Some time ago I got surprised by the two CDs of Superchrist I heard. Was it Motörhead or was it actually a goddamn great rock and roll band in the same vein. It was actually Superchrist, I’m still spinning the CDs every now and then. This – the fact of a great few CDs – the new upcoming live CD and the vinyl coming up through Autopsy Kitchen Records and a lot more were the subjects for a chat between me and both Hank Bitchlover and Chris Black. A funny read…
Hey Chris, how are you these days? Are you already drunk on cheap beer like you told me?
Chris: Yeah, usually! It works for me. If I pass out before the end of the interview, it’s your fault.
Hank: Or maybe Holland’s liberal social norms are to blame.
First some introduction questions, Superchrist started out of a band called Julie Was Right, as far as I’m concerned, what happened with this band?
Chris: Julie Was Right was a kind of hard rock party band that was active from 1998 until 2000. Imagine Twisted Sister meets Motörhead. I was playing drums under the name Johnny Thunderpants and doing most of the songwriting. The band broke up finally in 2000 after a lot of lineup changes, mental health problems, drug abuse, prison terms, and other consequences of excess. We broke up on stage, actually, under police orders during the bridge of “Brown Eye Sees All”. That was the end of that.
When I moved to Chicago and formed Superchrist, we started with a lot of the songs I had written for Julie Was Right. Some of the songs of that era (“Make You Famous”, “Brown Eye Sees All”, etc.) are still fan favorites. Actually the first recording of Superchrist (the We Kill demo from February 2000) is me on drums and vocals, Julie Was Right bassist doublebee, and a session guitarist named Clark Kent. So there’s definitely a creative overlap between the two phases. But I’m the only one in the band who can really feel it.
You are also active in another band called Pharaoh, together with Control Denied singer Tim Aymar. How did you get involved in this band? And, is it still ok to combine both bands?
Chris: I started Pharaoh in 1997 as a studio project to play classic heavy metal. It’s no problem to do both bands, since Pharaoh only works sporadically and doesn’t really take up a lot of time.
Pharaoh is a totally different band and you handle the drums there instead of the vocals and bass like you do in Superchrist. Are you a multi-instrumentalist and what is the main difference of song writing?
Chris: Well, the songwriting is the same, because I write everything essentially for guitar and vocals. But the line between the bands is pretty clear, as you said “totally different.” I only work on Pharaoh material from time to time, and I work on Superchrist constantly. Also, my songwriting role in Pharaoh is only about 3 or 4 tracks per album, whereas I write about 80% of Superchrist’s music and all of the lyrics. I guess I’m a multi-instrumentalist, but I think of myself as more of a songwriter/composer than a performer.
Are the other two members active in other bands as well?
Chris: Whorepuncher has done a lot of recordings under his real name, Wargoat Obscurum. He is in Cult of Daath but he also does session work for Krieg and Nachtmystium. He’s quite a good guitarist as well. Hank is in Metallica of course and also three Norwegian black metal acts.
Hank: Actually, I’m not in Metallica, people just say that because my brother dated Kirk Hammett a few times.
Superchrist is a rather productive band, considering the amount of demos and self-produced CDs in the past few years. Are you an inspiration-bomb, do you like the raw sound and don’t need to compose for months on one song or what could be the reason?
Chris: All of the above. The boundaries for Superchrist are pretty clear, and rather than restricting us, they liberate us, and we can work quickly. Not every band that has a formula is good, but every good band has a formula. Plus, we don’t have a label to work against, and our studio costs are practically nothing. We’re not exactly touring six months a year, so for now one album per year is not a difficult schedule.
What are they overall reaction on both your CDs and live shows? You read mine and you know I like them quite a lot?
Chris: Yeah, it’s definitely flattering and somewhat surprising to see all the good response to Superchrist so far. We’ve never gotten a bad review, unfortunately, because I would love to use it on some flyers or something.
Hank: There was something negative written about Superchrist on the wall of the bathroom in a shithole bar we played, but we know who wrote it, and the guy is just pissed off because a certain bandmember screwed his sister and took pictures.
Chris: The good thing about our music is that it appeals to metal fans, punks, indie rockers, classic rockers, and just ordinary guys and girls. This makes it kind of hard to streamline the “marketing” of our music, but in the long run it’s the best possible situation for us. Something I have really admired about Motörhead, and it’s getting stronger year by year, is that band’s ability to unite all walks of rock and roll life at its concerts. It’s not something we necessarily strive for, but it’s satisfying to notice it starting to happen for us.
