Super Water Sympathy has been described as belonging to the genre “water pop”, what is that exactly? And how did the band come up with the concept?
One of the hardest questions to answer is when people ask us what kind of music we play... because, well, we don't really know. So one day we decided to come up with a genre. Something we could say, other than Billy's famous, "We're a mix between Marilyn Manson and Taylor Swift," response. So we came up with "water pop". First of all, it has a great ring to it. Second of all, I like to think it represents the fluidity of our sound. And coincidently, one day we realized every one of our songs on our freshman album (Vesper Belle) had some sort of reference to water, whether it be a waterfall or a tear drop. We like water. Bodies of water are great visual images... and considering we tend to focus more on painting pictures in people's minds with our lyrics, rather than always trying to make perfect lyrical sense, it fits.
Super Water Sympathy have a very rich sound with lots of variety in influences, what bands and artists have influenced you individually and as a band?
Thanks for opening the interview with a compliment! ... We do have lots of influences. Mine range anywhere between Dolores O'Riordan to Regina Spektor. However, I don't necessarily want to sound like anyone else... But rather learn from the choices they made and try to build my own individuality just as they did. The band is influenced heavily by bands such as Blur, Blink 182, Sigur Ros, Grandaddy and Coldplay, to name a few. Same situation here though.. We may like Grandaddy because of his quirky lyrics, or maybe we like the way Sigur Ros makes you feel when we listen to their music.. It's never about wanting to sound like someone else.
Your music stands out from much of the crowd, what do you think about the music scene?
Thanks again for the compliment! Ha! ... In my almost-three-years experience, I have learned that it is very difficult. Bands are surfacing every day... So you have to do all that you can to stand out. If you don't stand out, then you're just another band.. one band, of thousands and thousands. And in order to do that, you have to do something different. So we are always trying to figure out what that "something" is, and we're striving to find it and conquer it. Kind of a melodramtic response, but hey, the music industry is a melodramtic world.
How much of a collaboration from the band as a whole is Super Water Sympathy’s music?
We have never written a song that wasn't completely collaborative. Even if only two members write the primary music, and the primary lyrics, there are always changes that will be made and input from the other members.. But even that rarely happens.. We wrote almost the entirety of Hydrogen Child on tour last spring. Mostly with an acoustic guitar, a battery-powered keyboard, and pen and paper. Each song has a piece of each band member, whether its a single word, or a whole chorus. We don't release songs, or even play them in public, until everyone is happy with the product. Then we bless the song with sage and a black onyx stone.
Its been said that Super Water Sympathy’s second album is much more representative of the bands’ sound compared to the first album, why do you think the first one turned out that way?
I think the major difference between Vesper Belle and Hydrogen Child is how much our songwriting abilities as a band have grown. We were writing Vesper Belle songs as we were recording them. Literally throwing lyrics and melodies in there, not really thinking about them much. We wrote the entirety of Hydrogen Child before we went into the studio (sans the track entitled "Magnolia Parade"). We picked apart every word, every melody. Maybe even a little too much! The point is, we had more than enough time to prepare, and essentially, we ended up with a twelve song album in five weeks. Honestly, our semi-recent involvement in the publishing world has influenced our songwriting as well. We're maturing creatively every day, so naturally, the first album wasn't quite as strong on our part. And hopefully each album will get better and better, so we can maybe form the Space Party before the next election.
How would you best describe the concept and feel of the new album?
I feel as though you might get a different answer from each memeber of the band if you asked each of us individually. Hydrogen Child means something different to all of us. For me, the album represents life, love and death. Humans spend a great portion of their lives searching for their soul mate.. then you spend the rest of your life with that person, and then you die. What happens after death? I don't know. But I would like to think it's nice. So even though it sounds kind of morbid, conceptually, it's really something serene and beautiful. We want to make people's brains light up like a Louisiana lightning storm in August.
Why did you choose Cam Blackwood to produce the new album? What was it like recording in London?
We chose Cam because we had a skype meeting with him and he said the "F" word like five times within the first three minutes of our conversation.
Okay, so that was why we initially liked him. Aside from all that, we felt that the other artists he had worked with had a similar feeling to what we were going for. His vision was spot-on, and he wanted us there for the entire summer originally. So we figured we could spare the five weeks.
London was beautiful. I love Clapham... and they loved us. Apparently you don't tip bartenders and waiters in London because they get paid regular wages. However, as Americans, we tip. And in London standards, we tip well. So they loved us. Absolutely loved us. It was awesome.
The video for Uh-oh was done in one take despite being very intricate with a lot of elements, how difficult was it to pull that off?
Oh dear God, it was INSANE!!!! No, but seriously, it was completely chaotic. I was absolutely shocked to see the final product. It looks so smooth and seamless. We did it in about eight to ten takes. Each take was about a minute and 45 seconds because they sped up the song, to create the slow-mo effect later. It was raining, and for some reason, FREEZING. Seriously, the day before it was sunny and 80 degrees. Those poor purple children, man. God, they were miserable, and still somehow they were well-behaved. Each take was filled with directions being yelled like "KIDS! RUN!" and "LATINO BUSINESS PEOPLE! GO!". So insane. It was a blast. Afterward we all jumped in the Red River and did synchronized swimming routines to summon the gods of the Horseshoe Casino.
Do you think Super Water Sympathy could one day come over to the UK to play any shows?
We have been talking to booking agents for the past couple of months, trying to lock one in for some time next year. Which would be awesome.
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