The Challenge: Create your ideal Supergroup

From Anthony Overs at The Riff on Mediium

Screenshot from “Sancta Terra,” youtube

If you haven’t seen the original challenge, here it is:

Supergroups — A Thing Of The Past?

WRITING CHALLENGE: Create A Supergroup!

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I was hesitant to dive into this because, well, time! But Terry Barr’s great entry convinced me to try it.

First, my doubts: This is like casting a movie. I know my favorite actors, but would they mesh on screen? Do they even like each other? How do you direct a comic genius next to a romantic lead next to an action hero? How do you choose the script?

Another challenge: The concept of a supergroup is to bring together certain individuals who are really extraordinary at what they do. Maybe each was the star of another group before being tapped for the supergroup. Or some of them were solo stars, headliners in their own right. But they are all musical Jedi.

The problem? This was relevant in an era when audiences focused not just on the “feeling” of a song but on how the musicians create that feeling. Musicianship really mattered to the fans, but that idea has become unfashionable these days, at least in the U.S. and the U.K., once the home of virtuoso rock.

It’s not an accident that Terry Barr’s supergroup comprises people from a bygone era.

Finding My Super Group

Blending sound and meaning

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Ten years ago, I would have done the same if asked to assemble a supergroup. For decades, it felt as though musicianship was just being kicked to the curb. Punk was a fun, in-your-face finger to tradition, but grunge actively made it unfashionable to focus on virtuosity, even when some of the musicians were, in fact, really accomplished.

The arena rock bands (now known as Dad-rock) suffered from a lot of sameness — self-indulgent riffing, instrumental solos that didn’t serve the song, bad songwriting, high-pitched male wailing— and laughed all the way to the bank. The real home of virtuosity was in metal, and metal fell into a pit of increasing darkness and brutality. So virtuosity seemed lost.

I wondered if maybe I was just guilty of generational chauvinism. Then, after literally decades of feeling something was going missing, I found an enormous popular music scene that dazzled me the way my first exposure to great 60’s rock did. It’s a place where virtuosity and beautiful songwriting are still prized and celebrated. That scene lives in Europe and Asia, but our music industry and media seem determined not to admit it exists. Thank the rock gods for YouTube!

In case anyone thinks I’m saying we don’t have great musicians here, we do — lots of them! But no one becomes a star anymore because of it. The good ones are making a living doing session work for the Swifts and Beyonces of the world. It’s a return to the star system of the 50s when the best musicians worked anonymously for stars like Sinatra, who were as much CEOs as they were artists.

In building my supergroup, I deliberately chose musicians who are not only very much alive (the first of Anthony’s Rules) but are actually in the prime of their careers. I arbitrarily decided to rule out ones who were already in other supergroups. I’ll write separately on them.

With no further ado, here is my list. I have included links for each one in case you are unfamiliar with them.

Vocals: Floor Jansen and Simone Simons

Jansen is a classically trained soprano who has performed in every style, from opera to country to pop to death-metal growls. She is, in my opinion, the greatest living vocalist in the Western world, rivaled in recent history only by Freddie Mercury and a handful of actual opera stars. She has been the lead vocalist for the Finnish metal band Nightwish since 2012. (Jansen is herself Dutch).

Simons is one of Floor’s proteges, is also classically trained, and has been the lead singer for the Dutch symphonic metal band Epica since she was 18. Her timbre is remarkably well matched to Jansen’s but in a slightly higher tonal register, allowing them to do almost otherworldly harmonies. Like Jansen, she can shift effortlessly between a rock belt and an operatic head-voice. Here is one of their collaborations:

   (if you just want a highlight, don’t miss 2:55–3:18)

Lead composer, arranger, keyboards: Mao Yamamoto

Mao is a prolific composer who has written for Light Bringer, Fuki Commune, Unlucky Morpheus, Mary’s Blood, Jupiter, Lovebites, Lonesome Blue, and many others, spanning a vast range of styles.

He has done session work with many of those groups and also programs backing tracks and orchestral accompaniment for some of them. Here is one of his compositions, “Under the Red Sky,” written for and performed by Lovebites:

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Guitars, co-composer: Narumi Suzuki

Narumi was the co-lead guitarist for the heavy metal bands Destrose and Disqualia. She composed and recorded her own solo album, a fusion masterpiece called “The Seed.”

She is now the lead guitarist of the pop-metal band Lonesome Blue. Her style is meticulous, precise, and nuanced, with a strong jazz inflection, but she can go heavy and shred with the best of them. This is from “The Seed.” It’s practically a clinic on advanced guitar technique, and it’s also gorgeous:

Bass: MISA

MISA is the bassist for the hard-rock group Band-Maid. In polls of fans and critics, she is consistently rated the best bassist, male or female, in Japan. Her style is heavily jazz and funk-influenced, and the bass becomes a lead instrument in her hands.

Here, she transitions fluidly from fingerstyle hard-rock riffing to a funky slap-style solo and back.

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Drums: Vlad Ulasevich

Vlad is the drummer for the Ukrainian progressive metal band Jinjer. He plays a modified jazz setup and is known for his intricate drum lines, multiple time signatures, and tremendous dynamic range. His bandmate Tatiana was tied with my other picks for lead vocalist, but I suspect her approach would not easily mesh with either of them.

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Would this work? I think it could, for a few reasons:

First, despite being scary good at what they do, they are all modest and self-effacing personalities, some with a quite goofy sense of humor.

Second, despite making their living in metal and hard rock, they are all classically trained, which is unusual among rock musicians, and they also display strong jazz influences in their playing. That means they share a musical vocabulary.

Third, they have all performed in a wide range of styles, so they have proven themselves flexible and adaptable.

The song? I would have Mao compose a new song designed for harmonized vocals and use the band’s ability to handle dense, complex compositions. It would be fantastic to see.