The Superjesus National Tour Starts Tonight…

Tonight’s the night! The Superjesus kick off their national tour tonight at The Crowbar in Sydney celebrating the release of their new self-titled album. Their new self-titled record, their first full album in twenty years is packed with killer singles from the last twelve to eighteen months, latest single and airplay hit Diamonds, Money (We’re Only In It For Love), Lights Out, We Won’t Let Go Until It’s Over, Something Good and a cover of Generation X’s Dancing With Myself. After thirty years of crafting their sound, the songwriting partnership of Sarah McLeod and Stuart Rudd has truly found its sweet spot. Stuart Rudd talks to Hi Fi Way about the album and tour.

Tour starts today, you must be exited.
Yeah, just finishing rehearsals which were really good, just fine-tuning some of the new stuff.

Things are really looking up. It almost feels like it’s the year of The Superjesus.
Oh, man, we’ve worked our asses off, to be honest with you. We’ve been working hard to get it out there.

Have you been blown away by the response to the album so far?
Yeah, there’s been a lot of support out there for the band, which is great. We started releasing a couple of songs from the album maybe two years ago or a year and a half ago. Then we just kept releasing a clip or a new song ever since. It just seems to have been building ever since.

Even getting requests for the album to be pressed on CDs is impressive as well.
For sure. There’s a lot of people, maybe it’s a demographic thing who still have CD players in the car, but it’s all good.

With this particular album, did you approach it any differently than the last time you recorded an album?
Yeah, this time, it was more about Sarah and I sitting down and asking, “Where are we going with this?” Do we do an EP? Do we release a song? We went back and forth for a while. I said, “If we’re going to do an EP, we may as well do a full album.” So, okay, what do we do? Record from home? We’ve all got devices to record at home. But then we thought, why don’t we do it old school? Why not go into a studio, like we used to, and record the album properly? So that’s what we did. We went back to playing the songs in a room together, then taking it from there, tracking everything as a band, with everyone sitting around. I think that helped the vibe of the album.

The line-up is still relatively new. Did that help in terms of creating and building the band dynamic?
Yeah, that’s right. It’s exciting to create music and be involved like that. It’s quite a team-building experience. It worked really well.

What I thought about the album was that it had a really mature and cohesive sound from start to finish.
It felt polished, it’s a really good album, start to finish.
Thanks, man. We figured we’ve been down the Sumo track, we’ve been down Jet Age, and all the rest.
So it was time to push ourselves a little further. To be honest, if there’s anyone holding onto the old-school ways, it’s me. Sarah, though, she’s great at pushing forward. She’s not afraid to take risks.
Between the two of us, we found a balance. It worked out pretty well.

That stands out in the songs. Sarah really stepped out of her comfort zone and taken the band to another level.
Yeah. It’s all about challenging each other in different ways. We made a note to ourselves early on, this album was going to push us, friendship-wise, band-wise, in every way. But that’s a good thing. It should push you to the point where you’re discussing, even arguing, about songs. That’s part of what makes the magic happen.

Was the vision for what you wanted to achieve with the album clear from the outset in terms of where you wanted to take it?
Yeah, it was. We felt like we wanted to do a bit more. The Superjesus has its own sound, and we’re happy with that, but it was more about pushing forward sonically, especially with the guitars. We thought about what we wanted to do and decided to go for a different sound, cleaner, a bit more sophisticated, while still keeping our energy.

I like the light and shade, the contrast between the ballad-like songs and the big rock bangers.
Yeah, we wanted to make sure it was balanced. We might have three or four rock bangers, but you have to choose one. You work on them all, and eventually, one stands out with its own personality. That’s how it happened. We had about thirty songs, and Sarah had roughly the same. She also had some older songs that she hadn’t expected we would work on together, maybe the timing wasn’t right before, but now it felt right.

What was the energy like being in the room together while making the album and seeing the songs starting taking shape?
Yeah, it was really good. Our demos are always strong, we throw everything in and then narrow it down to what stands out. It was incredibly exciting to hear the songs being recorded. We did it old school with a Neve recording desk, combining fresh ideas with a classic approach. By today’s standards, it’s an old way of recording, but it felt fantastic.

Were there a few challenges and curve balls along the way?
Yeah, always. Budgets were an issue, no record companies behind us anymore, so we had to figure out how to afford it. We needed to get on the road and play more shows. Personnel changes happened too, but by the time we started recording, the lineup was solid. We overcame whatever we had to.

Is it too early to have favorites?
No, I don’t think so. Starlight is one of my favorites, it’s the opening track on the album. I think Diamonds is a great song, there are a few, but that tends to change.

Was Dancing with Myself too good to leave off the album?
Exactly, we’ve been doing cover songs ever since we started, sometimes towards the end of a show, just for fun. We played Dancing with Myself live and thought, “Why don’t we record it?” We got a few people from around the country involved, sending in clips of themselves dancing and made a fun, low-budget video. It just sounded great, so we thought, “Why not put it on the album?” It really encapsulates where we are right now. It was a no-brainer.

What was your reaction the first time you played the final version from start to end?
Oh, dude! I was like, “Oh my God!” I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe how great it sounded. Keeping in mind, all these demos have been sitting on my computer, and I’m not the best guitar player in the world. Hearing it all come together was fantastic. It sounded cohesive, with the light and shade throughout the album, it just felt right. Sarah and I spent about two months fine-tuning the track listing. We went back and forth, making sure everything played in the right order. Nothing was left unturned, we went over everything with a fine-tooth comb.

Are you planning to play it start to end on this upcoming tour?
Yes, we are. We’re playing the whole album. People will know some of the singles that came out earlier, Money, Lights Out, Diamonds, We Won’t Let Go Till It’s Over. Then there are another four or five songs from the album we’ll be playing, along with some older tracks we haven’t played in a while. It’s been fun to revisit those, mix them in, and bring them back to life. The old and the new songs seem to blend together really well. It feels good, it’s a solid mix. You can tell it’s the band. We’re not stepping too far outside of what people expect, but we’re still pushing things forward. The album has a bit of everything, and we’re really happy with it.

Do you think this album might give you another opportunity to take a shot overseas?
Yeah, we’re heading to New Zealand on this tour. We’ve got about five shows over there. Then we come back. In 2019, we were in Brazil,2020, Brazil again. So we’ll see, maybe we’ll get overseas with this album too. We hope to. We’ll be touring through July, then heading to New Zealand. After that, I’ll be back. August, we’ve got some dates, but we’re mostly taking the month off. Then we’re back in September finishing up with Tasmania, and maybe a few more shows and then onto festivals.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Superjesus on the following dates, tickets HERE…