Supersuckers: The 13th Floor Interview

Supersuckers, the self-proclaimed “Greatest Rock & Roll Band In The World” are returning to New Zealand this month, with their first performances here since the 1990s.

Since then, the band has gone through a few lineup changes and leader Eddie Spaghetti battled throat cancer. Yet, they still rock on.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Supersuckers singer and bassist Eddie Spaghetti a few days ago, just after they touched down in Australia. 

Click here to listen to the interview with Eddie Spaghetti:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: Give me an overview of who’s in the band these days, and what you guys are consisting of.

ES: We’re a three piece now, and we have Metal Marty Chandler on the guitar and Chango Von Streicher on the drums.

MD: The three piece seems to be the way to go these days?

ES: Yeah! It’s working out great. Nobody’s complaining about it. Everybody loves it. Marty’s such a good guitar player, it makes it easy to do.

MD: Because you guys have had a few line-ups over the years, and my understanding is that you settled on this one for a while. I was wondering what it is about this combination that seems to click.

ES: I don’t know. These guys are just so cool, and it’s the way the band has always wanted to be. It’s finally a good, real band: it’s a proper gang of dudes, and everybody gets along, everybody plays great and everybody looks cool; so, it’s a good thing.

MD: You’ve been in a rock & roll band for almost thirty years – I guess ’88 was when you guys started out. Is being in a rock & roll band a different proposition, these days, than it was thirty years ago? Rock & roll isn’t exactly the social force – especially in the charts – that it was back then. How has it affected you guys?

ES: It’s a bummer to become this antiquated art form, I suppose, but it still drives us; it still motivates us to do it, for some reason. I don’t know what the point is: it’s not like anybody needs another rock & roll song in their lives, but, apparently, we do; so, we keep on doing it.

MD: Well… that was my follow-up question: what does keep you guys going? You in particular, because you’ve been through some rough patches – you had throat cancer a couple of years ago – and with all the permutations of the band, have you considered throwing in the towel, or is there something that keeps you going?

ES: I’ve never really thought about quitting. I guess it’s the motivation to think there’s still some possibility of some sort of success there for us. I don’t know what could possibly keep us going. It’s just that we don’t really have any other skill sets; so, this is all I can do; there’s no plan ‘B’.

MD: What would you consider as success at this point?

ES: Oh, I don’t know. Having some sort of song break through, in some way, would help us – I don’t think that’s likely – some sort of radio success would be cool. I think that we are successful; it’s just a smaller scale than we’d like it to be, but it’s still successful. The fact that we’ve been around this long is kind of a miracle.

MD: What does your audience consist of these days?

ES: Mostly old dudes.

MD: Like me!

ES: Yeah! It’s unfortunate that we don’t have a lot of kids coming to the shows, but there always a chance.

MD: Does that affect the performance: when you look out there and you see a bunch of bald headed old guys in black T-shirts?

ES: No. As long as their screaming and going crazy, we don’t mind. I appreciate everybody in the audience. They’re what we call ‘the people of impeccable taste’. They’re the ones who have scratched through all the rock & roll crap to get to us: the greatest rock & roll band in the world.

MD: Exactly! Well, you’ve got to get there somewhere!

ES: That’s right.

MD: When was the last time you were in New Zealand? Do you remember?

ES: It was the ‘90s, I believe.

MD: Crikey!

ES: yeah, it’s a long time ago.

MD: Because I’ve been here – I’m an American myself – … since the mid-‘90s, but I couldn’t remember if you’d been here or not. I was pretty sure you had.

ES: It might have been ’95, or something like that.

MD: A lot’s happened, and a lot hasn’t happened since then.

ES: Yeah, exactly.

MD: Your sound – it seems to be two pronged – there’s the punk rock thing happening, and the country thing. I fee] like you balance that out pretty well, but I get the feeling that some people like one over the other. Do you have to think about that? Do you have to gauge the audience, when you’re playing, as to what they want to hear?

ES: Yeah, sometimes it’s an issue, but right now, we’re just doing rock shows, and we’re not worrying about the country stuff too much. I think, after we put out our next record, we might mix it up a little bit more, though.

MD: So, you’re in the process of making a new record, are you?

ES: Yeah, we’re writing new songs, right now, for it.

MD: Anything you can tell me about it, or is it just in the very early stages?

ES: No, it’s going to be kick-ass! There’s going to be some good country songs on it, and some good rock songs on it. It’s going to be a little mixture of both the things that we’re able to do, and it’s the first time that we’ve mixed them together.

MD: Is that more satisfying for you; mixing it up like that?

ES: Yeah! Right now it seems to be. We’re capable of doing both things; so, we might as well just do them both.

Supersuckers:

Wednesday 15th November, Valhalla, Wellington
Thursday 16th November, The Kings Arms, Auckland
Friday 17th November, Totara Street, Tauranga
Saturday 18th November, YOT Club, Raglan