FROM: London, England
HEAR: Superorganism
SEE: Life Is Beautiful
Early last year, a group of unknown musicians hailing primarily from New Zealand decided to leave their homeland for London. During that process, they also ditched their former band name—and even their own names—in order to create a project that wouldn’t be defined by something as simple as genre. A nondescript house in the Hackney neighborhood would serve as their petri dish of creativity, and as the breeding ground for the group now known as Superorganism.
Previously called The Eversons, the Kiwi-based outfit met Orono Noguchi, then a high school student who discovered them randomly through YouTube, at a show in Japan in 2015. They all stayed in touch, bonding over meme culture. By 2017, the group discovered Noguchi’s prowess as a singer and songwriter, and invited her to be a part of their new project in London. She’s now the group’s singer—and an integral part of their forward-thinking image.
With seven of the eight members living together, Superorganism developed their sound by sequestering themselves in their rooms where they cook up the ideas that get chopped into their blend of glossy, swirling indie pop. Despite being under one roof, the band shares song ideas online. Impersonal? Perhaps, but it’s what works best for them.
“Sometimes we’ll all congregate in a specific room [of the house] and do a vocal session or work on some parts together, but for the most part, everyone is in their own room working on their own thing,” says the guitarist/songwriter just known as Harry. “Someone could be doing some remixes and someone else is working on new songs. It’s kind of all about the Internet, really.”
With a group consisting of seven traveling members, one would think that playing live—to say nothing of touring—could be grating. However, Superorganism have figured out how to tour without getting on each other’s nerves. “Some [members] will go see the local sites and others will stay and chill,” Harry says. “It’s not like three people are stuck together at all times.”
More chaotic and spontaneous, Superorganism’s live show strays from traditional instruments, and instead leans on drum machines and samples, which allows them to be more adventurous than a traditional rock band. “Like, we don’t use a drum kit per se,” Harry explains. “It’s a drum kit with a mesh head on it and it has a bunch of triggers on it, which trigger samples. There’s a whole world that you have because of computers to put together something more ambitious that isn’t four dudes playing rock. It’s a big, energetic party.”
As Superorganism hits the road to perform at a number of festivals this summer—including the upcoming Life Is Beautiful—they’re already working on another album. Harry attributes Superorganism’s tireless work ethic to their Kiwi background, and says being “the chillest people in the world” is why they’re able to get along so well.
“The beauty of what we do is that we could go in a direction that’s more influenced by hip-hop or electronic,” Harry says. “It’s a really freeing experience to be producing this, and it’s also quite funny to put it out into the world and see how other people perceive it, because it’s not what we’ve got in our heads.” FL
This article appears in the 2018 FLOOD Festival Guide, presented by SiriusXM and Toyota. You can check out the rest of the magazine here.
