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MUSIC
THE SUPERFANTASTICS
Pure Pop Keeps Coming Back
Submitted by Carsten Knox on 03.26.07 at 1:53pm.
Pure pop songwriting is just something that keeps coming back in musical culture. The influence of 60s pop pioneers such as The Beach Boys is heard again and again, and though we can count four decades and the distance of a continent since that California band reached its peak, the pure joy of voices raised in melodious chorus over a hooky chord progression just can’t be beat.
That’s what The Superfantastics are peddling, and people are sure to buy it. With a sold-out 2006 EP behind them, their first full-length indie release Pop-Up Book gets its launch this Friday, when the band plays a show at the Seahorse. Produced and recorded by local friend-to-all-musicians and 90s Halifax music scene veteran Charles Austin in his Echo Chamber Studio, the album has a glossy, professional edge that sounds great booming out of your stereo on a sunny, spring day. The Superfantastics are just two, Matt MacDonald (guitar, vocals) and Steph D’Entremont (drums, vocals), but manage a layered, full sound, and include a few more recent, local influences in their pop-songcraft.
Though I was to speak with Ms. D’Entremont, the tyranny of her day job meant I wound up chatting with principle songwriter Matt MacDonald about those influences, computer nerds in love, and anonymity in rock and roll.
What do you do when you’re not making music?
Well, I just took a leave of absence from a job as an electrical engineer. I have a little more free time now. We’ve got a tour coming up.
I noticed you’re playing the Horseshoe in Toronto. That’s a pretty legendary club.
It is. I think it’s referred to as legendary in its name... The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.
I think you’re right. So, how did you and Steph connect and form the band?
Through some friends we ended up playing a game of frisbee one day on the Halifax Common. This was in September 2005. Steph had mentioned that she wanted to learn how to play drums. All of her friends were pretty busy in bands, so none of them wanted to spend time teaching someone to play drums. So I said, I’ll play drums with you.
Had you been in bands before?
Not since high school. I taught her to play drums, and I figured the best way to do that would be if I brought along a guitar and just started to play stuff. So, we started writing songs and playing shows, and we recorded a CD.
There is a precedent for two-member bands, just guitar and drums, but did you guys ever consider filling your roster with more people?
We thought about it, but it’s just the way we work. We’re spontaneous and we communicate really well and we figured if we added another person it might slow things down or just change the whole process we had going.
I find your voice sounds a little like Chris Murphy from Sloan. Have you ever heard that? Is Sloan an influence?
I have heard that, but I don’t really think that. I’ve had a few comparisons to The Inbreds because we’re a two-piece and we have a similar sound like what was going on in Halifax in the mid-90s. I grew up listening to them, I was into Sloan and The Thrush Hermit and Inbreds. But, I dunno, I’m not trying to rip them off. I’m not going around doing the old Chris Murphy scissor kick.
Are there bands whose songwriting you admire?
I really do admire Mike O’Neill’s songwriting. I play guitar in another band called Sleepless Nights, and the guy Aaron who writes the songs in that band, I’m actually really inspired by his writing too. A lot of the bands around Halifax I really enjoy, like The Burdocks and Contrived.
I really enjoyed one of your love songs, “The Only One I C is U,” which has lines about writing code, ICQ and Facebook. I liked how tongue in cheek it is. I guess that popular culture is a big part of the vibe of the band.
That’s part of it, but the song title is actually “The Only One I C++ is U++.” C++ is actually computer programming language, so it’s a play on that. The song I actually started when I was back in university and I was in a computer programming class. There was this guy and girl who were in my class. They were dating, and they’d hold hands while they wrote out the computer programs and stuff like that. It was really sickening. They’d be sitting right next to each other typing notes on ICQ, because they were still rockin’ ICQ like it was 2001.
Something else I noticed which was interesting, Mike Holmes did the art for your album. A lot of people pour onto their albums all this detail, a list of thanks and so forth, and yours is very spare, as is the website. You don’t even give your surnames. I’m wondering if that was conscious. Do you guys use the band as an alter ego, an alternate persona to who you are away from music?
You mean, kinda like I’m changing my name to just Matt, like Cher is just Cher?
Yeah, sure! Or the Archies or The Donnas, there is a whole series of bands who adopt a stage presence that is different.
With our album art we wanted to keep things simple. Our stage presence actually ties in really well with our day-to-day lives. We’re both really kinda fun, playful people. That’s what we wanted to project in the music and the album art. I didn’t realize we didn’t give our last names. That’s interesting. I might have to put it in somewhere. It might say that on our MySpace.
Mp3's from The Superfantastics¹ 2007 release Pop-Up Book
Countdown:
www.pigeonrow.com/TheSFs-Countdown.mp3
Vantastic (Eastern Canadian Road Trip Blues):
www.pigeonrow.com/TheSFs-Vantastic.mp3
Oh! How You Used to Know Me Well (Back Then):
www.pigeonrow.com/TheSfs-Oh_How.mp3
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The Superfantastics. Photo by Chris Smith.