Supergrass

Tue 2nd Sep, 2008 in Features

Supergrass have been there, done that. When they emerged as (monkey-faced) young scamps in the mid-1990s with their classic debut I Should Coco, the band were caught right in the middle of the maelstrom of Brit pop. As part of its ascendancy, Supergrass had their own problems – how do you grow up in public?

As mere teens when their debut was released, each subsequent release up to 2005’s Road to Rouen has shown an artistic growth, culminating in that latter album’s more contemplative vibe. So their sixth album, Diamond Hoo Ha, feels like something of a comeback – it’s a loud, brazenly rock – œn roll record, delivering instant hits – œn memories.

Danny Goffey, drummer for the band, says that it was kind of a deliberate step for the band to take – they wanted to create an album that they could take on the road and perform live. “We wanted an electric, rock – œn roll feeling,” he affirms. “We did a tour that was kind of stripped down and mellow, and we wanted to go a bit more electric again – a bit more pumping.”

Diamond Hoo Ha was pieced together throughout 2007, where Supergrass found themselves ensconced in Hansa Tonstudio, the studio where David Bowie recorded a classic album or three. “We’ve always recorded in strange places,” Goffey explains, “and we’ve done an album in France, and an album in Wales, and in Cornwall as well. It’s always quite exciting going to a new place – nowhere that’s too familiar, and you’re not just an hour away from your house. It becomes an adventure for us, and sets up making the record; it increases the gang mentality that you’re all in it together. We wanted to go to Berlin before we even had a producer.”

The group elected to work with producer Nick Launay, who is famed for getting a great – œlive’ sound for the band that he’s worked with, from Midnight Oil to Silverchair, where he usually gets the whole band to be able to see each other as they play.

However, Nick was not first choice. “We wanted Dave Grohl to produce it,” says Goffey of the Foo Fighters frontman, former Nirvana drummer, and occasional producer. “He was really up for it but he was doing an album at the time. We spoke to Nigel Godrich, and he’d worked with Nick Launay when he was younger – he’s started as an assistant. He told us about him, and we read what he’d done.”

There’s no doubt that the songs on Diamond Hoo Ha will translate naturally onto the performing stage – they’re anthemic and immediate, and feel ready-made for the live arena. “This album has been really easy to play live,” he enthuses. “We’ve been able to play nearly every song off the album live, but I don’t know if that’s what we were thinking about when we were writing it. We just came up with some simple, heavy riffs, and really great stuff that was enjoyable to play for all of us.

“We wrote it at each other’s houses,” he continues. “It was a case of phoning each other up and saying – œI’ve got a couple of chords, this great riff’, and we’d get together. Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to it – you just make it happen.”

For the most part, Supergrass songs are pieced together from individual ideas that the band four main band members – frontman Gaz Coombes, his brother Rob on keys, Mick Quinn on bass, and Goffey himself – have devised and then brought to one another. “We all write,” he explains, “whether it’s on the piano or a guitar, and if we haven’t seen each other for a few days then there’ll be a few songs hanging around and maybe one of them will be really good, and that’s how it works – from week-to-week, and then after a couple of months you have a dozen songs.

“Well, that’s how it worked for this album.” Goffey clarifies. “For Road to Rouen a lot of it we wrote in the studio, just working it out. It’s a really fun time when we were writing [this time] – we’d go to each other’s places and stay the night and work on stuff. It came together quite fast which made it really good to record – we spent basically three weeks recording the album, which is a really fast way of recording.”

Supergrass’ Diamond Hoo Ha is out now on EMI. The band will play some damn special shows in October.

Thursday 2 October – The Tivoli, Brisbane (over 18)

Friday 3 October – The Forum, Sydney (over 18) – SOLD OUT

NEW SHOW Saturday 4 October – The Forum, Sydney (over 18)

Tuesday 7 October – Forum Theatre, Melbourne (over 18)

Wednesday 8 October – Metropolis, Fremantle (over 18)