Jonathan Snipes

Known for his extensive soundtrack work and as one-third of the experimental rap group clipping., Jonathan Snipes is a master sound designer as well as a lecturer in the theater and film departments at UCLA. His expertly engineered, exploratory productions and compositions make use of field recordings and analog synthesizers, as well as influences from experimental noise and electronic music. He first earned attention for Captain Ahab, which evolved from a solo noise project to an electropop duo renowned for their confrontational live shows and fearless embrace of countless styles of rock, pop, hip-hop, and dance music. After Captain Ahab disbanded in 2012, Snipes focused on clipping., a hip-hop group which includes fellow sound artist William Hutson and rapper Daveed Diggs. The trio signed to Sub Pop and released a string of acclaimed albums, including the Afrofuturist space opera Splendor & Misery (2016) and two horrorcore-inspired full-lengths, There Existed an Addiction to Blood (2019) and Visions of Bodies Being Burned (2020). Snipes has also issued several soundtrack albums, including Room 237 (with Hutson, 2013) and Starry Eyes (2015). In 2024, he released his music for the podcast series Batman Unburied. Snipes started Captain Ahab as a solo project in 1998, inspired by noise artists such as Cock E.S.P. and Aube. Over time, he began making vocoder-driven electropop informed by the emerging glitch/IDM laptop music scene, and his debut 12" EP, Bot Pirate, appeared on London-based breakcore label Irritant (also home to the likes of Knifehandchop and Jason Forrest). He began performing shows, and enthusiastic fan Jim Merson quickly became an official part of the Captain Ahab live experience, performing as a Speedo-clad hype man while Snipes provided high-energy dance tracks with sexually explicit lyrics. Debut full-length The Sex Is Next, which drew from Miami booty bass and Hi-NRG disco, appeared on A2 Audio in 2004. The duo became a fixture of infamous L.A. D.I.Y. venue The Smell, and began a long, fruitful relationship with the Deathbomb Arc label. Captain Ahab's first release for the label was 2005's outrageously dirty I Can't Believe It's Not Booty EP. This was followed by the ambitious, genre-hopping concept album After the Rain My Heart Still Dreams in 2006. The duo then won a contest to write a song for the comedy-thriller Snakes on a Plane; "Snakes on the Brain" appeared on the enhanced CD portion of the film's soundtrack. Deathbomb Arc also released a Snakes on the Brain EP that year. By this point, Snipes was busy providing sound design and music for theater, television, and film. He began teaching sound design courses at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008. He released his first soundtrack album, Mask of the Ninja, in 2009. Along with William Hutson, his collaborator in the noise group Unnecessary Surgery, Snipes started clipping. in 2009 as a remix project, grafting rap a cappellas onto noise and power electronics pieces. The group became a trio when rapper/actor Daveed Diggs (later known for his featured roles in the musical Hamilton) joined in 2010 and began providing lyrics. Captain Ahab released The End of Irony (2010), a culmination of their entire mission statement as artists and entertainers, across multiple configurations with differing track listings and mixes, and performed a final, sold-out concert at The Smell in 2012. Snipes and Hutson provided the soundtrack for Room 237, a documentary about the Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining. Horror score specialists Death Waltz released Room 237 in 2013. Midcity, clipping.'s debut mixtape, was self-issued the same year. The release earned attention from Sub Pop, who signed the trio and released their debut album CLPPNG in 2014. Snipes' soundtrack for the film Starry Eyes was released by Waxwork Records in 2015. His score for body horror film Excess Flesh appeared in 2016, one of many releases on longtime home Deathbomb Arc. The same year, clipping. issued the ambitious sci-fi concept album Splendor & Misery, which received a Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Snipes released two soundtracks, The Nightmare and Marshmallow Sea, in 2018, followed by Trespassers (issued by Lakeshore) in 2019. There Existed an Addiction to Blood, clipping.'s take on horrorcore, was released that year, and Visions of Bodies Being Burned (2020) continued exploring the style. Snipes' soundtracks for MOPE and Murder Bury Win (with David Rothbaum) both appeared in 2020, and he also began issuing a series of Work Study digital releases, consisting of sketches, works in progress, rejected cues, field recordings, and experiments. Soundtracks for The El Duce Tapes (Burning Witches Records) and A Glitch in the Matrix were issued in 2021, and Allie & I appeared in 2022. In 2023, Jessica Winter collaborated with Snipes on the dance-pop tune "All I Need," which was released as part of Sub Pop's singles club. Snipes also released the soundtracks 32 Acres and Adventure Never Ends. His soundtrack for Hauntology, released in 2024, featured several songs with harpist/vocalist Nailah Hunter. The same year also saw the release of Work Study LA (music for the baseball podcast Dodger Blue Dream) and the soundtrack to the audio series Batman Unburied, which combined traditional orchestration, sequenced electronics, and field recordings. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi