Mac McCaughan - Superchunk (09/08/2013)
Touring as a part of Harvest Presents stellar line-up, we had a chat with Mac McCaughan of Superchunk about their long awaited return to Australia, and their new album, I Hate Music.
Hey Mac, how's it going?
Good, good. How are you going?
Good. You must be excited to be coming back to Australia for Harvest Festival?
Yeah, we're really excited. When I did the math and realised how many years it's been since we've been to Australia it's actually kinda hard to believe (laughs)
When was the last time you guys were out here?
I think it was in '96.
Oh wow, quite a while. Any particular reason why it's been so long?
I don't know, I mean I guess the expense of getting down there has made it hard but throughout the late nineties especially we used to tour the US and Europe then get home and everyone would just want a break (laughs) We really considered it with Majesty Shredding, our last album, but as I said I think the expense was just to great to get down there but I'm excited that Harvest Festival is making it happen.
What are your best Australian tour memories from the nineties?
Well we always had great shows there but I think it was the first time of the three times we came down our tour manager was also the guy who brought us down there and we were staying at his apartment in Sydney I think it was and I just remember having a smoothie on the beach and I just wondered to myself “oh my God, is this what touring Australia is like” (laughs) It was amazing. I remember the last two tours we flew around but the first one we drove everywhere and I remember these really long drives and I think it was one night between Canberra and Melbourne we stopped at this middle of nowhere hotel and our tour manager pulled this portable turntable out of the van and set it up in the hotel room (laughs) There was just this level of fun and differentness about touring there than the US which kinda got to be the same so it was just this different feeling about it to make it really fun.
Superchunk have been a band now for over twenty years, how do you get used to the constant touring, not only on your body but missing home as well?
Well one way was not touring for like eight years there (laughs) That really was the main way we dealt with it. It was the main reason we took a long break between 2002 and 2009 or 2010. We were basically doing the same thing all the time. Like we try and make all our records different but you make a record then go out on tour and it can be kind of a grind. That break made us appreciate things a bit more. I mean we still did a couple of shows each year throughout that break and they were always a great time because we love playing shows but being in a van doing long drives everywhere and being away from home was tough. I mean when we were younger it'd be great to be away on the road, get away from your shitty job, but now I have two kids and Laura (Balance, bassist) has a daughter and Jim (Wilbur, guitarist) is married so it became less appealing to be gone for any length of time. What we decided to do with Majesty Shredding is basically say “look, if we're gonna put out a new album we're gonna be playing shows but we just have to work out a way to structure everything that we do that makes sense to us now. It's no longer 1995” Definitely the worst part of being in a band for me is being away from home, I mean we've all learnt how to be on the road like what we can eat, what our bodies can tolerate; for example in 1994 I wasn't stretching in my hotel room every morning (laughs) I had back surgery a few years ago and I don't wanna do that again so we've definitely had to adjust to having an older body and being smart about it. Being away from my family is really tough but we toured Japan last year and my kids and wife came along so we get some good stuff out of it as a family.
Does your family go on tour with you often?
They generally don't but if we're going somewhere that's super interesting like that then it's a great opportunity. Especially for the kids being able to go somewhere they wouldn't normally be able to travel to. My wife is a chef so being able to go somewhere like that and eat food that we don't really have around here is exciting for her.
Let's move onto the new album I Hate Music. Where did that title come from?
Well it's the first line in one of the songs. I actually made a list of possible album names but once that was on the page it was kinda hard to get away from it because it's funny and stands out. Jon (Wurster, drums) had a concern because it's the name of a (The) Replacements song but I said to him that if anyone is old enough to know that then they're probably fine with it (laughs) I'm happy for it to be a homage if people wanna take it that way. The lyric itself kinda talks about something I talked about on this record and on Majesty Shredding as well about how when music is the centre of your life in high school or whatever to how that changes when you're in your forties or when you have a family or whatever. There's really two sides to that, one meaning is that something I have sometime through being on a record label you're inundated with demoes and this and that and you hear all this generic stuff that sounds the same and you almost think to yourself “ugh, is this what music is? I don't like it” (laughs) The other side is that music doesn't do what it used to do for you which is really just a fleeting feeling because I listen to records all the time and I buy a ton of records, music is still the centre of my life, but yeah sometimes it all sounds the same. That's kind of a long winded answer but that's basically what that's about.
What was the recording process like for the new album?
Much in the same way of us working out how we're gonna tour we had to work out how to make a record that's going to work for us because no one was willing to go camp out at Chicago or Indiana or Los Angeles for a couple of weeks to make a record so we kinda came to a way of working where I would send around demoes and work out which ones we were gonna use and instead of recording the whole album at once we'd record three or four songs on a weekend in a studio. The recordings that we ended up with did retain a bit of spontaneity and energy and we'd record those to tape so I could bring them home to my studio and play with them a bit and then send them off to be mixed. There were three producers we used and basically whoever recorded the songs ended up mixing them for us. It was a really cool way of working because there was no pressure on us and no timetable to stick to, I mean no one even expected us to make another record but that's kinda balanced out by the fact that I'm an impatient person and I wanna hear what the records gonna sound like (laughs) I really enjoyed making the record and I'm glad it's done because until it's done it's basically all I'm thinking about so the fact that it's ready for people to hear is kind of a relief actually.
Do you have a favourite Superchunk album?
There's songs on each one that I'm really proud of but then there's other tracks that I think we could've done a little better. I wouldn't say I have a favourite per se but the last couple are so fresh, like Majesty Shredding came out in 2010 and I'm really proud we put out a record as well as I think that one turned out. Whether taking the break helped or not but we figured out how to focus on our strengths as a band and make a record from that stand point and that really helped. Also not overworking the songs during the recording helped. Oddly enough after twenty years there's a freshness that's really helping how the new records are turning out.
We'll make this the last question. Are there any bands that you haven't toured with that you'd like to?
Wow that's a good question. Not really, I don't think about it like that. It's not really bands we wanna tour with it's more places we wanna go. Certainly getting back to Australia fulfils one of those wishes. I'm really looking forward to doing shows down there especially because Neutral Milk Hotel is on the bill and last time we toured with them was 1998 so that'll be a kind of fun reunion of sorts.
Ok, we'll wrap it up there. Thanks very much for your time.
Thank you.
Matt Barton
Hey Mac, how's it going?
Good, good. How are you going?
Good. You must be excited to be coming back to Australia for Harvest Festival?
Yeah, we're really excited. When I did the math and realised how many years it's been since we've been to Australia it's actually kinda hard to believe (laughs)
When was the last time you guys were out here?
I think it was in '96.
Oh wow, quite a while. Any particular reason why it's been so long?
I don't know, I mean I guess the expense of getting down there has made it hard but throughout the late nineties especially we used to tour the US and Europe then get home and everyone would just want a break (laughs) We really considered it with Majesty Shredding, our last album, but as I said I think the expense was just to great to get down there but I'm excited that Harvest Festival is making it happen.
What are your best Australian tour memories from the nineties?
Well we always had great shows there but I think it was the first time of the three times we came down our tour manager was also the guy who brought us down there and we were staying at his apartment in Sydney I think it was and I just remember having a smoothie on the beach and I just wondered to myself “oh my God, is this what touring Australia is like” (laughs) It was amazing. I remember the last two tours we flew around but the first one we drove everywhere and I remember these really long drives and I think it was one night between Canberra and Melbourne we stopped at this middle of nowhere hotel and our tour manager pulled this portable turntable out of the van and set it up in the hotel room (laughs) There was just this level of fun and differentness about touring there than the US which kinda got to be the same so it was just this different feeling about it to make it really fun.
Superchunk have been a band now for over twenty years, how do you get used to the constant touring, not only on your body but missing home as well?
