Super XX Man Vol. XVI Talk About
Overall, my time spent making music in Australia was amazing. I received a lot of support in Melbourne, for which I'm very thankful. Sorta Heavy Metal (see previous post) was featured many times on local radio shows and even topped one DJ's best of list for the entire year. I was thrilled. It was during a live on air performance one morning that Alisdair Henry heard Peter and me performing. He wrote me an email saying he was available if we ever wanted a second cello. Yes, we did! Around the same time my very good friend Antony McMullen decided he was ready to dust off his guitar and begin contributing to our growing sound. I think by this time, Hannah was living overseas somewhere with her family and therefore unavailable for the time being. We lost our angelic voice but gained more strings, guitar, and friendship.
One evening, at Ali's house, Peter grabbed the glockenspiel and started jamming along to a song I had written called "Talk About."
Peter said, "Scott I reckon this sounds a bit like Bruce Springsteen."
This sparked the writing process for the rest of the album. Songs came as they always seem to and that is by life experience. And times were tough. I received a lot of songs from the ether just so I could cope I guess. Towards the end of the writing process I still had one song that eluded me. Honestly, I was ready write it off.
Along came Devon Sproule (stop reading, look her up, she's amazing). She was in the country for a series of solo shows and Super XX Man was lucky enough to open for her in Melbourne. I just had to take a chance and ask her if she would like to collaborate on a song I was struggling with. Lucky for me and the band, she had some time and agreed to do some recording over at Peter's. She and I arranged and sang the song "Sparrow" together. I think it's one of the best songs on the album and I'm so happy it was saved from the rubbish bin.
Originally released through Bandcamp on a limited run of handmade 7" picture disks, this album would mark the end of my Australian stay. In fact, it was released after I moved back to America. I'm so happy to report that this Australian produced album is finally available on all your favorite streaming platforms.
It was mastered by Warren Gardiner, who works on everything I do now. He is a great listener!
The artwork for this album was made by my cousin, Denise Elder.