EXBERLINER Issue 168, February 2018

WHAT’S ON — Music
DON’T MISS
Annabel Allum
Having discovered a
more indie rockinfused
sound as an
outlet, the UK singersongwriter
dropped
the folk attitude on
her latest EP All That
for What and hits the
stage at Monarch with
plenty of distortion.
Feb 3, 20:00
Omar Souleyman
Syrian superstar
meets historic GDR
chic when the former
wedding singer
takes the stage with
his most recent
album To Syria, with
Love at Funkhaus.
Feb 3, 20:30
Interview
“ We’re a society
within ourselves”
Pavel Mezihorák
East London buzz band Superorganism finally
emerges from the shadows. By Jenny Browne and Michael Hoh
Imagine uploading your first track
to Soundcloud and the rest of the
world goes bonkers because they
think Damon Albarn’s behind it. Signing
to Domino Records mid-2017, the
fun pop eight-piece Superorganism
has since kept a pretty exclusive profile,
playing only a handful of shows
throughout the entire year. With
the release of their self-titled debut
album (out Mar 2), they embark on a
long-awaited cross-continental tour,
including a stop at Festsaal Kreuzberg
on Feb 23. Co-founder and guitarist
Christopher “Harry” Young (photo,
far left) gave us some insight into the
band’s mystique.
You dropped your first single
over a year before your album
came out... was that a plannedout
move? We’d finished the song,
and decided to put it out – it was
honestly that simple. It wasn’t a
calculated decision because we’d
only made that one song, we didn’t
know whether or not anyone would
be interested. This whole thing has
been so crazy and fast; we’ve not
really had time to sit back and get
freaked out by it yet.
The band met online. How does
living together in London now
influence your music-making?
It’s a pretty small house [in Hackney],
considering how many people
are living in it. [Singer] Orono’s
taken over the living room so we all
have to congregate in the kitchen
now. We’ve all got similar tastes
and humour – it’s fun. Sometimes,
I’ll be in the kitchen making dinner
and [visual artist] Robert will just
burst through and be like, “Hey can
you give me an opinion on this?”
and I can give him a fresh perspective
there and then. But we’re not
geographically tied together, and
that’s one of the coolest things
about this project. Maybe Soul is in
Australia or Orono’s in Japan visiting
family, but we can still continue
working together as long as we’ve
got an internet connection. In the
old days you used to be consigned
to who you met in your local area,
but we have a shared WhatsApp
and fire ideas out when and where
inspiration strikes.
What’s up with all the whales
in your videos? It was an image
that Robert brought to the band.
They are so majestic and gentle, but
also massive and imposing. We all
identified with that. A whale tends
to have lots of other little creatures
around it, it’s its own ecosystem. We
liked the idea that the whale itself
is the centre of all these organisms
working together. Thematically, we
tend to work around the internet,
space and the ocean, so the whale fit
perfectly into that framework.
What’s your relationship to the
1990s you borrow from? Not
all of you were alive back then.
Orono has just turned 18; she’s the
youngest. I’d be surprised if she
remembered dial-up internet. The
oldest is 32, I think. That plays a role
in the creation of the music, because
we have a breadth of different
experiences. We’re introducing each
other to different music all the time.
Orono can show Tucan something
brand new and modern, whilst he
has knowledge of 1980s metal that
she wouldn’t, for example.
Initially you wanted actors to
do all your interviews. What
does band identity and self-image
mean to you? We remained
anonymous for a while because
our priority was figuring out who
we were as a band. We’re a bit of
a society within ourselves, and we
wanted to focus on our art without
the heat of attention. We live in an
era where so much is caught up in
the cult of personality, social media
etc. whilst our aesthetic tries to focus
on the image of the whole band.
Obviously Orono gets attention for
being the lead singer, but we don’t
necessarily put her out in front of
everyone else. We’re a family. n
32 EXBERLINER 168