Upon entering, the common room of Supermoon’s East Vancouver jam space carries the aroma of stale beer and chips. It’s a scent familiar to many Vancouver bands’ private digs; a veritable eau de musician consistent across the city.
In Supermoon’s private lockout, however, the room is surprisingly stale beer smell-free.
“We do our due diligence and take our cans out,” says guitarist Katie Gravestock, unpacking five cans of P49’s Craft Lager and cracking them open for her bandmates.
Gravestock is joined by drummer Selina Crammond, bassist Adrienne LaBelle, and guitarist Alie Lynch.
The four-piece pop outfit seems to defy the Vancouver musician stereotype: they’re uncharacteristically clean, they boast no defined band leader, and their musical content is purposely enigmatic.
“I think we like the contrast in general. I always like stuff that’s a little bit beguiling in a way,” Lynch admits, noting that the band’s poppy chord arrangements don’t necessarily line up with its lyrical content.
Take for example the airy but melodic “Witching Hour” on the band’s upcoming sophomore record, Playland.
“His face went dark in the sun / He said the Witching Hour would come,” is sung out against major key progressions.
Produced by Tom Prilesky (known to some as Spirit Vegetable), Playland is set to be released by Mint Records on May 20. The album is an eight-track, double 7-inch vinyl.
“You get sucked into one thing and when you’re listening to it you’re like ‘Oh, where’s this sentiment coming from?’” Lynch says.
In contrast to the band’s debut Comet Lovejoy, released on cassette via Alarum, Supermoon attests that its upcoming release will feature “moodier” pop.
“It’s poppy feeling but with some darker lyrics. The music is a little more dark than usual but it’s still pretty poppy [on Playland],” adds LaBelle.
“When we first starting writing these new songs, we were like, ‘Wow, they’re so different.’ Now it’s just a slightly darker tone,” says Crammond.
“I think I always write darker lyrics,” Lynch interjects. “I don’t think I’ve ever written a song that’s like, ‘Oh, I’m in love and things are going well.’”
As far as songwriting duties go, the girls equally contribute their chops and efforts – and each member sings the songs they’ve penned. Luckily for them, each girl’s approach fits with the band’s primary ethos.
“I think there’s a lot of overlap with our general approach to the world: political perspectives and humour,” Crammond says.
“And cynicism!” Lynch cuts in.
“Sass and cynicism is the overarching theme,” Gravestock says, with a laugh.
Inevitably, another important matter to the ladies of Supermoon is championing feminism.
“We’re just huge advocates of women playing music,” says Lynch.
“I find songwriting collaboratively way easier [with women],” adds La Belle. “Things like switching instruments; I’ve never played guitar in a band but never felt scared to play wrong, sometimes in those songs I’m playing chords that aren’t a chord. I’ve had guys see me play a chord wrong and come up to me and say ‘Do you want me to teach you how to play a basic bar chord?’ and I’m like, ‘No, if I wanted to learn I would consult the 12-year-olds on YouTube.’ It works for me.”
And so it seems to.
Though the band is hardly two years old, Supermoon has been invited to play Calgary’s Sled Island, Music Waste Festival, a few Mint Records parties, and will be touring across Canada as well as to California this summer. That’s not to mention they’ve scored cover stories in local magazines, showed up in the pages of SPIN, Vice’s Noisey, and snagged a coveted spot on Consequence of Sound’s playlist of the week.
“It was a big deal for us to get invited to Sled Island when we had just formed, and then suddenly we were on the cover of Megaphone, which was a huge deal to me because I love street papers,” says LaBelle. “One day, the four of us were walking down the street around Main and Hastings and someone stopped us and said ‘Hey! You girls are on the cover of the magazine!’ and that was awesome.”
“The SPIN thing is really cool in a different way,” Crammond acknowledges. “It’s validating for my hometown, for my siblings or my high school nemesis to see.”
What else might be validating for the femme-fatale quartet in the near future?
“I’m excited to go across Canada especially as an all-woman band. In smaller towns, especially in the Prairies, they’re not necessarily used to seeing that.”
Small town dwellers may be surprised this summer when they find out the only difference between Supermoon and any other killer fuzz-pop outfit is that they smell a whole lot better. That is, if their jam space lockout is any indication.
• Supermoon performs their Playland album release party May 19 at the Cobalt.
ED. NOTE: An earlier version of this article listed the LP as having only six tracks. This has been corrected.
