Interview: Superfood

Qmunicate’s no.1 Superfood fan caught the freshest band alive right now after their Glasgow gig last year. Expect world tours and a strange hysteria with baby Kanye West.

So did you enjoy that show?

Emily Baker – Bassist: Yeah it was really good!

How’s the tour going so far?

EB: Yeah great, we’ve sparked up a friendship with [headline act] Temples.

Had you listened to them much before?

Ryan Malcom – Guitarist: Yeah we’ve played with them once before.

EB: And their album is amazing.

How does it compare to the NME new wave tour?

EB: The NME tour, we probably got a better response because it was a headline tour but it’s just as fun. The shows have been really really good.

I was at the Glasgow leg of that tour, at King Tut’s, and thought that you performed better tonight.

RM: Yeah I think that’s true. I don’t know why, I think it was because that was early in the tour.

Carl Griffin – Drummer: It was the second day wasn’t it?

RM: Yeah it was the second date, so we were still taking time to get into the swing of it. This tour has been a while now, we’re coming towards the end of it.

So where is your favourite place to play?

EB: I’m really into Manchester.

RM: Yeah Manchester’s been the one recently.

EB: One the NME and this tour, we got a good response in Manchester. In terms of which city, we really like Edinburgh because it’s so beautiful. We love it here as well actually, there’s loads.

What about Birmingham?

RM: We didn’t actually play Birmingham this tour, there was no date there. It was a bit weird just driving straight past Birmingham.

EB: The NME show there was really good.

Is the amount of attention you’re getting from NME in particular any more exciting than attention from anywhere else because of their track record for ‘finding’ massive bands (Royal Blood, Kings of Leon)?

RM: We don’t really worry about it really, we just get on what we’re getting on with. It’s nice when people back us and say nice things about us and NME have been really kind to us but it’s just not that important.

Other than the 8/10 that NME gave it, how has the album been received?

EB: I think its been really good actually. When we played the NME tour we played Don’t Say That which was really good, we got a really good response. In some places we went people knew the words which was really surprising.

CG: Seeing people sing back our whole songs rather than just a few bits was really cool for us.

RM: We noticed a step up really just from having an album out there, now there’s no excuse why everyone shouldn’t know the songs. It’s always a bit weird, like before we had an album out people were just trying to get into the songs. Generally people can relate to the songs they’ve heard and it’s hard to keep people interested when playing songs they haven’t heard. You can just obviously get into it more when you know the songs. Really noticed that difference. It’s great.

Are you pleased with the album? Is it what you expected it and wanted it to be?

RM: Yeah. It took us a while to get there, it took us a while longer than we expected but we had a lot of support from the label and stuff. After we finished recording it we weren’t quite happy with it, it wasn’t quite there. So we talked to the label and they just said look, take as long as you need really. We’re fortunate because lots of people haven’t got that. We went and recorded a few more songs and spent loads of time on the mixes and eventually got it to where we were happy with it. It was really stressful but I guess you can be proud of it now. Worth putting the effort in.

You’re mates with Peace and Swim Deep, did their early success inspire you at all?

RM: I think it was actually.

CG: To see them go out and get as successful as they have, made us think we could do the same sort of thing.

RM: It kind of just made it a bit more real. We used to play the same kind of circuit around Birmingham a lot. That was all that  you did, you never expected to play bigger shows or become a bigger band. So seeing those guys starting to do well was like ‘wow that can actually happen’.

EB: I always remember going to that one gig we went to in London and seeing them play and we weren’t the only people that knew the songs, other people actually knew the songs and we were like ‘oh shit’, like they’re a proper band – they’re not just playing to us.

RM: They definitely, definitely made us try a bit harder.

As a band, if you could achieve one thing next year what would it be?

RM: First band on the moon.

EB: Feat. Kanye West.

RM: Yeah feed Kanye West Coco Pops.

EB: I said Feat. Kanye West, like us on the moon featuring Kanye West. But yeah I guess feeding Kanye West Coco Pops would be good as well. And then him drinking his milk through a Nesquik straw after.

RM: Also, to have Kim and Kanye to ask us to babysit baby North West.

EB: Ah yeah that would be perfect…

RM: Just for them to have that trust in us.

EB: If we could get on that trust level. I mean we haven’t met them but, if we can get on the trust level…

RM: And if their baby loved us so much that it would forget who its real parents were.

EB: And then we could raise it.

Doesn’t sound too far-fetched, seems perfectly reasonable.

RM: That or play a really big headline show in Birmingham would be really good.

EB: Either or really.

So what is the plan after you finish this tour?

EB: We’re playing Koko on new year, which is weird because we supported Wolf Alice there last year. That feels really weird actually, going there.

RM: We’re going to be getting in and writing some more songs as soon as possible,try and get the next album in a decent shape before summer, just to get it out there quick. Don’t really wanna linger too much. We just kind of want to put a lot of stuff out there, and be that kind of band.

Sounds great. Couple of stupid questions now to finish:

If you could meet anyone who would it be?

[Simultaneously]

RM: Baby North West.

EB: Kanye West.

EB: Perfect, kill two birds with one stone, kill three birds with one stone and put Kim in there.

I don’t even know why I asked that question.

Which band was it that made you want to start a band?

EB: I started playing guitar, this is so cliche, because of Nirvana. My dad used to make me listen to them all the time so I started playing guitar because of that.

CG: Actually mine must be the Libertines.

RM: I think mine was the Libertines as well.

Excellent. Thanks for talking to the little student magazine today.

RM: No problem, thank you!

[Callum Price – @calprice28]

Catch their live review here, and our view on their brand new album here.