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Article published Mar 12, 2009 STANDING TALL: Superdrag releases stellar new 'Industry Giants' with a hometown show
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
There was a time when Superdrag frontman John Davis couldn't have imagined a future without drugs, much less one as a teetotaling Christian who gives thanks to God on a daily basis for his blessings and his continued ability to rock.
Time, however, has a funny way of changing one's perspective. It bends and breaks and then heals and mends. It scatters and reunites, and it makes the bond between old friends stronger than ever.
With the benefit of hindsight, the good fortune of individual success and a love of rock 'n' roll ferocity that's unfettered by fan expectations, label restrictions or petty personal bickering, Superdrag is back. Time seems to have blessed the power-pop four-piece, which recently ranked at No. 2 in Metro Pulse's list of the Best Knoxville Bands Ever, and Davis would agree.
But, he told The Daily Times this week, the credit belongs to a Higher Power -- and while Superdrag's new music is in no way related to Christian rock in any shape or form, Davis doesn't shy away from personally labeling himself a Christian, and he doesn't hold back when he talks about his band's return to the spotlight.
"God is a redeeming God, and He promised to restore what the locusts have eaten," he said during a recent phone interview while navigating Nashville traffic on his way to a chiropractor's appointment. "In His own time and His own way, he just has a way of reconciling people and restoring broken things. One cool thing about being a band again and doing Superdrag again and making a new record -- all of those things have value of their own, but it's been really cool in the way that it's kind of restored our relationships.
"It was never really particularly acrimonious or bitter in the way we ended things; in fact, it was hard to put the whole thing on ice. But as individuals, there was kind of a whole process of discovering that we had an identity apart from being a member of a group like Superdrag."
Superdrag's story is the stuff of local rock 'n' roll lore -- Davis's cousin introduced him to her boyfriend -- Brandon Fisher, the guy who would become Superdrag's guitarist. With Tom Pappas, Superdrag's bass player, on board, the band started out as The Used. Davis was playing drums, but Davis, Fisher and Pappas decided to start a side project, they recruited friend Don Coffey Jr. to get behind the kit, and Davis took over as front man. Superdrag was born.
After a couple of vinyl singles and a song on a College Music Journal compilation, the band recorded an EP, "The Fabulous 8 Track Sounds of Superdrag," in 1995. The band's first full-length, "Regretfully Yours," was released on Elektra Records the next year, and the first single, "Sucked Out," quickly became an MTV "Buzzbin" staple. The album's second single, "Destination Ursa Major," set the band up for a promising second album, one that Elektra expected to be more radio-friendly.
Superdrag, however, had other ideas. Full of unusual instrumentation, the foursome made "Head Trip in Every Key" what most fans consider their masterpiece. Elektra didn't think so, however, and soon cut off the money train. The band was dropped while recording its third full-length ("In the Valley of Dying Stars"), and shortly thereafter Pappas quit the band to move to Nashville. New bass player Sam Powers came on board, but before "Dying Stars" could be released, Fisher left the group as well. Former V-Roy Mic Harrison was brought in as guitarist, and although the band had one more album under its belt -- "Last Call for Vitriol," released in 2002 -- Davis and Coffey, the remaining original members, were already looking at life beyond the band.
Davis, in particular, was keen on integrating his faith into his music -- in 2001, after a long battle with alcohol, he turned his life over to God and began focusing on a solo career. His sobriety, he said, is one of his most cherished possessions -- it ranks right up there with his family and his relationship with God, and he credits it with a new set of eyes through which he approached a Superdrag reunion back in 2007.
"It's hard for me to think of making 'Head Trip' without thinking about drugs -- it's just kind of saturated with it," Davis said. "The whole period of time, the writing process, the recording process; obviously it's very drug-influenced. Frankly, though, I don't think our recreational habits interfered -- it was so much a part of life that it never really slowed us down or caused our work to suffer.
"I do think it's a myth, though, that drugs foster creativity. There's research to support that psychedelic drugs access unused portions of the brain, but those portions are still there -- it's not like the drugs are creating them out of thin air. For me, this past November was my seven-year mark, and the clarity I have just allows me to get off on every day -- never being in a fog, always being aware of what's going on."
In 2007, Superdrag's record company, Arena Rock, released an album of B-sides and rarities, and it's release got him thinking about his old bandmates and the offers they had fielded over the years to reform and play again. A tentative phone call or two later, and a reunion tour was put together, with spectacular results -- a two-night stand at Barley's Taproom, in Knoxville's Old City, sold out, as did other stops around the country.
It was inevitable that talk would turn to new music -- and when the decision was made, the four jumped back in the saddle like old trailhands.
"Back in the day, that was what we lived for, plain and simple," Davis said. "We all lived in the same house together like The Monkees, and there was little else in life, period. From the first time we got together in the garage and played the songs, from the very first songs that we played, the music just pretty much jived instantly.
"That's been the least difficult element of any. Everything else, we have to plan so far in advance now because everyone has family obligations and work. We made this album over 10 days, but we did it over a nine-month period of time."
The end result, however, is a thing of beauty -- "Industry Giants," scheduled for retail release next Tuesday. From Coffey's first skittering drum shots on "Slow to Anger," the smoldering album opener, the guys come off the bench like second-string quarterbacks out to prove that nobody can say they're past their prime. They drive and pound and rock and wail, and the end result is a blistering slab of catchy hooks, introspective lyrics and a maturity that underscores that the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts.
For Davis, it's not just old times -- it's a first time. Pappas and Fisher had left the band before he got sober, and doing this thing with these guys is like getting a second chance.
"With Brandon, I just love his guitar playing; between the alternate tunings and just his parts he sort of developed for the new album, what he plays makes it so rich and harmonic," he said. "With Tom, our working relationship in the studio couldn't be better. I make demos that are pretty detailed, and he's cool with coming in with something note-for-note in places and in other places, he plays it in his own unique way, and it's always rocking. He just has a boundless enthusiasm for what he's doing.
" And Don ... what can I say? He's eight years older than I am, and those eight years between 19 and 27, a lot happened. He taught me a lot. I learned to play drums watching Don and listening to Don play. Our friendship has always been very strong. There were reasons why went our separate ways, but a lack of admiration or affection was never one of them."
And now that they're back together, what does the future hold? A tour to support "Industry Giants" is a given; a return to life and work and other projects in Nashville (where Davis, Fisher and Pappas live) and Knoxville (where Coffey resides) is also a given. But the way Davis and his bandmates are feeling right now, here's another given -- Superdrag is back, possibly for good.
"I definitely don't view this record as being just a one-off record," he said. "If God wills it, it won't be the last you hear from us. I'd love to start working on another album by the end of the year, and there's no reason we can't. I think we'll tour steadily and sporadically, but we all have families, so we don't have time to get in the trenches and stay on tour for nine months. We have to go where the love is."