If you haven’t heard Superglu yet then you’re in for a treat. The Manningtree four piece, featuring members of Dingus Khan, write excellent distorted pop music, with so many hooks you won’t know what happened. It’s obvious how much they enjoy performing them too, smiles on their faces, even when trying to hold back vomit, and a dynamic that can only truly be achieved by a band of good friends and family. While they’ve been around for a relatively small amount of time, their live shows have been numerous, especially around Colchester/Suffolk/London. They released their first single, the double A side 7″ Diving Bell/Latvian, in April and they’re back in the studio now. If you’ve heard any of their live songs so far you’ll know just how exciting that is.
With the AA side of their recent 7″, ‘Latvian’, released next week, we had a quick catch up with Ben from Superglu to find out a bit about the band.
For people who don’t know Superglu, who are you?
Friends and family members making fun music.
How would describe the band?
Garage-Pop
The video looks as though it was enjoyable to make – how long did it take you to film?
The video was done in one morning – I think it was the first hot day of the year, maybe in April, so we look very sweaty. Our friends Sam and Geoff came to Ben and Alex’s house with a camera and some lighting and we just got it done in like 2 hours. We stuck all this weird cardboard art on the walls of Ben’s tiny room, the idea was to make it look very claustrophobic. Maybe like a Diving Bell. Who knows. The words flashing up on the screen were Sam’s idea, I think it looks really cool, overpowering in a good way.
The artwork appears to be everywhere; backing the video, posters, guitars – who came up with the original idea?
The artwork was done by Ben. One day he painted some circles, I don’t think he really knows why he started painting them but he did and we decided that they were good. I’m unsure what makes good ‘art’, i’m not even sure what the definition of ‘art’ actually is, but when I looked at the circles I know I really liked them – I liked the fact that they were both repetitive and varying, the way the paint ran, the simplicity of the idea. I think it was decided quite early on that when we launched the band we would like have something visually consistent to go alongside it – it’s nice to think people are maybe able to identify the band by seeing those circles. The white circles on the red backdrop that make up the SuperGlu logo were taken from one piece in particular – its been edited on the computer but originally it was white house paint on a thin piece of MDF.
You’ve gone through more name changes in the first year than most bands go through in a lifetime, why?
Its weird when you make a new band because initially you have to try and identify what you actually are to yourselves and then try and put that across to other people. A name might not seem that important but I suppose it might be the first thing people hear, even before the music, so we wanted it to be something we all liked – however it turns out we are all indecisive and have different ideas of whats good. Back then we were still trying to work out what we sounded like, so maybe the names changed as frequently as the idea of our sound did, but it wasn’t anything anything smart – (I heard someone thought it was part of a big plan, maybe art or something?) – it was just a case of none of us agreeing for ages and then finally settling on something. A name that sticks or some other glu(e) based joke?
Are you settled on Superglu or is there a risk you’ll change it suddenly at some point throwing us all off the scent?
Stuck.
Having seen more songs from yourselves live recently, are there plans to record any more of them at any point soon?
Yes indeed- we are midway through recording out debut E.P. We are actually going into the studio tomorrow to finnish some stuff off so keep your ears pealed.
You’ve been around for a relatively small amount of time but seem to already be commandeering good sized audiences, how do you manage to pull it off?
I am not really sure. Every one of our shows so far have been really amazing in their own way and we are very lucky for that. I think initially it was partly to do with the Dingus Khan connection, I think locally people get really excited about whatever project Ben is working on so they came out to see what this new thing was – I guess it must be alright because we have played quite a few now and they have been consistently quite busy. People have been really supportive, we have had some great write ups and BBC introducing have plugged the tracks a lot.
What’s been the best moment as a band so far?
There are a lot to choose from – its been a brilliant 6 months. We played a show at Norwich Arts Centre with a band called Menace Beach, I think it was the maybe the sixth time we had performed together and I just remember leaving the stage feeling like it was a real thing rather than some kind of experiment that might go wrong. Either that or listening to Diving Bell on BBC1 for the first time.
What are you looking forward to most this year?
Getting this E.P out, playing Latitude Festival and seeing what else might happen.
You can check out Latvian below. Diving Bell/Latvian is available to buy on vinyl from Antigen Records now.
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