Today we’d like to introduce you to Jess Scott
Hi Jess, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
This is all Tinder’s fault.
I decided to set up a date with 26 year old cutie pie who had left me on read for a few weeks. He was sitting at the bar when I arrived, the kindest eyes I’d ever seen. Baby face and broad shoulders like a protective wall. I sat down and we started to chat. Almost immediately…
“I like to wear women’s clothing.”
“Okay…”
He made me laugh and feel incredibly special. He’d walk me to the train at 8am after working until 3AM the night before. And that was it. We dated for a short time, got married quick and moved across the country together to Austin when CeeCee landed a job here.
Our drummer CeeCee Email found themselves in several projects, drummers are always in high demand. I watched him looking for creative outlets to plug his cross-dressing, drag drumming, whatever you want to label it into a musical performance.
None of the outlets really took to it. So CeeCee came to me.
“What if we did a band together?”
“That sounds dangerous. And fun.”
I’d been doing comedy and theatre for years but had a heavy background in music as well. Music was a talent I ran from at age 20. At 17 I somehow was in a touring christian rock band? Yeah i said it. Christian rock band. Anyways. We played for 3 years then I quit the band. Our very last show was in Galveston with Mechanical Boy. My best friend who came with me to that show and who I dropped off after, was raped and murdered about 2 hours later.
I didn’t intentionally change then but I look back now and know, I ran from music while reinventing myself as a comedian and actress in cities like Memphis and Chicago.
Later, the first song we wrote “The Hole” ended up being about my experience of the violent loss of my best friend. We wrote it in one or two jam sessions. The song fell out like tetris pieces, immediately in place. I felt reconnected to my musical roots and was thankful CeeCee had asked me to join in their band vision.
CeeCee looked to a known Austin bassist he had effortlessly clicked and grown with in a previous project. A self described “tall glass of trash” Nate Ribner was the perfect fit for CeeCee’s vision and my intense-nature; open-minded, kind, talented and humble.
Nate is a true rockstar, mysterious as ever; he’s also our melodic north star. I could probably write a whole book about Nate but he’d never let me. Another reason we adore him.
3 years making music in Austin, we now are in the mode of “Subpar Snatch 2.0” as our buddy and local guitar god Joe Gartner says. This just means we’re a tiny bit more strategic with booking locally in order to save some time for other TX cities, and also we worked our dickbutts off to purchase a working, old, creepy van to travel around in.
Our new 4 song EP ‘Get In Here’ is coming out June 2025 and even though these songs feel like Subpar Snatch 2.0 they were also created in the same way we’ve written all our other songs. All together in the same room. And usually very quickly. Some would say hastily or carelessly.
Sometimes for “most precious moments” of a song, I will take it away to briefly experiment with lyrics but 90% of melodies are already found/set while writing with Nate and CeeCee via what some folks call “moosh mouth?” -shrug-
To this day people ask us,
“Why the name?”
Years ago, I used to produce a stand up comedy festival with local stand up pro, Rochelle McConnico, whose works are the definition of comedy with a conscience. She’s so funny and real. Anywho she, CeeCee and I were hanging out. She was describing having to “hang backstage” with the rest of the dudes on the bill she had been on. One dude told my friend she was, quote, “unrape-able.” And in her description of this moment, said,
“That man made me feel like some Subpar Snatch.”
We laughed at the dude’s expense for a while after. Eventually CeeCee said,
“That would be a great band name.”
People sometimes tell us,
“I only came to see you because of the name.”
Which is like flattering? Right? Maybe? Who cares lol As long as they fell for the Snatch trap, we are gonna inspire them to challenge authorities and fight complacency.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Super smooth. Crazy smooth. At least internally. However we are three wooden poles leaning against each other, if one of us falls, we all fall. We see having less than expected as something that creates opportunities for us. This is applied to literally everything we do in this band, our sound, our stage picture, our designs, our audience engagement, the budget we try to keep. It’s a bit scary but if you can hang you find a communal sense of urgency that beats the high of a fat joint.
We face the typical ‘we have a cis-male who dresses as a female’ non-smooth moments. The glares, the snarls, the threatening stares. Our drummer CeeCee is a pro with this type of behavior though, I don’t know how she does it.. I think CeeCee holds tough because she knows how talented and beautiful she is. She comes from a loving family and I think that’s always had a big impact on their outlook on all of life. Y’all should do a totally separate interview with just her tbh lol.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We make ecstatic garage punk and we’re way too old to be doing so, so we try to do it best. We specialize in high energy, raucous performances that were described to us at one of our NYC performances as “church.” We sell super heavy handed messages under the table with lots of distracting laughter, a ham of a lead singer and the best rhythm section Austin has to offer. We specialize in being a perfect balance of aggressive and accessible.
We set ourselves apart by committing to the bit and really trying to not taking ourselves too seriously. Also apparently I demand a room’s attention? Lol I know this is true which is why I don’t know how to take it or say it.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Paying my bills and playing music with my partner in 2025.
Ending a show dripping in sweat.
Writing something we all love in a few hours.
Finding the perfect rhyme to the end of a catchy line.
Recording harmonies only heard in my head in the studio.
Hot take: I enjoy having 2 plates spinning at once because as a young artist someone powerful told me I couldn’t. Life isn’t promised so I’m just out here squeezing every last little drop out of it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/subparsnatch/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/subparsnatch/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@subparsnatch
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-341560782
Image Credits
1st photo Jeanette Moses, 2nd photo Darrin Commerford