I can’t really imagine somebody into this kind of music not liking any of the two Superchrist CDs I heard/reviewed. I said in my review on ‘Back & Black’ that I found it pretty strange that no label was interested in releasing it. Some days later I got a message that ‘Back & Black’ will get released on vinyl. How did you get in contact with Autopsy Kitchen Records?
Chris: They are releasing the CD Demise by Nachtmystium, which I produced and on which Whorepuncher (Wargoat) plays drums. But I have known the owner for a long time in the US metal underground, as we both have plenty of history with fanzines and other such projects. He heard Back & Black and immediately put his Neil Young CDs into the oven.
This would be your first official label-release, what do you expect from it? And how will this vinyl release look like? Will it contain anything new except for the tracks of the CD?
Chris: I don’t know yet about the artwork. It’s behind a couple of other releases that Autopsy Kitchen has scheduled, including a vinyl edition of the highly underrated Abscess album Seminal Vampires and Maggotmen. But the label takes its packaging very seriously, so I’m sure the release will look cool. Maybe there will also be a bonus track or something, but only if the label demands it.
The last CD I heard was ‘South Of Hell’ (based on a certain Slayer LP, perhaps?) it was pretty plain to hear that you made a real progression. It sounds catchier and has even more that great Motörhead-ish rock and roll feeling to it. An explanation?
Chris: We’re just getting better at what we do, which is write songs and record them. It’s true that we spent a lot longer on South of Hell than Back & Black, not because we wanted to but because it was necessary. I had to record the bass three times, and getting those thrilling guitar solos together is more a question of hard fucking work than any sudden gusts of inspiration. There are five vocal tracks in a lot of places, and I think I mixed it four times. Of course having more live experience was also helpful in sharpening our sound. Whorepuncher hadn’t played any shows with us before recording Back & Black. I’m not sure about having more Motörhead feeling though. I thought it was more toward the Turbonegro side this time around, but either way is ok with me!
Is there already news for releasing this on old-fashioned vinyl as well? If Autopsy Kitchen Records liked ‘Back & Black’ they must like this one equally or perhaps even more?
Chris: I hope so, but nothing is decided yet. I doubt Superchrist will ever sign to one label. We will simply keep the rights to the recordings and license them to the best possible labels on a per-release basis. At least, that’s the plan. But sure, I think South of Hell deserves a proper vinyl release.
The next CD will be a live registration called Heavy Metal Tonight. I can imagine a Superchrist live show, but how do you describe such a live assault? And is Superchrist playing a lot live shows, it sounds like the ultimate live band?
Chris: We’ve played some great shows, for sure. A successful gig depends on so many things, and some are not in the band’s control. We don’t really get a choice for the other bands, the sound man, etc. So you just have to hope for the best and do your thing no matter what.
Hank: Superchrist IS a live band. The energy of the songs jumps off the stage even more than off your stereo.
Chris: Superchrist live is a sweaty metal beast. You’ll be able to hear this plainly on Heavy Metal Tonight. We hired an old friend to play drums for the gig, and it worked out great. Hank was positively on fire that night. I was also very happy with my vocals so we didn’t have to do any overdubs at all.
You’re playing quite a lot covers on your CDs (at least on the ones I have/heard) is this some sort of an homage to your heroes or just to have a great time playing the best songs from Metallic history?
Chris: We try to do cover songs that will fit with their context. For example, “Running Free” is a great album opener for South of Hell because it sets the mood for the rest of the CD. And when we played with Metalucifer (June 2003) we excited the crowd with tracks from Saxon, Bathory, and Venom. But when we play with punk bands we might do things like Misfits or Turbonegro. So the cover songs are our way of being prepared to surprise and satisfy the audience. And we do. Actually on Heavy Metal Tonight there aren’t any, because we had a limited set time and we had to be sure we did all of the Superchrist “hits”.
Could you share some smooth stories or experiences of grotesque idiocy with us? There must be plenty!
Chris: Like the time Hank was heckling all the other acts and got us banned from (yet another) club? Or the time the original Julie Was Right vocalist was having chocolate sauce licked off his ass by a fan two nights in a row? Or when Whorepuncher got robbed by a guy in a wheelchair? How about when I got one promoter to pay up by telling him we were from New York and needed gas money to get home? Maybe you’d like to hear about the guy in the Godsmack shirt who was headbanging so hard he fell over and puked? Nah, that last one is boring.
