The Superjesus have returned in the biggest possible way, with a new EP having just been released, and a brand new string of national tour dates that are set to take them around the country this October.
The new record Love and Violence was just premiered on Tone Deaf, and is available now through Golden Robot Records.
We recently caught up with Superjesus chief and legendary Australian rocker Sarah McLeod to get an insight into her influences and the five records that changed her life.
The Beatles – Please Please Me
“Very early on it was always my parents’ Beatles records and Chuck Berry. I don’t so much like Chuck Berry now, but I really did as a kid, and I still love The Beatles. It was an amalgamation of everything my parents had in their record collection. I couldn’t even tell which record was which, it was just a whole bunch of Beatles and Chuck Berry.
“It’s funny, I started almost chronologically with The Beatles. When I was young I listened to early Beatles, only early Beatles, and I only just started appreciating later Beatles in the last couple of years. Like Let It Be and The White Album, I was like, “No, I don’t like the trippy shit, I like the pop stuff.” But my favourite as a kid was ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, I’d sing it all the time.”
The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
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“There were two albums that defined my teen years and that’s The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream and Swervedriver’s Mezcal Head. They got me into playing guitar. They were first guitar bands I actually got into, before that I mainly listened to Billy Joel and then I discovered guitar and playing guitar as I listened to these albums.
“Just the sonic massiveness of the production of the guitars and how powerful they were, but the songs on there were still pop songs, just produced so heavy and in your face and I was amazed. My whole life all I liked was pop, like Billy Joel and The Beatles, and then I found pop in this big, heavy guitar thing and it changed my world.”
Billy Joel – The Stranger
“I’m not so closet about it anymore, but Billy Joel has been one of my favourites, consistently ever since I was a kid on through. He just has so many great songs, like ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’. On my new solo album that I wrote recently — it’s not out till next year — I wrote a song called ‘Rocky’s Diner’ which is my version of ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’, because in the Billy Joel one it goes through all those different songs within the song and I did that with my song.”
Swervedriver – Mezcal Head
“When we were recording the first Superjesus album we’d listen to Mezcal Head by Swervedriver a lot. What they introduced me to was… well, with Siamese Dream what that was was the same guitar part layered to high heaven, beefed up, with other guitar parts underneath. It was everything going all the time. Whereas Swervedriver introduced us to this cool, orchestral arrangement of guitars.
“There was two guitarists, all with alternative tunings, one would play weird arpeggio noodle bits and the other would play really simple lines that weaved in and out of the noodle bits, so it became one big part. And then they would come together to play the same part to create like a massive sonic, in your face smash, then back to the intricate part. So these guys were always intertwining around each other like a tapestry.”
Veruca Salt – Eight Arms to Hold You
“I listened to Veruca Salt, loads of Veruca Salt when recording the latest EP. Eight Arms to Hold You is the one that I like. I listened to that album loads. I forget about Veruca Salt for a while and then listen to other things and rediscover them, like, ‘This is great!’
“Production-wise I just love it. It was produced by Bob Rock, so it just sounds huge and I love it. They do a lot of loud-to-quiet stuff, those sorts of dynamics. It’s a real ’90s thing that super quiet, really loud thing, we do it all the time, the Pixies thing. What I like about Veruca Salt though is they bring this kind of naive fun to it, they have a girly, fun element to the music. I try to bring that in where possible.”
The Superjesus kick off their latest national tour in October. They will be celebrating the release of their brand new, eagerly anticipated EP, Love and Violence, which is set to drop via Golden Robot Records on 12th August and is available to pre-order now.
The Superjesus National Tour Dates
Friday, 7th October 2016
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Saturday, 8th October 2016
Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Friday, 14th October 2016
The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Saturday, 15th October 2016
Fowlers, Adelaide
Friday, 28th October 2016
The Northern, Byron Bay
Saturday, 29th October 2016
Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane
