As The Superjesus prepare for the 20th anniversary tour for their debut album 'Sumo', charismatic frontwoman Sarah McLeod reflects on what has become an essential piece of '90s Australian rock.
“Before 'Sumo' we had put out [the EP] 'Eight Step Rail', which had done OK,” Sarah says.
“We won an ARIA for it so we were pretty excited and we thought now we're going to do the full-length album, and we spent a lot of money making it. So much money that I remember thinking 'this has to sell or we're f...ed – this is a really expensive album'.
“So we had high hopes that it would do well, and we also put a lot into it. We worked for years on those songs and practiced so much; the amount of practice we did pre-production before going into the studio was ridiculous, we certainly don't do that now – I don't think anyone in their right mind would do that now.”
Released in 1998, 'Sumo' stands out as unique from the rest of their discography for Sarah in terms of how the songs were crafted at the time. “The songwriting itself is a really different way of putting songs together,” she says.
“We thought about it differently back then to how we did with records that were released afterwards. The other records don't sound like that; that particular one was a very special one and different from the rest.”
Sarah goes on to explain that much of the album's sound came out of the chemistry created between her and original guitarist/ songwriter Chris Tennent who shared a creative and personal relationship that could only be described as volatile. “Volatile is spot-on,” Sarah says.
“Chris and I used to date each other, which is the cardinal sin first up, and we did it under the radar for about two years so that nobody knew we were together; not even the guys in the band knew we were together.
“Then that obviously had its problems and it wasn't until we were having problems and breaking up in front of people that people started to say: 'What's with those guys? Why are they beating the sh.t out of each other at rehearsals? What happened?', and it was being on the road, trapped in a van with those sort of emotions [that] was really hard to handle.”
For the upcoming anniversary tour Sarah will be joined by Jason Slack on guitar, Stuart Rudd on bass and recent addition Travis Dragani on drums.
Although it may not be the sweetest of trips down memory lane for Sarah, she's looking forward to a rare second chance of being able to enjoy playing the album in full. “It was actually a really difficult time; touring 'Sumo' was actually a f...ing nightmare when I think back now,” Sarah says.
“I enjoyed the music but the band relations around it were so difficult and so tense that I couldn't really enjoy any of it. So now I'm stoked that I get to go back and play that whole album, and be in a much better headspace with a line-up that gets along well, so that's lucky.”
Click here for full list of The Superjesus tour dates and venues into 2019.
The Superjesus Australia Tour 2018
Sat 29 Sep - The Gov (Adelaide)Fri 5 Oct - Barwon Club (Melbourne)
Sat 6 Oct - Max Watt's (Melbourne)
Wed 10 Oct - Taphouse (Bendigo)
Thu 11 Oct - Beer Deluxe (Albury)
Fri 12 Oct - ANU Bar (Canberra)
Sat 13 Oct - Narrabeen RSL (Sydney)
Fri 19 Oct - Manning Bar (Sydney)
Sat 20 Oct - Tattersall's Penrith
Sun 21 Oct - The Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Thu 25 Oct - Byron Bay Brewery
Fri 26 Oct - Racehorse Hotel (Ipswich)
Sat 27 Oct - The Zoo (Brisbane)
Thu 1 Nov - Prince Of Wales (Bunbury)
Fri 2 Nov - Newport Hotel (Fremantle)
Sat 3 Nov - Capitol (Perth)
Fri 9 Nov - York On Lilydale (Melbourne)
Fri 16 Nov - Dalrymple Hotel (Townsville)
Sat 17 Nov -Tanks Arts Centre (Cairns)
Fri 23 Nov - Sky City (Darwin)
