It’s likely you’d expect a band with a song called “Zombie Bride” to be either scrapping at the dredges of metal or playing at some slap happy comedy schtick. Lucky then that Supreme Fiction has come along to shake things up. On the aforementioned song (as well as a wealth of others), this Chapel Hill brood creates music with a melodic punch, literary ear, and emotional bent.
The band (Daniel Lawrence, Kenny Jones, Kemp Watson, Bryan Reklis, and Tim Fenwick) will celebrate the release of their newest record, Berliners, on Thursday, September 29th. But first, can a few of their own, handle this five question throw down? Find out for yourself after the jump.
1. If your band were a painting, which would it be?
Daniel: Probably the first thing that popped into my head was Dogs Playing Poker, so that’s awesome. There’s an episode of Parks and Rec where they have to come up with a mural idea for City Hall. They end up proposing a “camel,” a hideous collage that combines a little bit of everyone’s ideas — some abstract shapes here, some cute pictures of dogs there — into one glorious fiasco. Supreme Fiction is kind of a camel (or a platypus) — one giant, artless exclamation point. But we like camels.
Kenny: The Night Cafe by Van Gogh. All five members of the band are there! (plus Tom Wolfe for some reason). Or some painting that hasn’t been painted yet.
2. What can listeners expect to hear on the new record?
Daniel: When I started working on the material that ended up on Berliners, I thought I had finally hit upon the type of bright, upbeat, concise, pleasure-center-seeking-missile pop songs that every hopelessly long-winded songwriter secretly dreams of writing. Then I got carried away and ruined everything by being hopelessly long-winded. Songs like “Me and the Kiddie KGB,” “What is the Moon?”, and “Song for Space Bear” started out almost as joke songs, but I got really energized when I realized I could make my subject matter as outlandish as I wanted to and still maintain a genuine emotional core. When we started the band, that sense of exhilaration transferred itself to learning and playing those songs, which tended to come together really quickly. The result was a really musically and lyrically playful album, and I hope people will share our feeling of — HEY! WOW! A SONG! — when they listen to the record.
Kenny: Genre-bending literary pop/rock. Although not really. Ideally it should sound energetic and effortless. A collection of songs that are funny but meaningful.
3. Describe the feeling of playing your music to room full of strangers (and/or friends).
Daniel: If the answer to this question were a painting, it would be The Scream.
Kenny: Simultaneously trying to ignore everyone and feeding off of their energy. One of the most fun things imaginable.
4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that would really surprise people?
Daniel: Our song “Kingdom of Kitsch” was sort of inspired by the Goya painting Saturn Devouring His Son. The usual reaction to that song is something like “what was that and why did you write it?”
I was personally surprised to realize retroactively how much I was inspired by the Clientele album Strange Geometry, especially songs like “Since K Got Over Me” and “Losing Haringey”. It’s a sort of 60’s-inspired but very hazy, shimmering-sounding record with vivid, ghostly lyrics that evoke personal malaise and anxiety using hints of supernatural elements. Even better, a line like “Every night a strange geometry/Since K got over me” does so by means of an H.P. Lovecraft reference. I didn’t know you could do that in a song!
Kenny: The Smiths, comedy television, European economic malaise.
5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (How’d that turn out?)
Daniel: I wanted to be Indiana Jones. I actually had my own fedora and leather whip and manly satchel — designed, presumably, for the storage and transportation of priceless magic artifacts. I also wanted to be Cary Grant, and didn’t consider the two dreams to be mutually exclusive.
I think things are going pretty well so far.
Kenny: I wanted to be a writer and possibly an astronaut. I am closer to one of those things than the other.
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Fly over to the Local 506 on Thursday, September 29 to help the band celebrate the release of Berliners. And, by all means, give Daniel and Kenny a high five when you see them!