INTERVIEW: Superfood

Just before their second (and so far only complete) free show in a run of four, Gigslutz caught up with Birmingham’s brightest new band, Superfood. After a trip to the shop and a wallet mishap, we scrambled into the back of their van and discussed influences, albums and the illumanti…?

So how are you guys? How are the free gigs going?

Dom: We’re good. Well we’ve had one and it was a bit of a disaster! Not for all the other bands – everyone seemed to have a really good day – then we all turned up… BROKE THE HOUSE DOWN

It sounded terrifying!

D: Yeah it happened within 30 seconds of the set. We carried on playing but the manager ran upstairs and was doing an X motion with his hands. We thought it was too loud but apparently not.

Nope, you’d broken the venue. Is that always a fear? That something awful will happen and you won’t know how to respond?

D: We need to do something outrageous tonight! I was thinking of getting fireworks and setting them off. We’ll tear down every venue we play.

Ryan: You were actually planning on setting your amp on fire… That’d be awesome!

Moving on from extreme destruction of venues, what’s going on with the album?

D: Album’s done! It’s got a name, artwork!

R: There are songs on it…

And tour plans…?

D: Yeah when the album’s out we’ll definitely tour with the album.

It’s definitely time for a headline tour. Who’s been your favourite band to tour with?

D: Top 3 are definitely Peace, Wolf Alice and Gengahr.

Oh yeah I saw you with both Wolf Alice and Peace. And what about this rise in Birmingham bands, where’s that come from?

D: We all got sat down by the mayor and he was like “You’ve gotta do something about the youth of Birmingham because they’re all just stabbing each other”.

Ah so it’s all a plan…?

D: Oh yeah, it’s all illuminati stuff

The mayor’s got a secret plan to get Birmingham to overtake the world through music, then?

Emily: Where we’re all from is a triangle actually

R: If you get any 3 points on a map it’s a triangle…

Not if they’re in a line. Clearly you’re the illuminati. With Melting everyone said there seemed to be a lot of Britpop influences. Was the something intentional or did it just happen?

D: Yeah it just happens with the music you listen to when you’re younger; it comes round full circle when you start writing stuff yourself. It’s not like we sat down and listening to a load of Blur but it definitely comes out in our writing.

So who are you main influences? Top 3…

D: Well, like most people, Nirvana. I dunno, really. The big 3: Nirvana, The Beatles and erm…

R: Michael Jackson?

That was said with no conviction… Let’s talk gig memories: what’s the best?

D: Finding Ryan on the beach! That, or the other day coming out of Truck Festival and the van door just slid all the way off. It was just rolling down the road.

Perhaps a new van is necessary. What’s it like touring with smaller bands such as Peace and Wolf Alice, where everyone’s on a similar level?

D: You see a lot of the same fans at different gigs that way. It’s great because you can tell that everyone’s really into the music. There’s definitely more chance of them buying the music and coming to more shows because everyone’s immersed in it.

The fans you have seem to be really dedicated.

R: Yeah it’s great. Like, with the Wolf Alice shows, people seemed to be jumping around for us as well as Wolf Alice.

Any weird fans?

R: My mum…

D: She knows the number of twitter followers we’ve got. She always keeps us updated.

R: She had a note on her phone at one point that was keeping a count of our followers.

E: My mum does that as well with Facebook.

Aw, it’s still quite close to home then.

R: But the stranger the fans are the more into it they are, I guess.

D: There’s one guy who came to 5 shows in a row on the Wolf Alice tour. They weren’t even close!

Do you ever fear the impact Spotify might have on the album release in terms of sales?

D: No, not really. I mean an album’s a different thing nowadays. People still buy and listen to them whole but they’re also to build up what you can play live. I think it’s rare for a band to sell loads of records and have dead shows. It’s all part of building up the band.

And what about with charts etc, how will that influence you?

D: It’s difficult when you have people who are really into music but like, say, Ellie Goulding. And they’ll watch her video ten times in a day. It’s not really a fair chance but there’s not much you can do. Like that Gotye song, it’s impossible to compare yourself to another artist like that.

If all that counted were video hits the same artists would be in the charts all the time. You’ve gotta try and break the charts!

D: The revolution!

Can’t wait! Well good luck tonight…

Melissa Svensen

@MelYeaahh

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melissa Svensen

Melissa Svensen

Melissa, 22. Editor. Student, music journalist, probably talking about Blur or Bowie