What ever happen to good old, balls out, sexy rock and roll? Why does it always have to be about a genre, a hairstyle, eyeliner and Hollywood gossip? The New Orleans-based rock and roll joint Supagroup have no qualms about being a rock band. After listening to the band's sixth installment entitled Fire for Hire it's obvious that Supagroup have what it takes to make rock cool again. Just about 10 years ago brothers Chris (vocals) and Benji (guitar) Lee started Supagroup simply to try it out. Currently, rounded out by Leif Robinson Swift on bass and Michael Brueggen on drums, the band found themselves surrounded by scantily clad women while filming a part in the recent comedy College and can only hope that success will be the next thing surrounding them as time goes on.
Popular Underground Magazine: You just wrapped up a short tour in Spain; how did that go?
Benji Lee: Oh, it was great. I love Spain. Spain is one of those places where people there are so full on rock and roll. It’s hard to find that in America.
PUM: You and your brother Chris started the band. What really compelled you guys to do this?
Lee: I guess what compels any guy to start a band; to get chicks! All of our heroes were rock and roll bands and we were like why not try it ourselves?
PUM: Is it difficult being in a band with family?
Lee: He’s got his pros and cons, but at the end of the day we’re brothers. Sometimes we fight a lot more than normal band members, but you probably speak up because your brothers.
PUM: Your most recent record is Fire for Hire, which came out in 2007. How has the response been to that?
Lee: It’s weird because the label merged with another label on that release and there were all these new people and everybody didn’t know what was going to happen, [but] everyone was all gung-hoe and then all of a sudden they decided to not be a label. We were like, “Alright, that was a waste of time.” And then our label fought to get the rights back. So that brings us up to date where we got the record back under Foodchain [Records] and they are going to re-release it in August. At the end of the day that just means that we’re going to get the record back out there and we’re going to be touring again.
PUM: I read that Fire for Hire was partially influenced by events transpired after hurricane Katrina. What are some specifics in relation to that?
Lee: Well, the song “Promised Land,” is in retrospective of Katrina. When we were going through that whole thing it was such a blur and so fucked up that you couldn’t really get your head around it. In retrospect what kind of transpired, especially with things like the band [because] we’re like a party time with rock and roll and we’ve been in the band for a while. After Katrina hit, it just hit, which is good for us, but weird for people out there to try and do it, but we did it anyway because that is what we are about. “Promised Land” is kind of about that; persevering and getting through to the other side and making it back to where you started from. There’s another song on there that Chris wrote called “Mourning Day” and that’s kind of our most bummer of a song. For us it’s a weird song just because everybody didn’t make it back or even just relocated to do something so that song is about losing people, which is a stretch for us I guess, but we did it.
PUM: So were you actually directly affected in the hurricane?
Lee: Oh yeah. I was going to stay for it. I was actually bartending at our bar and it’s like Saturday night. Usually, right before a hurricane they have hurricane parties where we just get totally hammered. The whole city is just wasted! Nobody was out! I was like, “This is weird.” The only three people in my bar that night were tourists and they were having a great time. I’m watching this hurricane develop, I think from two in the morning to maybe four, it turned from a [category] two to a [category] five and I was like, “Fuck this, bar’s closed!” I ran home, grabbed my dog and my woman and we were out! This is the best vision of me because I had a hotel downtown and I was going to take my dog, but if I would have gone there I would have been down like everybody else and that would have been horrible. When we came back, my house, the chimney collapsed and broke through the roof. After Katrina, there was another hurricane that came through called Rita and that wasn’t big, but it rained for a week straight. The chimney came through my roof and it just destroyed the top half. I had to start from scratch when I got back.
PUM: I’ve read that Supagroup has had a lot of songs featured in movies and television shows. The band is going to be in an upcoming movie?
Lee: Yeah, we’re in a movie called College. It’s this coming out, dirty movie. When we were shooting it, we were on stage, I’ve got like “Mini Me” standing next to me, there’s like a glass cage with strippers making out over my head. I swear to God, on screen like 95 percent of this movie is all tits and ass. So like an Animal House kind of thing.
PUM: How did you get involved in this?
Lee: It’s really weird. Originally, they were supposed to get Tommy Lee and he couldn’t do it at the last minute and then they got Billy Idol and he couldn’t do it so they called us. I don’t know how! I guess you could have a reputation when movie producers or people who are in the industry come down here and are like, “What’s a good party band down here?”
PUM: Does it have a lot to do with the people down there?
Lee: I think it definitely has something to do with people knowing who we are down here and people coming to our shows. A lot of the people that come to our shows work in film and television. It’s kind of like they have the “Hollywood of the South” moniker going on down here and that’s kind of our craft, like working class, partying idiots. That’s our main target audience, and I’m one of them!
PUM: Getting back to this most recent record; you guys recorded with Trina Shoemaker, how was that?
Lee: It was great. I co-produced that record with her and it was kind of like my first job as being a producer, which is a lot more bullshit than I ever expected. After that record, I was like, “Fuck that, I want to get someone to produce the whole thing.” And then we started working with this guy Kevin Shirley [Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, HIM]. He’s a really down to earth guy. I just wrote him and was like, “Hey man, want to make a record with a shitty rock n’ roll band from New Orleans?” He wrote back and was like, “Sure!”
PUM: What was one thing you learned from him as a producer?
