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Frédérik Durand (born 4 May 1988), professionally known as SNAILS, is a DJ and music producer from Montreal, Canada.

Durand's musical style has been described as "vomitstep", featuring "guttural bass gurgles, crushing 808s and synthesizers oscillated well past the point of absurdity" according to Billboard.

In March 2024 Durand was awarded $1.5 million in an Alberta defamation lawsuit for false accusations of being a sexual predator by Michaela Higgins, a resident of California who had never met him.

Career

2012-2016: Early career

Durand's first tracks, including his debut release "Bubble Gun", appeared online in 2012 through Canadian label Kannibalen Records. He began collaborating with artists such as Flux Pavilion and Jack Ü and had frequent plays from Skrillex and other notable DJs. In 2014, Snails released two singles, "Wild" and "Pump This", and made his first US concert appearances. In 2015, Durand performed at EDC Las Vegas, Ultra Music Festival and Electric Forest, and released a single titled "King Is Back". He continued releasing music through multiple labels, including several releases on Skrillex's Owsla imprint.

2016–2020: Tours

In early 2016, Durand embarked on the North American Enter Slugz City Tour as direct support for Flosstradamus, as well as playing festival sets at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Ultra Music Festival. Durand also briefly toured Asia, performing at numerous venues and festivals in China, Japan, and Taiwan. To close out 2016, Durand toured through Australia with Jauz and Slushii on the Touch Bass traveling festival. The final Snails show of 2016 took place in Denver, Colorado at Decadence Music Festival. He hosted his own festival, Sluggtopia, at Red Rocks in October 2017.

In May 2017, Durand and Botnek collaborated on a single "Waffle House" released on Owsla, with an accompanying music video. On 29 August 2017, Snails released the song "Into the Light", and on October 20, 2017, he released his album titled The Shell. Through 2020 he was performing 125 to 150 club nights a year.

2020 - present

In 2020 an Instagram account began posting accusations of serious sexual impropriety His income dropped from close to $3 million in 2018 to a loss of $138,000 in 2022. In 2023 he performed 15 shows. In March 2024 he won a $1.5 million defamation judgement passed by Justice Nicholas Devlin against his accuser in Alberta court.

Discography

Albums

• 2017: The Shell
• 2018: Slimeageddon
• 2022: Helix

Extended plays

• 2019 World of Slime

Singles

• 2024: "Earthquake" (With Jay Eskar)
• 2018: "Snailephant" (with Wooli)
• 2018: "Follow Me" (with Adventure Club featuring Sara Diamond)
• 2019: "Jackhammer" (with Krimer)
• 2019: "RKO" (featuring Rico Act)
• 2019: "Snailclops" (with Subtronics)
• 2021: "Slime Zone"

Remixes

• 2021: Hi I'm Ghost — "Death Rail" (Snails Slime Rail Remix)

References

1. ^ "Montreal Artist Snails Is Saving Bass Music, One Vomitstep at a Time". Billboard. 12 December 2016.
2. "'Pure nightmare': Montreal-based musician wins $1.5 million in defamation lawsuit | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
3. ^ Graveland, Bill. "Montreal-based musician awarded $1.5M in Alberta defamation lawsuit". CBC.
4. "'You don't get to hide': Alberta court finds California woman guilty of defamation against Canadian DJ". Edmonton. 8 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
5. "Meet Snails: He's proud to be weird!". UKF. 10 June 2014.
6. "Electric Forest 2015 Recap". QRO Magazine. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
7. "2016 Coachella Photos: Day In The Life With Snails". Billboard. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
8. Rubinstein, Peter (1 January 2017). "One Of The Bass Music Kings Just Revealed His Own Red Rocks Festival". Your EDM. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
9. SNAILS - The Shell, retrieved 4 May 2024
10. Stack, Chris (12 December 2018). "Stream Snails's Slimeageddon EP, a grotesque project from the 'Slug King' himself". Dancing Astronaut. Archived from the original on 13 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
11. SNAILS - HELIX (Album Mini Mix), retrieved 14 March 2024
12. Sani, Niko (18 December 2019). "Snails introduces listeners to the World of Slime in new EP". EDM.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
13. Stack, Chris (15 November 2018). "Snails crossbreeds with Wooli to create 'Snailephant,' and announces a new EP Slimeageddon coming soon off Slugz Music". Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
14. "Snails and Adventure Club Team Up on "Follow Me" ft. Sara Diamond". 4 December 2018. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
15. Levin, Harry (20 June 2019). "Snails and Krimer combine forces for 'Jackhammer'". Dancing Astronaut. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
16. Stone, Katie (17 July 2019). "Snails pays homage to a Randy Orton in 'RKO' ft. Rico Act". EDM.com. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
17. Stack, Chris (12 September 2019). "Subtronics and Snails connect for monstrous joint effort, 'Snailclops' [Stream]". Dancing Astronaut. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
18. Meadow, Matthew (15 July 2021). "Snails drops 'Slime Zone', the first single from upcoming Slime Time 2 EP". Your EDM. Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
19. "Death Rail (Remixes) - EP by Hi I'm Ghost on Apple Music". Apple Music. Retrieved 8 February 2022.

• 1988 births
• Living people
• Canadian DJs
• Canadian electronic musicians
• Musicians from Quebec
• People from Lanaudière
• Monstercat artists
• Owsla artists
• Electronic dance music DJs