Written by Sam Cohen
Starting as an escape from the pandemic, Snacktime formed to offer Philadelphia a breath of fresh air and a way to return to what they love – jamming. Quickly, after initial sets to crowds of a dozen dog walkers, Philadelphians lined up in Fairmount Park to see which cover the band would blast into next. Snacktime was a hit, and these community-wide live-music-lovin’ moments were too precious to pass up once the crowd took their masks off.
Five years later, Snacktime is playing the festivals the biggest bands play (Boston Calling, Montreal Jazz, Newport Folk), and is doing much more than jammy covers. With their own material and space for contemporary covers like “Not Like Us,” Snacktime is a must-see set at every festival.
Sam Gellerstein (Bass Guitar, Keys, Sousaphone) and Michael Spearman (Trombone, Keyboard) hopped on a Zoom before a lengthy run of festival dates to talk playing covers, their love for Philadelphia, and why the stage is their place to spread peace.
With all the craziness in the world, it is important to find a distraction. The upcoming stretch of festivals over the next few weeks might be that distraction. How are you guys feeling about the upcoming shows?
Sam Gellerstein: In a way, I would call them distractions, but in the same way, one of our favorite things about these festivals is being able to get in front of this audience and say the thing that’s on our mind. A big aspect we’re trying to lead with at these festivals is getting people to treat each other better and stop the divisiveness. We have too many people telling us who to hate. We need to start sticking up for the small guy in these situations.
All that’s a long-winded answer to say we’re really excited to play Newport Folk Festival in July and Montreal Jazz Fest this month. We’re playing Beard Fest this weekend too. We have like four festivals in seven days or eight days, which is crazy. Festival season is awesome; we love to get outside and play music in the nice weather.
I was going to ask about Montreal and Newport. These are two of the most important festivals that go back over 40 years; what is it like to be included on such legendary bills?
Mike Spearman: I’ve never been to Montreal, but it’s a very important thing, because I feel like there are stepping stones in everyone’s career, and these festivals have such a deep history, and this is so cool to be a part of that history. There’s going to be a point where someone looks back at these festivals in 30 years and says, “Oh, Snacktime was there too!”
I’m really excited to try some Montreal food. I’m not gonna lie, everyone keeps telling me that Montreal food is the best food. I live outside of Philly, so they will have to prove that to me.
SG: Montreal is my favorite city – full stop, it’s where I love to be. One day, I could see myself living there; it is the nicest and kindest place. The food is fantastic. The drinks are incredible. I have been telling these guys how excited I am for Montreal for a long time. It’s also fun because I’ll have time to do my own thing and adventure.
MS: We’re never going to see you, huh?
SG: Oh, I’ll probably disappear for two days.
You also mentioned Beard Fest, which is held in Hammonton, NJ. Mike, as a Jersey native, is Beard Fest a hometown show for you?
MS: I’m gonna represent Jersey every single time. So, yeah, it’s a hometown show. Why not? It’s gonna be cool, we’ve done the 1 a.m. set there before, and it was super lit. I like to be asleep by 1 a.m., but everyone there is just partying–dance circles, fire spinning, yelling, and screaming. But, you know what? Let’s go, dude, I love it. I’m ready.
Let’s get into the origins of the band. You’re a Philly band through and through, and started playing gigs during lockdown in Rittenhouse Square. Tell me about the start of Snacktime.
SG: The band started as an offshoot of an event that I had produced with my friend Jen Zavala, who has a restaurant, and the event was called Snacktime. After COVID hit, she hosted a pop-up event where she needed some live music. We figured, let’s do a brass band and play some music for the people.
The ball started rolling and rolling from there; we went from one time a week to two times a week to three times a week. We missed playing music with each other, and it was an opportunity to get together. The first few times, 15-20 people showed up, but our last one, probably three years ago, was to a 400-person crowd. That’s a magical thing to be able to see growth like that. We needed the people as much as they needed us.
MS: If you weren’t at the Rittenhouse shows, you wouldn’t understand the atmosphere. The one thing I miss about our past is, just like being on the sidewalk at Rittenhouse Square, the streets are pretty much closed off because it’s COVID, and you’re just surrounded by 300-400 people that just happened to walk by, and they’re screaming “Don’t Stop Believing” at the top of their lungs.
Are you still connected with the community that attended the early Snacktime shows?
SG: You’ll see them all the time. People will see me in the street and say, “Yeah, I saw you guys three years ago in the park.” The first guy who ever booked us for a gig booked us for a surprise birthday party outside his house. And then, later on, we played at his engagement party, and then we played his wedding. It’s cool to see it happen.
There’s a whole other group of people who don’t know anything about us, they don’t know anything about the street shows, and now we’re on these big stages. We started this shit in the streets, and now, we’re playing to 5,000 fans at a festival. The context changes the story, which is cool.
MS: There’s something about Philly that made it work. You can hear the E-A-G-L-E-S chant anywhere you go with so much passion. It gets me pumped.
Go birds! What happens at a Philly show that you’re not seeing anywhere else?
SG: We really try to recreate the ‘Philly’ feeling everywhere we play. We started this band playing covers with no microphones, all brass instruments, or even a guitar. Now, everyone in the band is playing multiple instruments, and we’re playing music that sounds more typical–something that isn’t a brass band. We are trying to retain the feeling we gave people back in the day, giving the fans infectious energy. Its magnetism we’re trying to give.
When we’re in Philly, we might run into people who might be more familiar with us. There might be more people singing our words, or know what we do, and we’re trying to replicate that all over the world and all over the country, and give people that same experience.
MS: One thing is that if you scream the letter ‘E’ really loud, a Philly crowd will take it from there.
Snacktime has seven members. Is it nice to always know there’s someone to back you up?
MS: Sometimes it can be our biggest problem because there can be too much going on, and we all can do so many things. We have to lock in and figure out the arrangements with an understanding that there is always someone to help. I don’t think it’s a size of a band thing, it’s more that we’re all good listeners. We always have our ears open.
If you ever see us on stage, our eyes aren’t down. We’re literally looking around always, like I’m staring into Sam, or I’m looking at Austin (Drums), or Larry (Guitar) to make sure we’re all locked in. It’s almost like this telecommunication that’s going on, and that can happen with smaller or bigger bands. It’s really about keeping your ears open and being together in space. And that’s not something that every musician can do. That’s what’s special about this band.
At some recent festivals, you’ve covered “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar. How do you choose a cover to play live? I know “Purple Rain” is a Snacktime classic.
SG: I don’t exaggerate when I say this, at this point, we have played over 400 different songs live. The idea of playing covers, as a new band, is to give your audience a reference point. Back in the day, “Purple Rain” was where we’d be at the end of the set, after two hours of non-stop jamming, and then, we had this moment of peace that would go into a beautiful saxophone or trombone.
In our set, it’s very much for that shock factor that, “Oh shit, they’re playing this!?” It was very important in 2025 to have this new look about us, to bring a new version of Snacktime. We’re hitting bigger markets again – Boston for the fifth time, New York for the sixth time. We want to give the people who have already heard us a new experience. We’re constantly evolving and making different choices based on our set, based on what the crowd reacts to.
MS: We just did “Not Like Us” to a bunch of elderly white people, and it was kind of lit.
With all the festivals coming up this Summer, what do you want the crowd to leave your set feeling?
SG: What we say to everybody at the start of every set is, regardless of how you came in today, we hope that you take these 45 minutes to an hour just to feel better, feel a little bit more peace in your life. We hope you can look to your left and right and treat that person 10% better.. It only takes a little bit to make a lot of difference.
MS: In a time like this, with all the immigration stuff happening, and it being Pride month, our goal is that you can look at your neighbors and feel a sense of community, that you can let go, you can have fun, and that you can care about each other and drop any conceptions of who someone is, without even getting to know them. Our crowd can listen to the music, dance, and have a good time, and find commonality in that. That’s important to me. We may be different, but we’re all the same in a way, and we try to find common ground between each other and spread love.
