Supervillains Representing Florida, Battling Snow and Promoting New Album

Today ska punk band Supervillains released Postcards From Paradise on Law Records.

The band is currently out on tour with Less Than Jake and made a stop last night in Grand Rapids at The Intersection.

Supervillains is comprised of Scott [Skart] Suldo on guitar, Dominic [Dom] Moresco on drums, Daniel [Dan] Grundorf on bass and recently added sax player Natan Anderson.

On Saturday, I got a chance to speak with Suldo regarding the new album, the tour and the weather.

Q: You are out touring now in support of the new album Postcards From Paradise. After this leg will you be touring afterwards?

A: Yeah we'll be out until March 20.

Q: You're currently touring with Less Than Jake. How did that come about?

A: Well we're both from Florida and just decided let's go out and tour.

Q: You've got the "Careless Whisper" cover on the new album. Why did you choose that one?

A: Because...I don't know! We were tooling around with it and when we got into the studio it just sounded good.

Q: Was the recording of the album a collaborative process?

A: Yeah me and Dom and Dan wrote the album over the last year or two.

Q: When you sat down to write the album what sound or concept were you looking to capture?

A: We have a whole lot of different songs and we're all over across the board. We're just trying to crank out stuff that hopefully people will like you know?

Q: Is there a track on the new album that stands out for you?

A: There's a few. The title track definitely. It's the last song on the album and it's just a big sounding track. I think all of the songs have their own personality. I'm really pumped on the whole album. I think it's really good so there's not one that just sticks out for me over any other. I think that all of them can be out there as singles. They're all pretty catchy and fun.

Q: When I listened to it I really felt that each track has it's own different feel. A lot of times when you listen to an album you can't really distinguish between it's songs.

A: Yeah I mean we don't like to write the same songs twice and It's a lot more interesting for us to mix stuff. We never stick to format when we write stuff. I mean we just like write stuff. We've been doing jingles on the bus and doing little 20 second bluegrass riffs and gangsta rap riffs and little reggae jingles. It's funny because it's almost like creative writing where you have a goal like okay you've got 20 seconds, make it sound bluegrass and incorporate these elements into it and have it done by tomorrow. It's like okay I can do this.

Q: You put a lot of different influences into your music. Was there any one in particular that influenced you?

A: Well a lot of old reggae. Oh man, I'm watching where we're pulling out of the parking lot and it's all snowed in. Man, if you could see what I'm seeing right now! Everything's just so messed up. You know we're from Florida so we're not used to this stuff. We'd rather just deal with hurricanes and stuff.

Q: Where are you right now?

A: We're outside of Milwaukee.

Q: We've gotten quite a bit of snow this week too but we're used to it. It's actually been a kind of mellow Winter here compared to everywhere else.

A: Yeah actually during that last blizzard we were driving from Cleveland to Chicago. It was like the worst! We were so surprised that we didn't have anything cancelled.

Q: You guys are playing the Intersection in Grand Rapids on Monday?

A: Yeah we haven't been out to Grand Rapids so hopefully it'll be a good time. We're excited!

Q: How has the tour been going so far?

A: The tour's been great. It's been a lot of fun. Less Than Jake is funny as hell. We have a really good spot because you know we have the direct support slot right in front of them so we usually get a huge ass crowd every night. A lot of kids are coming out wanting to hear stuff off of the new album so it's pretty cool.

Q: Because of your diverseness do you see that in your crowds too?

A: Oh totally you know and that's kind of the beauty of our band. We've been cross booked with so many different acts. We went out with Pennywise, The Wailers, English Beat, and Fishbone. We heard that Less Than Jake went out with Bon Jovi and I was like man that would be right up our alley! It's so funny to say that but our crowd that comes out is just a very mixed up crowd and it makes it a lot of fun.

Q: You've been getting a positive reaction to the new music?

A: Oh yeah, totally. With the album coming out in three days hopefully we're raising awareness.

Q: Are you performing a lot of the new songs?

A: We don't have that long of a set. Usually when we headline we do like a hour and fifteen minutes or so but here we've only got like a half hour so we're only doing 2 or 3 of the new songs and the rest is the more well known stuff.

Q: How long have you been on Law Records?

A: We've been on Law Records since right around 2006. We've known those guys [Pepper] for about 10 or 11 years and they started blowing up about five, six years ago and we were like man you guys got tour buses and all this stuff and they were like let's show you how to do it. They took us under their wing and showed us the finer points.

Q: You said you're enjoying touring with Less Than Jake but is there someone else you really would like to tour with?

A: Well when we're done with this tour we're gonna be in California and we're going to be doing some acoustic shows with Pepper for like four nights and then we're headlining out at South By Southwest. You know honestly we have toured with pretty much everyone that has really influenced us or at least the bigger names that are still touring. We did like Wailers last year, English Beat and Reel Big Fish. We've had some pretty cool tours over the last few years. We've been lucky. You know Slightly Stoopid, Fishbone and Inner Circle; we're just trying to stay out there. We get homesick and lonely for a bit and head back home but right when you start getting your feet back on the ground it's time to head back out.

Q: You have a new sax player out with you.

A: Yeah Nathan Anderson who is from a Florida band called Junkie Rush. It's just all-star musicians and a murderer on the sax band. You know kids have been coming out and they've been really impressed which they should be because he has been f**king awesome!

Q: So your setlist is a mix of new and old?

A: Yeah and you know going out with Less Than Jake you have the urge to speed everything up to keep the blood pumping which we did on the first couple of nights. You know after a couple of nights it's like they're a ska punk band; they are that element for the show and we're not going to go out there and try to outpunk the band. We just said there's not a lot of reggae in this tour so we've been playing a lot of old reggae and stuff and man it's been going great. It's a lot more fun to just go out there and be ourselves. At this stage in our career it's just easier for us to do that.

Q: Did you have a producer on the new album?

A: Yeah we worked with Brett Hestla who produced Framing Hanley's "Lollipop". He was the bass player for Creed. He's a local guy for Orlando so it's really awesome because we don't have to go nowhere. We can go in the studio for 12 or 14 hours and just drive home and clear our heads and head back the next day with fresh ears. It's pretty cool. Brett's a really talented dude; a super, super talented guy! He has a really good ear for commercial music which I think on this record is a little bit different. Everything is so straight to the point which he really tried to bang into our heads. It was like there's no time to mess around. It's awesome when I look at the cd as a whole 48 minutes because man that's a long 48 minutes because there's so much going on like if there's a solo it's a huge solo. A lot of the songs are a lot more personal than they've been in the past. We've had a lot to write about in the last three years.

Q: You mentioned that Brett is based in Florida. Do you think that having those local connections is important?

A: Florida's a family. There's so much you can relate to if you're a Floridian that noone else can understand. For instance the snow up here. It's like you see it on tv but it doesn't register to us. Right now on tour it's like 80 degrees in Orlando and then suddenly you're here and it's like whoa it's snowing...this is actually happening in America. It's just such a change of pace for us. We are all native Floridians so we really try to capitalize on that and we have a lot of pride in that. So does Less Than Jake after touring with them for a couple of weeks. We really get along well. It's crazy that we're actually touring with a band from Florida. We're one quarter of the United States. Just one little sliver and we're like taking everything national. The shows so far have been big. It's awesome.

Q: Has one date stood out?

A: Jersey was awesome. Philly was awesome. Last night in Des Moines, Iowa believe it or not was just out of control.

Q: For people that are thinking of coming out to the shows, why should they?

A: To have a good time. From what I understand up there in Michigan and out in the Midwest it's been really cold so what better thing to do then come out and see a Supervillains show and dance around and have a good time.