FRINGE - Supermarket

Sun 2nd Mar, 2008 in Features

Brace yourself for the Supermarket experience; a performed fusion of original experimental cinema and dynamic electronic music. Created in the USA, Canada and Australia and enjoying a limited Australian premiere season, local Danimations artists Dan Monceaux and Emma Sterling remix real and imagined space like you’ve never felt it before.

As seen recently at Shores on a New Year’s Day, Salmonella Dub and Calyx gigs, homegrown audio-visual act Supermarket is hosting three performances during this year’s Adelaide Fringe.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to soak up the experience in the Mercury’s intimate 38 seat Iris Cinema, with a different support DJ for each show. Each show will feature expanded live VJ and musical elements, including keys, samples and vision mixing and an artist talk and Q&A session after the set. The Supermarket set serves up all-original tunes that range from dub through dancehall and drum n bass.

After breaking the act in with a mini tour across Canada and the USA in November-December – œ07, the act has big things brewing, from an independent DVD-EP release We Never Close to further touring opps that will take the act across Australia, Canada, the USA, Jamaica and Japan in 2008.

On the eve of their Fringe Show, Fasterlouder sat down and had a chat to Dan about Supermarket:

Supermarket is an exciting prospect and good things are destined for this group. Even more astonishing is the fact that Supermarket is from Adelaide and are set to unleash their talent on the rest of the world. Dan gives a great insight to inner sanctum of this outfit.

How did the ‘Supermarket’ concept start? “The concept actually started when I was jamming with Justin George, the original drummer from Adelaide live electronic act, Digit some years ago,” Dan commenced. “He introduced me to a range of electronic music, most notably drum ‘n’ bass and we decided that Supermarket would be a good project name that would allow us to tackle a range of musical styles. That version of Supermarket didn’t make it out publicly, and the idea received an overhaul years later after collaborating (and falling in love) with visual artist, Emma Sterling. She was into making abstract photographic art, and our skills extended together into filmmaking. Supermarket became a catchment for all of our creative skills and ambitions, and grew into a hybrid semi-live audio-visual performance of our own work. The name Supermarket refers to the diversity of musical and visual experiences within our show, and also frames our pieces against the backdrop of post-modern consumer society.”

How did you meet Emma? “Emma and I met in a photography elective while studying visual arts at UniSA,” Dan mentioned. “We worked on a few group assignments together with countless hours spend in the darkroom and realised quickly that we had some common vision creatively.”

How would you describe your working relationship? “The name of our debut DVD-EP says it all… We Never Close,” Dan announced. “We live together, work together and rarely let our creative minds rest.”

How would you describe what you do to someone on the street? “Supermarket is a performed fusion of electronic music and experimental cinema,” Dan outlined. “It’s like a Baraka for beat-freaks fronted by two humans and relevant technology. We throw a few cheeky punches at consumer life, encourage giggling and euphoria and aim to stimulate with concepts from the sublime to the ridiculous.”

What areas do you specialise? “Emma’s the film and video editor, and co-designer/director of the visuals, along with myself,” Dan introduced. “Animation and some post production and FX are my department, and the music’s my baby. There’s an open dialogue as the visual and music elements develop and we often bounce drafts of vision and music between our computers before we lock things down. Performance wise, Em’s the VJ and I’m the musician.”

What areas do you think Supermarket could expand in to? “We’d love to get involved in some large scale festival gigs,” Dan pondered. “Earthcore and Rainbow Serpent come to mind, though we think it’d go off in the Boiler Room at Big Day Out. We’re also interested in helping other musical artists visualise their ideas, and we both work in the film industry in other creative capacities.”

Have you worked with many other bands? “I was a member of Dagman Allstars (funk meets ween), Smorgasbord (silly acoustic duo), 9 1/2 Incas (prg rock) and Papa Kwesi and the Irie-ites (reggae) as a keyboard player and singer, and since those days have done some band photography for several local artists and the website, inthemix.com.au,” Dan answered. “We’re interested in working with bands who create a sense of landscape and imagined space with their music. I guess that probably leans towards the ambient, art rock and down tempo electronic genres.”

Do you have many exciting projects on the go? “Yeah,” Dan replied. “Supermarket’s set continues to grow and we’re packing up this week and flying to Canada for three months of touring in North America. We’re starting in Dawson City in the Yukon with a filmmaker-artists residency there for a month, before gigs and workshops across the country. We’re also collaborating with writer and artists Chris Flanaghan on a documentary film investigating an obscure reggae artist that will take me to Jamaica, before wrapping up the tour with shows in Austin, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bugs Bunny would be proud of us.”

How were you received overseas? Overseas audiences have been very interested and responsive, and have really gleaned a lot from our workshops,” Dan reflected. “We basically pull apart our creative process and bare all (sounds a bit saucy) and encourage young and old to use available technology creatively as much as possible. We’ve mostly hit up the independent cinema circuit so far with our shows, but this trip will see us do a few gigs in more traditional venues and nightclubs, including an opening set at the Calgary Underground Film Festival which we’re amped about.”

Are you looking to tour your show more around Australia? “Definitely,” Dan said. “This is on the cards for late 2008. It looks like Melbourne and Perth will be the first stops, and with any luck we’ll catch a few promoters’ eyes and ears for a summer festival or two next seasons.”

What challenges lie ahead? “We don’t have many direct role-models producing and presenting work the way we do (Ninja Tunes’ Hexstatic is the most obvious example), so we’ve had to conceive the whole concept from scratch, then seek out our market,” Dan rattled off. “Web promotion has been a great way to expose our work (with clips on youtube and a popular page on reverbnation.com) and we keep a blog to keep people posted on our whereabouts and activities. The challenge is to keep growing an audience while we produce new work, and then it’s simply the challenge of supporting our progress financially. We’ve had some terrific breaks so far with artists residencies in New York and Canada, and we’re deeply appreciative of the support of Arts SA and the South Australian Youth Arts Board for their assistance with our project development and first tour in late ‘07. With Japan and Singapore shows also slated for mid-late 2008, our biggest challenge seems to be keeping up with ourselves… it’s quite a ride we’re on.”

Supermarket runs from January 29 until March 2 at the Mercury Cinema. To purchase tickets go to the Fringe website

For more info on the project check out Supermarket’s website