Interview with Soul from Superorganism

Fiona, co-host of Moonstruck on CJLO 1690 AM, recently met with Superorganism member Soul, discussing songwriting, growing success, and more, only a few weeks after the release of their self-titled full-length album.

Since you’re one of the band members that doesn’t really live with the rest of the members in London, how do you find the creative process to work? When writing your songs and what not?

Sure. Sure. I mean, the creative process has always remained the same, because the band started when I was in Australia, like miles away. Different countries. […] So, I’d get the files in the email and then just bring them up; do my parts and send them back, and yeah. So, that’s remained pretty much the same even when I moved back to, well not back to, [but] when I moved to London. And, actually the album was done by then but, we were still doing stuff afterwards. I’d go to the house and it would be more involved in a hands-on way. […] It makes it a bit easier when you are in the same country, but it wasn’t too much of a burden living in a different country as well.

Are there any challenges that occur when working with six bandmates?

With this album, I feel like we’re a lot more on the same wave length. So, there [weren’t] too many disagreements, miraculously. I mean, I agree; sometimes you’d think it would be difficult with all the egos and whatnot involved. But everyone was really on the same wave length, you didn’t really need to. There wasn’t too much clashing of ideas, ‘cause ever since Something for your M.I.N.D came out, that was the first creation. With all the popularity that song got, we were kind of riding some kind of high or something. It was an energy to the project, so we just kind of rode all the way to the end and it gave us a good body to work up to, not too much stress and quarrels.

On your website, I noticed you had a video game that doubles as a music video. How did you guys come up with that idea?

I believe, it was just a video game developer [who] came across our music video. Something for you M.I.N.D has a game vibe to it. So the video game developer emailed us and said “Hey, we’d like to make a game for you guys,” and we [were] just really excited about that whole idea of that; so we just green lit it and that’s kind of how easy it was. Some dude just wanted to do it, we didn’t really need to try. But, it turned out great.

What was it like working on the album?

It definitely something, that whole process of creation, especially with good friends, it’s such a special process for everyone involved. For me personally, it's what you do it for, isn’t it.  So we got into music, we wanted to make music first by [ourselves], but when you come together with other people, it makes it all worthwhile. All the sacrifices that we’ve made, trying to do music all the way through. I personally find it a special moment in our lives, it’s just friends inspiring each other to make great music and art. There’s nothing more to it really.

How would you define your style? To me, it’s sort of like psychedelic pop.

Yeah, I mean, I think you hit on the nail. I would probably describe it in a similar way, like psychedelic pop. Harry said that it’s kind of like eccentric pop, but it’s taking all the eccentricities of pop music that we found interesting throughout the ages and we have access [to]. Then, [it’s] kind of a mix-and-match, collage the different sounds. I mean, what’s important to us is that the songwriting is on point, and it’s able to capture your attention with the catchiness and the understanding of harmony and rhythm, and utilizing samples and its ear-catching sounds to kind of capture attention. Having to [play] a bit with the songwriting and the idea of putting it aside, to give it that sort of eccentricities that I’m talking. I feel that it gives the essence and attention to detail and everything that is in the songwriting that is usual and standard and seeing how far we take it.

How do you guys feel about being number 4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart?

That all is really awesome because it just means that we continue to do what we’re doing and that’s the goal. I mean, it’s very important and it’s not like a goal we set out for. Deep down inside, all we want to do is be able to stay in this and be able to do it more often, and reach more people. Make better music. So, the charts is the recognition that we can do that. We’re all stoked about all that. Any sort of charts, we’re all like very happy. So it’s all good for us. It’s difficult to do anything that can chart us, that moves a lot of people. We find it amazing that these small successes are coming our way. It’s very surprising and humbling.

I noticed on your Facebook that you guys are welcoming new members, is this true?

The band’s already quite big, but it’s expanding in different ways. Like there’s crew and whatnot, and I did sort of mention to a fan yesterday that we’ll be holding auditions at some point in the future. So have a look out for that. I mean, you never know. With every new project we take, it’s definitely our chance to expand the project. For example, we did a Spotify project where Spotify put on a gig where they invited the top listeners of Spotify to a venue, so like 150 people, and all these people who were involved were creating this venue to look like the inside of a whale. With all this hard work going on for the show, in that moment, we had like 10, 15,  20 extra staff all helping to create this unique environment all for the Superorganism. I feel like even in those little ways everything we do is expanded […]. It’s quite a little bit of work to do this whole project.

Your role in the band is backing vocals and background dancer, what sort of vibe do you want to set for audience and fans?

I think it’s my job to interpret the music in a funny way, of increasing the vibes, I suppose. I have a joke, where my job title is Vibe Master 3000. It was unknown at the start of the journey, we didn't really know how it would go down having three backing singers and dancers. [During] the initial rehearsals, we got a lot of good feedback saying we had the songs, the sounds and the visuals and then the three backing singings brought this unique dynamic of increasing the vibes and it just sort of adds to it all. We’ve just kind of been going and experimenting every time we play and to get better. With more shows under our belt, we’ve come to understand that we do provide a unique dynamic to the show and to me its exciting as a performer to use your body and voice and movement to create a space that makes people feel elated and positive. I feel like an important role to come around and make people feel good for an hour or so. And hopefully make them feel like, I don't know, coming out and feeling like they want to do something good.