Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Supernal

Supernal - Why Won't You Eat?

Supernal is a punk rock band formed in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica by three high schoolers in late 2022. They have a raw, dissonant, and melodic sound, and genuinely love what they do. Supernal currently have an album in the works! Their first single from it comes out October 20th!!

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Interview with Supernal

(•)> What inspired your new single?

I wrote the song [Why Won’t You Eat?] in 2021 when I was fourteen. I noticed that I, and a lot of my peers, were struggling with some things at the time, I think with just being at that age. So I wrote this song kinda from the perspective of that helping hand we all wish we could’ve had. It’s about helping someone out of a depression, and it dives into anorexia and other eating disorders too.

(•)> How did Supernal first come together in high school?

Supernal actually started in an ATM booth. Jayda (bass), Tor (drums) and I all went to different schools, but we knew each other (its hard not to, living in such a tiny town). Tor had just gotten back to Costa Rica from the States, and I heard he’d picked up on drumming while he was away. I’d been wanting to start a band for awhile at that point, so when we went to exchange some money at the ATM with Tor’s brother and another friend of ours, I just asked him if he’d wanna start a band with me. We hugged, and kissed and lived happily ever after. Jayda (our bassist) joined later down the line, but she was a really good friend of my sisters. She started out as a fan, and then ended up joining the band after learning bass!

(•)> How would you describe your raw, dissonant sound?

I think our sound comes from a lot of late 70’s-late 80’s punk rock influence. Bands like Descendents, Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr, The Replacements, Big Drill Car have for sure helped shape some of our melodic sensibilities. We’ll just sit and play for hours on end sometimes. And from that we’ve gotten to experiment with some pretty weird jazz chords, then mixing those with root notes in the bass that shouldn’t work but we try to make them work. So I guess that has part to do in our dissonance.

(•)> How does the Caribbean coast influence your music?

Our sound doesn’t really fit in with the whole Caribbean atmosphere. We’re kind of the black sheep in that sense. But we love the tight-knit circle of friends we have here. Everyone’s super supportive. But living where we do can make it harder to get booked for shows.

(•)> What message drives your upcoming album?

We wrote most of these songs awhile back, and really just wanna get more of our music out there for people to hear!!Every song has a different topic, some are written from personal experiences, others are just made up stories. Overall the album is just the product of three kids doing what they love and having fun. You should go start your own band, have fun with it! There’s a message.

(•)> How do you keep punk energy alive in your songs?

We stick to our guns. We just make the music we love and stay true to it. We play whatever feels right to us, not anyone else (even though it’s not always very good). Usually it’s pretty loud, fast driven, high energy stuff. We like to keep it as pure and authentic as we can.

(•)> What did you learn from making your first two EPs?

I feel like recording the EP, especially ‘Don’t Pick Your Friends’ Nose’, with a producer in a studio and everything, taught us what we needed to know to record on our own. We recorded this whole album in our stinky, sweaty little practice room on a MacBook with Ableton live. That’s all you need!

(•)> How do you stay connected with fans beyond Costa Rica?

We try to keep in touch with our fans from outside the country as much as we can. They’re mainly out in the States and Canada, and we’ve actually built up some really good connections with bands in the Fresno, and Calgary scenes. Montreal too. Community and connection is super important to us. We love our fans!!

(•)> What’s your biggest goal with this release?

With the single, we’re really just excited to put more of our stuff out there, especially with something like this that was written so long ago. We’re stoked to finally release it. Hopefully it can reach a wider audience, and we hope people can connect with it, y’know?

(•)> What’s next for Supernal after the new single drops?

We’re thinking on putting out another single or two before we release the whole album. Just to build up some excitement around it. But we can’t wait to get it out, it’s been a long time in the making, and we really put our blood, sweat and puke into it. We’ve been wanting to get this recorded and released for almost 4 years now!

(•)> That's all Folks! Check out Supernal on the Pigeon Spins Playlist

Thank you for checking out Supernal! 💕If you enjoy what I do and want to support future spotlights, you can buy me a coffee anytime!