Superchunk: Press

Under The Volcano '93
by Anthony Roman

Superchunk have been bashing people with their own joyful brand of punk/pop for a little over four years now. Since exploding out of Chapel Hill in '89, the band has released three albums, and their most recent disc, On Th Mouth, continues the tradition of ear-catching melodic thrash. Currently, the band is touring the states. I spoke to drummer Jon Wurster over the phone just before they left on tour.

UV: let's go back to the beginning of things. You guys formed in '89?

J: Yes, I've only been in the band a year and a half, though. I believe it was the spring of '89.

UV: When you guys came out you got a lot of comparisons to Husker Du and Dino Jr. Were those bands big influences on the band?

J: For me personally, Husker Du was definitely. When I was 16-17 they were one of my favorite bands. I used to go see them in Philadelphia, that's where I'm from. Dino Jr. was never a big influence on me. I like certain songs.

UV: Who would you say are your influences?

J: Some of the stuff we heard when we were much younger, when we were in our formative years so to speak. I think the first music you're exposed to leaves the biggest impression on you. I loved all that pop radio stuff. When I was 10 years old, you know, I loved all that top 40 stuff in the mid-seventies, so that was a big thing for me, especially.

UV: And how did you come into the band?

J: I knew Mac·I lived for a while in Northern New Jersey, right across from Manhattan, and I would see him at Maxwell's every now and then, and we shared a couple common friends. I moved back to Winston-Salem, NC which is an hour and a half west of Chapel Hill. I was there for about five years and decided to move to Chapel Hill, where my brother lived. He was pretty good friends with Mac, so Mac knew that I played. I think Chunk's first show in Chapel Hill was opening for a band I was playing in at the time, so there's a strange connection too.

UV: In CH, is it a big community type of thing or is the press making it bigger than it is?

J: They're definitely making it bigger than it is. It's just a small group of people that go to shows·

UV: It's just basically bands that go to see other bands?

J: It's actually more than that: there's a lot of·even a lot of the local bands like Polvo, when they play, it's like three of four hundred people sometimes, and there's not that many people in bands, so·there are kids coming in from Raleigh, too. Raleigh and Greensboro.

UV: What bands in the scene do you like?

J: I like Polvo, there's a band from Raleigh called Motorola, there's a band from W-S called Grover, a band called Archers Of Loaf·

UV: Most of these bands haven't released anything, have they?

J: All but Grover have, whether it be singles or maybe a six song CD, that kind of thing. There are two bands who have done that, one called Pipe, one called Small. Who else is there·Finger from Raleigh, I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.

UV: The new album is definitely a progression. There's different things on there but it still sounds the same.

J: In terms of the "sound" of the record, I was concerned with getting some other sounds on there-some acoustic guitar, that kind of thing, which did make it onto a couple of songs, the only real change of direction. The songs were coming out a little different.

UV: Sometimes a band sounds completely different from one album to another·it just seems strange when they do that.

J: Yeah, but sometimes it's cool. Ever heard that second Bad Religion record?

UV: Yeah, I know the one you're talking about.

J: I love that record! I just thought for the time it came out it was so adventurous, you know for a band doing strictly thrash to do a record that sounded like Todd Rundgren. It was pretty awesome. Of course they disavow that record to this day. That can be really interesting when a band does that: they usually lose a lot of fans, which is a shame.

UV: How is the songwriting done? Does Mac write most of the stuff?

J: We write weird. He'll come in with a rough sketch of a song, be it a progression, or a riff or something, and we'll all come up with parts to throw in there, but he comes up with the kernel of the song, the rough outline.

UV: And he writes the lyrics?

J: Yeah. I think on the last record Jim wrote a couple lyrics here and there. He wrote some lyrics for "Sprung A Leak".

UV: What do you think about major's interest?

J: It can be good, it's tempting, because you have massive distribution, and if you're lucky you get great promotion. Also there are a lot of negatives involved too, because with so many people to answer to, this whole staff of people you're placing your trust in to make sure your record gets out there to radio stations and all that, it's hard to place a lot of trust in 'em.

UV: Do you think it becomes more like a job in that situation?

J: Yeah, but it's like a job now sometimes, too though. I think we just feel more comfortable for the time being doing it the way we're doing it now. I think it's mainly a trust thing, an issue of not trusting a big label.

UV: Now lately, a lot of bands will put out one album, or in the case of Quicksand, put out one seven inch, and they get signed. Do you think they're pushing it when they do that?

J: Yeah, I do. I don't see how a band like that could really know exactly what they want; I couldnāt see a band putting out a single and having the vision to know exactly what they want to do, and say, "Yeah, this major label deal is definitely the right thing." It's hard to imagine being in a band and putting out a single, and thinking that you've developed as much as you possibly can before taking that next step. I think a lot of bands need to play more, you have to go on a couple tours, maybe put out one or two more records and see if that's what you're interested in doing, and also just seeing if you like each other any more!