Story: Slade Rand
Photos: Jon Angel
The Hip Snacks want to spread love this summer.
The lights-out Denver soul and jam sextet releases its debut record, ‘What Lies Ahead,’ in June with a celebration show at Globe Hall on June 14. The release is eight original tracks showcasing The Hip Snacks’ powerful vocals and rich pocket grooves.
The young and hungry local musicians came together through the past two years, building a family within the band and diving deeper into the unique sound they’ve found.
The Hip Snacks are Dylan French on drums, Kara Durante on lead vocals, Felipe Cantuaria and Ricky Feria on guitar, Ben Suarez on bass and Adam Schini on keys. The band formed in Denver during the past two years, with a live debut at Globe Hall in May 2023. The Hip Snacks shared highlights from that first show on Spotify.
“It’s fun, and challenging and exhilarating to be singing with this band,” Durante said. “It’s just been so fun and so light.”
With touchstones in southern blues and big-band funk, bandmates have memories of both the Allman Brothers and Turkuaz playing on their speakers while starting to write their own music. At their first show, they covered Vulfpeck. The Hip Snacks push genre boundaries and blend styles on a dime onstage.
“To be able to be wowed by your bandmates, and every single one of them, and not be expecting it sometimes, is a beautiful thing,” Cantuaria said. “That is a team I want to be on. That’s the family I want to start building with my music.”
The band cut and then played ‘What Lies Ahead’ live for an audience during a week in late January at Colorado Sound Studios. Five days of rewriting and tracking lead to a cookout and sold-out in-studio party dubbed ‘The Tasting Room.’
Click here to access tickets for Lost Lake Lounge on June 14.
The Hip Snacks self-produced the album, which was mixed and mastered by Colorado Sound Studios. Some of the Suarez-written tunes have origins in 2020, but most come from The Hip Snacks collective as a whole.
Durante said the fresh music led to a memorable performance on the studio’s stage next door.
“That was one of the coolest acoustic experiences,” Suarez agreed. “It was great, and some of the songs we finished writing the day before in the studio.”
The Hip Snacks will share a single off the record, ‘Love You in The Morning,’ soon with a few added layers, the album’s only changes since recording.
The band closed its Cervantes’ Other Side debut earlier this spring with that one, leaving the packed room floating in a thoughtful, satisfied space. The sweet tune ended an hour-long set of hard-driving funk and soul with a memorable display of the Hip Snacks’ heartfelt and melodic core. Schini and Cantuaria harmonized behind Durante while Feria brought another solo back to Earth.
“Most of the album is about love,” Cantuaria said. “I loved that we played that song last, because I think it left a taste in people’s mouths that this is who we are.”
Click here to view a full gallery from the Hip Snacks at Cervantes’ Other Side this March.
A Hip Snacks show has the feel of grabbing records from the stack at an after party with close friends. The young band sounds like it’s played together for decades, giving a warm sound to familiar covers and tearing open jams on original music.
The sextet took on a ferocious version of Loggins and Messina’s ‘Angry Eyes’ during that Other Side show, a tune that holds a dear place in Durante’s heart. She remembers her dad playing that song on Saturday mornings around the house, and said it felt special to dive into the complicated arrangement with the Hip Snacks.
“Even though we’re working hard, it’s been a breath of fresh air,” Durante said.
Suarez and Durante moved from the East Coast to Denver together in 2021 and spent only a few months in town before starting to make music again. The couple met their future bandmates at a birthday gig for Cantuaria at Goosetown Station during their first year here, and The Hip Snacks quickly found an identity.
“Every time one of them does something new, I just get to laugh and jam along with it as a listener and a fan,” Suarez said. “The camaraderie is amazing.”
Old friends Cantuaria and French have jammed together for nearly a decade, a musical bond made clear in the tight transitions and openings they toss each other onstage. French’s patterns spark stand-out full band moments during both live shows and late-night jam sessions.
“Dylan is always listening,” Cantuaria said. “We can all be jamming and link up to ride out a wave and then all turn the page together.”
Cantuaria has played Paul Reed Smith guitars since he started gigging, and onstage he mostly sticks to a 2013 Custom 24 PRS named ‘Violet’ he picked up a decade ago. He added super jumbo frets to the ice purple guitar over the years.
“It’s just everything I could ask for,” he said.
Artist Joe Winograd designed the ‘What Lies Ahead’ cover after connecting with the Hip Snacks on gig posters ahead this spring.
The cover image of a desert landscape is a hodgepodge of photos Winograd and Suarez took of the Canyonlands National Park landscape in southeastern Utah. Winograd said the musicians wanted to convey a path toward the future, and a moment between time with both the sun and moon present.
“This would illustrate this feeling of wanderlust, of staring out into the deep void and jumping out for the next great journey ahead,” Winograd told After Midnight.
He built the fantasyland in the cover from a photo Suarez took this past month of sunrise over the mountains, layered with his own photos of the same area. Winograd said he and the band were in sync for this one from the start.
“I really dig their music too, so I think by being mutual fans and supporters of each other’s crafts we can find the commonalities that unite us while also allowing each of us to find our own unique ways to shine and elevate one another,” Winograd said.
Winograd is based on the East Coast but plans to relocate to Denver this year. He’s been making visual art paired with music work for ten years, and said he’s excited to have linked up with the Hip Snacks so early in their journey.
“It excites me when I see and hear an up-and-coming band like The Hip Snacks creating something unique and special that I strongly vibe with,” Winograd said.
Check out Winograd’s designs here, and keep an eye out for more from him in town soon.
The Hip Snacks play an album release show June 14 at Lost Lake Lounge, with support from Toast and Vida. Tickets are available here.
The band also plays April 27 at Devil’s Craft in Winter Park, CO before kicking off its summer run through Globe Hall (6/14), Schmiggity’s in Steamboat Springs (6/22) and New Terrain Brewing (6/27) in Golden this June.
After Midnight 
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