Greetings From Tennessee

Knoxville alt-rock favorites Superdrag enjoyed an astonishing rise to success in the mid-’90s, then became yet another cautionary tale about how major labels can stifle promising young careers. A strong-selling 1996 debut album, Regretfully Yours—featuring the MTV/radio hit “Sucked Out”—gave way to the more baroque and experimental Head Trip In Every Key, which was beloved by critics and fans, but neglected by Superdrag’s label, Elektra. After some label and personnel changes, Superdrag called it quits in 2003. Since then, frontman and Nashville resident John Davis has embraced his Christian faith on two solo albums—the second of which, Arigato, is just now becoming available, more than a year after it was recorded. And Davis has recently discovered that he’s not done with Superdrag. Earlier this year, the indie label Arena Rock Recording Co. released the B-sides and rarities compilation Changin’ Tires On The Road To Ruin, to be followed soon by the demo collection 4 Track Rock!!! 1992-1995. The original lineup also has reunited for a short tour, which began last week in Cincinnati, and continues in Nashville at City Hall this Friday, Oct. 5.

Davis spoke with the Scene about revisiting past glories, as well as his new, more relaxed and pragmatic approach to the music business.

Scene: What prompted the reunion?

John Davis: We’ve gotten a lot of offers to get back together and play over the last three or four years, but you know, I felt like I needed to do my own record, which I did, and I toured with that. My wife and I started a family. Life just kind of moved on. But I really never stopped thinking about Superdrag. What could’ve happened. What should’ve happened. You spend that much time devoted to a thing, and when it’s missing, you definitely think about it. Then Changin’ Tires On The Road To Ruin came out, and kind of brought the band back to the forefront of everyone’s minds, and prompted more offers for us to come and play. The more I thought about it, the more it dawned on me how fun it would be, and what a privilege to play for people who still care. We’ve all kept our expectations pretty modest, but I think the response has been more overwhelmingly positive than we had a right to expect.

Scene: In the early ’90s, in the wake of Nirvana, radio seemed a lot more open to new music, while record labels seemed to be rushing to distill that burst of creativity down to a comprehensible formula. How did that impact Superdrag?

Davis: For us, we wanted as many people to hear our music as possible, and we wanted to try recording in a big studio, so we just kind of went along with everything in a really naive way. I mean, I remember thinking it would be really cool to be signed to Elektra because they put out The Stooges and The MC5. And it never occurred to me that, you know, that was 30 years ago. [Laughs.] That really has no bearing on what they do now. But man, when when we signed our deal, I was 21. I knew next to nothing about the music industry. We were pretty impressed by Elektra, and really I have to say, in their defense, whatever nefarious methods they employed to get our record played and get us on MTV, they did a good job at it. We went from playing to 200 people a night to 2,000 in a pretty short time.

After we had some success with the first record, I don’t think Elektra necessarily cared about us trying to grow as a band. They would’ve been perfectly happy if we’d submitted a record with 12 re-writes of “Sucked Out.” But by that time we were smart enough to know that you have to live with that stuff for the rest of your life, if you put out a bullshit album. We wanted to do something that was more creative, and we didn’t want people to feel cheated. We ended up writing this really weird bunch of songs that Elektra didn’t know what to do with, and really, they didn’t care.

Scene: It’s hard to pin down a definitive Superdrag sound, though. How would you define it?

Davis: There’s a pretty broad range of influences between the four of us. As far as the writing goes, from the beginning—and I feel like overall—there’s been a real melodic, Beatles-influenced side, and at the same time a lot of SST Records, like Dinosaur Jr. and Hüsker Dü. Plus My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver…all those noisy guitar bands. But there were certain records of ours, like Head Trip In Every Key, that don’t really fit in with the others. That one was kind of from a Bizarro World. [Laughs.] It didn’t really connect with what came before or after, except in a couple of places. When we started, I remember I would listen to the Help! soundtrack three times a day and then I’d listen to Smash Your Head On The Punk Rock by Sebadoh. That was kind of the deal.