Lee: This is our sixth record so we’ve worked with some pretty good producers. They basically just edit and leave stuff on the floor that doesn’t need to be there. A band writes songs, they’re in their practice phase and they’re getting high and just jamming and it kind of comes together as a song. The producer’s real job is to make it listenable to the average ear. A lot of that has to do with rearranging things. You get a guy that you want to trust and if you do trust him you can go to a new space as a band.
PUM: You don’t typically see just a balls to the wall rock and roll band anymore, you know like a Van Halen. Everything just seems to get niched into metal, hardcore, punk or whatever…
Lee: Yeah, I don’t get it.
PUM: And that’s my question; why do you think that is, when back in the 70’s and 80’s that was huge!
Lee: That’s probably why. It’s probably not cool. If you’re a 13 year old kid, what is cool right now? You’re probably are like, “You know what’s cool is Jay-Z or Linkin Park and Jay-Z! Wow!” I think kids are starting to get tired of the bullshit that these three record companies are trying to push on them. They are starting to do their own thing. There’s a tone of bands out there right now that are like straight up rock and roll and they are straight up rock and roll. I get E-mails everyday on our Myspace that they want to be our friends and they are like, “Yeah, we have our own band.” And I go and check it out and it’s total straight up rock and roll. It’s the easiest band to form. If you four kids; two guitars, a bass and a drummer and you just take that primitive element of rock and roll, chances are the first few things they come up with are going to be Ramones-ey type rock and roll or just simple rock. I don’t know, I don’t get it. I don’t get the whole “new rock,” the hair gel and faux hawk, you know, whatever. I don’t get that. My favorite music is from like ’74 to like ’82 and I can probably name pretty much all of my favorite records from those dates. I don’t know if they just made better records back then, they maybe cared more, the competition was so much more fierce. Not to dis any bands, but it’s all about getting on One Tree Hill or whatever.
PUM: It’s very cookie-cutter now too.
Lee: Also all those [old] bands were live. They had to cut their teeth live, whereas now, it’s like a record company doesn’t want you to be a live band, they want you to be a polished band that can go on Jay Leno.
PUM: And then of course sell two million records in the process.
Lee: Yeah, it’s a trap. The difference between being an artist and being a commercial artist is some commercial artist’s ask, “What do you want from me?” And an artists says, “Here it is.” I hope the tide is turning because this world could sure use some good rock and roll! We just did a tour with a band called Valient Thorr. They look fucking so straight up thrash, like old school, kill ‘em all Metallica, but still like punk rock. That to me is inspiration of what the future could hold. Just bands going out there, getting in the van, driving for six months at a time and just kickin’ it. That’s really rock and roll.
PUM: Would you say that there is anything that continues to surprise you in this industry?
Lee: No, I don’t think it’s surprising. I mean the last 10 years have just been predictable. It’s just gone down hill. I think that all record companies are going to be dead in 10 to 15 years. I think all live music is going down hill, especially with gas being so high. Unless you’re selling out thousand-seaters, what band can afford to even tour right now. The clubs aren’t paying anymore. People are staying at home watching cable. The only surprising thing that I wouldn’t have foreseen is the music scene in every city is just dying.
PUM: I’m just sitting here thinking about the cost of being in a band, going on tour in a van, pulling a trailer…
Lee: I mean even to fill up a regular van right now is about $150 a fill up. Most clubs, even if you draw say 150 – 200 people a night, they’re not going to give you a guarantee of more than $500 or $600. That won’t even get you there. It certainly won’t get you hotel rooms and a meal. I don’t know what people are going to do. I know there’s a new deal out there that record companies are offering where they offer you more money, but they take a piece of everything. They do the merch, they do the live venue sales, they get a percentage of everything. I think with the Internet you can do it on your own. You can get the record made. It’s all the hustle at that point.
PUM: You guys have toured with some pretty big bands in the past. Is there any one band that you can say you’ve really learned a lot from?
Lee: The one guy that has really taught us a lot, not just being a band, but being a professional and an entertainer is Alice Cooper. He’ll open up for bands still. He opens up for that “Heaven and Hell Tour.” He’s just a constant performer, totally on his game, his crew is so tight knit and so well run. They are all like a big family. He’s just like one of the classiest guys in rock. He’ll hang out on opening day before the show. What legend does that? We’ve toured with other bigger named bands where they wouldn’t even meet us. I’ve been on a tour where we did six weeks with a band and I didn’t even meet the singer.
PUM: I read that you opened for Alice Cooper and got a standing ovation.
Lee: His crowd is hardcore too. We were so frightened to go on for those first couple of shows. I think that’s kind of like what we want our respect level to be to. I mean you go out there and the first 10 rows all look like a bunch of Alice Coopers. They all have the makeup on and top hats. They don’t want to see you, they want to see Alice Cooper. You have to work really hard to get them.
PUM: What can people expect at a Supagroup live show?
Lee: Well, we try to play like we’re playing for 10,000 people. That’s what we want. We need to pull out all the stops as much as we can. We don’t have money for a big production. We’re just a loud rock and roll band. If you don’t want to hear loud music, bring some earplugs.
PUM: Name three things you can’t go on tour without.
Lee: Sirius Satellite Radio, my own computer and a nice stash of porn. Because we draw a lot of dudes at our shows, not so much the ladies.
By: Adam K. Zak III - Senior Editor / Founder
