SUPERHOOCH have had their up's along with the down's, changing their genre, releasing music, with so much more mixed in. The band talks of these changes and what's next in-store for them.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Superhooch formed in 2014 originally as a 5-piece with Jonny Worsley on lead vocals, Chris Worsley and Johnny Kingham both on guitar, Steve Clarke on bass and Anthony Marshal on drums. Every member providing heavy use of backing vocals with the exception of Steve Clarke. Everyone in the band had played in various groups around Coventry previously and had all collaborated together at various different points. They recorded 2 EP’s with Jonny Worsley and gained a strong following in Coventry and around the Midlands, but due to family commitments and musical differences Jonny left the band in 2017.
At this point the band had a burning desire to move in different direction, they traded the bluesy classic/prog rock sound for something more contemporary. The band continues as a four piece with Chris Worsley taking the lead vocals as well as playing guitar, the rest of the line up stays the same but Steve Clarke joined in with the others on backing vocals, even providing lead vocals for the song ‘Feeling Sound’.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
The name Superhooch comes from an apparent moonshine recipe that’s popular in prisons.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Superhooch are based in Coventry, the scene is strong in the sense that there are a lot of talented artists here and a lot of people who want to come out and see their shows, sadly we have faced a lot of venue closures over the last years, but the same can be said for most cities in the UK I suppose. Hopefully things will change when venues can re-open, we hear talk of a few new venues being opened for when the world opens again for business this summer, so we shall see what happens! Superhooch have gigged and partied with a lot of the bands in Cov, we would recommend all of them to you but to name a few we’d say Resurrection Men, Charles Dexter Ward And The Imagineers, Luna And The Moonhounds, Futumche, Black Spaghetti and the almighty Octogoth. But this is just nepotism as they are our mates and fellow collaborators, there’s so many good bands in this city.
4. How would you describe your style?
After the “re-birth” following Jonny Worsley’s departure the band changed direction and opted for a darker yet more playful and natural sound, drawing influences from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Hawkwind and The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (to name a few) the band started to become very interested in blending psychedelic with hard rock, and punk (a word very much despised by the band but the only one I can use to generalize their chaotic no shits given approach to song writing), focusing on darker lyrical content and hypnotic riffs designed to send you to space.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
Since the line-up change the band have released an EP called Look Out! Consisting of 6 songs written in a few months and recorded shortly after. The EP was recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubs. It documents the band finding their feet with their new sound and as a solid unit, its a raw and aggressive attack with elements of beauty and dark humor seeping through.
The band released their first full length album ‘Red Jacket’ in June 2020 via online streaming platforms and plan to release physical CD’s as soon as the printing place re-opens. The band focused on stripping things back even further with ‘Red Jacket’, allowing Worsley’s vocals and lyrics to take the lead. The album follows a constant theme of self destruction and rebirth, “rip it up and start again” is very much the mantra here. Each track is wildly different from the other, blending genres yet retaining the bands own unique sound. The opening track ‘Birthday Suit’ has a mutant funk doom “Talking heads meets Cathedral” vibe, VIDEO is reminiscent of 90’s alt rock bands like Jesus Lizard and Cop Shoot Cop, and the true anthem of the album ‘The Bar’ is a Victorian folk horror story in the style of Tom Waits and Alex Harvey, with a bit of Black Sabbath thrown in.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
Due to lock-down the band are focusing on promoting ‘Red Jacket’ and have limited ability to rehearse and write new music, however there have been exchanges of ideas in the form of home recordings. They have some ideas of where to take things next but as the band work very much in an organic style they will be far more productive once they can get back in a rehearsal room.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Touring and gigging is obviously on hold until the world returns to “normality, whatever that may be. When the shackles are off they are going anywhere that will take them.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Keep going, keep writing, keep performing, keeping bettering themselves as musicians, songwriters and human beings. Playing music is what the live for and they wont have it any other way.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
The music of Superhooch is available on all the main streaming sites (Spotify, iTunes, Tidal etc), their CD’s can be purchased from their website www.superhooch.co.uk and of course their own YouTube channel where you can find all of their music videos, all of which have been shot and edited by guitarist Johnny Kingham. The plan is to release a video for every song on ‘Red Jacket’ following the narrative of the album. There are also plans to record some live sessions and publish them on the channel.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
They can remember it however they want, just as long as they remember the name Superhooch so they know how to find it again.
Post a Comment