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When I was 14, I was browsing the website of Arena Rock Recording Co., my favorite label at the time and found an mp3 by Superdrag, a band I’d never heard of. Apparently, I’d missed the fact that they’d had a huge MTV and college radio hit with “Sucked Out,” from their 1996 release Regretfully Yours, which I guess is excusable since I had been 8 when all that happened. Anyway, as these things tend to go, “Lighting The Way,” from their third full-length, In The Valley Of Dying Stars blew my face off and I became a fan. After years of non-activity and solo projects, the original line-up is back and touring and putting out albums and doing all the other good stuff that active bands do and I’m stoked. They play Friday (tonight!) at 9:30 with As Tall As Lions, one of the best bands out there right now. Go to this show. You’ll be a happier person after it. I promise.

Frontman John Davis had all this stuff to say:

BYT: You’ve lurked mostly in the shadows for the last couple of years.
Then, you announced the reunion of the original line-up; now there’s a
huge tour and new record. Why now?

JD: No time like the present, I guess.  We had such a great time playing the 2007 shows, the people who came out were really fired-up about it, and I had probably half a dozen new songs ready for the band to record.  So we just went to work on new music and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

BYT: Was this particular experience recording any different than past ones? After so long, do you guys still have the telekinesis that enables you to read each other and know what the others want without a whole lot of fuss?

JD: The biggest differences had to do with the distances between us geographically, and timing everything to where it would jive with everyone’s schedules.  The actual recording sessions themselves were the least problematic phase.  It was like guerrilla warfare.  We’d grab 2 days of studio time, do as much damage as possible in the least amount of time, then disappear for 2 months.  It’s kind of a maddening way to make an album, but that’s the way we had to do it.  The actual recording took less than 10 days, but they were stretched over about a 9-month period of time.  I’d say we’ve not only still got the telekinesis, but the reception’s alot better without all the alcohol and drugs throwing up so much static.

BYT: “Slow To Anger,” the first song on Industry Giants is a fucking barn-burner the likes of which he haven’t heard in some time from you guys. Would you describe this album more as a return to your old sound, something completely different or an amalgamation of the two?

JD: Thanks, man!  That’s great to hear.  I think the record probably fits both descriptions.  Some of it reminds me of our earlier music.  Some of it pushes the tempos and the energy beyond anything we’d done previously.

BYT: A lot of attention has been paid been paid to your conversion to Christianity. Do you think of that as something that has anything to do with where Superdrag is today or do you like to keep them separate?

JD: Well, if I’m a member of Superdrag, it has to have something to do with where Superdrag is today.  To keep the two things separate would be to withhold from the music the one thing in this world that gives me hope.  I would never do that.  I guess I did have to make a decision at one point in time as to whether or not I would maintain 2 separate “piles” of Rock; the “Superdrag” pile, and some kind of other, “Christian”, “solo” pile.  I chose not to.  I write in exactly the same way that I always have.  I just open my heart up and let whatever’s in it come out, and I try to keep it as pure and uninterrupted as possible.

BYT: You were on Elektra for 1996’s Regretfully Yours, then went to Arena Rock for In The Valley Of Dying Stars and Last Call for Vitriol. What made you decide to go out on your own this time around?

JD: We want to maintain complete control of every aspect of what we do.

BYT:What are your plans for the future of Superdrag? Do you only like to think as far as this current tour and album or are you already brewing up ideas for the next step?
JD: I hope to start work on the next record by the end of the year.

Want more:
http://www.myspace.com/superdragofficial
+
Go go go to da sho.

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