He doesn’t play the part anymore, but it’s still a great punk name.

Amid the injuries and break, there’s no threat of the band fully going away. After two hardcore bands fizzled in the 2000s, James decided to stop relying on other people for his creative outlets. “I was in a hardcore band that only lasted two shows, so I was like, ‘I want to do a band that can’t break up—it’s just me and I’ll replace people if they quit or whatever,’” he said. 

The rotating lineup concept didn’t last; the band’s current lineup—James, Chach, and Lennon—have been playing together for about a dozen years now. They take long breaks from time to time. This is one of them. They have some new songs that’ll see the light of day eventually. This interview took place over four months ago and the Sniffs are all feeling better. They just need to get together and practice.

Did you grow up in D.C.?

I was born in D.C. I should tell you my Fugazi story. I grew up in the Tenleytown area where Ian MacKaye went to high school. I was in ninth grade, and I had a friend in high school who got me into punk. One day, my mom is taking Italian lessons at night someplace. She’s like, “Oh, I met this guy in Italian class named Joe and he says he’s in a punk band called Fugazi.” He was taking lessons because his wife is Italian. 

Joe [Lally] gave her a cassette of Red Medicine and she’s like, “We’re going to listen to this tape during dinner.” At that point I was into this local punk band called the Goons; they were like the Casualties, that type of punk. So when we listened to Red Medicine during dinner I was like, “This isn’t punk, what is this?” We went to see them at Fort Reno later that year—I saw them there two or three times. My mom went with me and was like, “Hey Joe, can you autograph this CD?” It was Repeater + 3 Songs. He took the “o” in the word “songs” and wrote a “j” and “e” on either side; that was his signature. 

Did you guys put VI out anywhere but Bandcamp? Is there a physical copy?

The Sniffs are kind of lazy in getting merch made. That’s another thing that’s held us back, I think. I used to be more motivated to get band shit done. We could’ve gotten cassettes made for the stuff we put out last year, and I kept meaning to do it, but I just never could motivate myself to do it. 

You should do it. The record is great.

It’s hard because being in a band is more than just doing the music and doing songs. It’s also talking to people, meeting people, being social with people, going out to shows, making connections. Six months ago I moved out to Arlington, Virginia, which is a little bit further from where most of the shows are. If I want to go to a show at Rhizome [in Takoma Park], to get here from my house, it’s like I don’t know, half hour, 45 minutes depending on traffic? So I’ll just stay home. 

We’re a similar age—do you also have to contend sometimes with the discomfort of being the older dude hanging at the DIY space?

It’s weird. Part of me is like I want to get into indie rock. I don’t know if I want to be in a sweaty basement anymore. There’s certain things I still love, but then I listen to most indie rock and it’s kind of slow and boring. It’s really hard to find the sweet spot. Six months ago, I got really into that band Alvvays. They’re great. They have some punk influence. They’re noisy and distorted, but great melodies, great vocals. There are a few other bands that are cool, but they don’t have the songwriting.

Do you think of the Sniffs as a band that could expand out toward indie rock?

Oh yeah. We’ll do jams that get weird. Our newest songs are kind of hardcore actually. My favorite band, if I had to pick one, is Hot Snakes. That's kind of my guiding light. We’re expanding, trying to be different. I had this idea, so Rhizome has a lot of experimental music, like improvised free jazz and stuff. Some of our jam sessions are really cool, but an improvised set of jam stuff could be different. Punk bands don’t do that, so it’d be fun.

Do you see the Sniffs as a band that could age with you? Is it a band you’ll still be doing when you’re 50? 

I will say this—we’ve been playing music together for 12 years and we’re all still friends. That’s honestly pretty remarkable and very rare. Most bands break up after a couple years, so that’s really cool and I’m really grateful for that. We all are very in sync when we write songs. It’ll always be a band that we’ll do from time to time. 

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