Well one way was not touring for like eight years there (laughs) That really was the main way we dealt with it. It was the main reason we took a long break between 2002 and 2009 or 2010. We were basically doing the same thing all the time. Like we try and make all our records different but you make a record then go out on tour and it can be kind of a grind. That break made us appreciate things a bit more. I mean we still did a couple of shows each year throughout that break and they were always a great time because we love playing shows but being in a van doing long drives everywhere and being away from home was tough. I mean when we were younger it'd be great to be away on the road, get away from your shitty job, but now I have two kids and Laura (Balance, bassist) has a daughter and Jim (Wilbur, guitarist) is married so it became less appealing to be gone for any length of time. What we decided to do with Majesty Shredding is basically say “look, if we're gonna put out a new album we're gonna be playing shows but we just have to work out a way to structure everything that we do that makes sense to us now. It's no longer 1995” Definitely the worst part of being in a band for me is being away from home, I mean we've all learnt how to be on the road like what we can eat, what our bodies can tolerate; for example in 1994 I wasn't stretching in my hotel room every morning (laughs) I had back surgery a few years ago and I don't wanna do that again so we've definitely had to adjust to having an older body and being smart about it. Being away from my family is really tough but we toured Japan last year and my kids and wife came along so we get some good stuff out of it as a family.
Does your family go on tour with you often?
They generally don't but if we're going somewhere that's super interesting like that then it's a great opportunity. Especially for the kids being able to go somewhere they wouldn't normally be able to travel to. My wife is a chef so being able to go somewhere like that and eat food that we don't really have around here is exciting for her.
Let's move onto the new album I Hate Music. Where did that title come from?
Well it's the first line in one of the songs. I actually made a list of possible album names but once that was on the page it was kinda hard to get away from it because it's funny and stands out. Jon (Wurster, drums) had a concern because it's the name of a (The) Replacements song but I said to him that if anyone is old enough to know that then they're probably fine with it (laughs) I'm happy for it to be a homage if people wanna take it that way. The lyric itself kinda talks about something I talked about on this record and on Majesty Shredding as well about how when music is the centre of your life in high school or whatever to how that changes when you're in your forties or when you have a family or whatever. There's really two sides to that, one meaning is that something I have sometime through being on a record label you're inundated with demoes and this and that and you hear all this generic stuff that sounds the same and you almost think to yourself “ugh, is this what music is? I don't like it” (laughs) The other side is that music doesn't do what it used to do for you which is really just a fleeting feeling because I listen to records all the time and I buy a ton of records, music is still the centre of my life, but yeah sometimes it all sounds the same. That's kind of a long winded answer but that's basically what that's about.
What was the recording process like for the new album?
Much in the same way of us working out how we're gonna tour we had to work out how to make a record that's going to work for us because no one was willing to go camp out at Chicago or Indiana or Los Angeles for a couple of weeks to make a record so we kinda came to a way of working where I would send around demoes and work out which ones we were gonna use and instead of recording the whole album at once we'd record three or four songs on a weekend in a studio. The recordings that we ended up with did retain a bit of spontaneity and energy and we'd record those to tape so I could bring them home to my studio and play with them a bit and then send them off to be mixed. There were three producers we used and basically whoever recorded the songs ended up mixing them for us. It was a really cool way of working because there was no pressure on us and no timetable to stick to, I mean no one even expected us to make another record but that's kinda balanced out by the fact that I'm an impatient person and I wanna hear what the records gonna sound like (laughs) I really enjoyed making the record and I'm glad it's done because until it's done it's basically all I'm thinking about so the fact that it's ready for people to hear is kind of a relief actually.
Do you have a favourite Superchunk album?
There's songs on each one that I'm really proud of but then there's other tracks that I think we could've done a little better. I wouldn't say I have a favourite per se but the last couple are so fresh, like Majesty Shredding came out in 2010 and I'm really proud we put out a record as well as I think that one turned out. Whether taking the break helped or not but we figured out how to focus on our strengths as a band and make a record from that stand point and that really helped. Also not overworking the songs during the recording helped. Oddly enough after twenty years there's a freshness that's really helping how the new records are turning out.
We'll make this the last question. Are there any bands that you haven't toured with that you'd like to?
Wow that's a good question. Not really, I don't think about it like that. It's not really bands we wanna tour with it's more places we wanna go. Certainly getting back to Australia fulfils one of those wishes. I'm really looking forward to doing shows down there especially because Neutral Milk Hotel is on the bill and last time we toured with them was 1998 so that'll be a kind of fun reunion of sorts.
Ok, we'll wrap it up there. Thanks very much for your time.
Thank you.
Matt Barton