Superchick interview
10-16-2002
by Greg Webb

Greg: So, will Last One Picked be different or much of the same?

Melissa: I think it's gonna be different. Like, I don't think people are gonna pick it up and be like, "This isn't Superchick," or like, "Who is this band?"

Tricia: But they're not gonna think it sounds the same either.

Melissa: Yeah. I think we took a lot of the elements of the last one that we really liked and we're just making it, like, way bigger, and way...

Tricia: Funkier...

Melissa: Yeah, funkier. But then there's gonna be a couple jams that are like, "Oh! They can do that! That's cool."

Tricia: Yeah. Like we're trying some more soul in some places a lot more, and just, groovier melodies. Max is writing some really cool -- like the wording and stuff. It's -- you don't really want to compare with other bands, but some of it's kind of like Pink-ish. A little bit, with just like the cool melodies.

Greg: Sweet!

Matt: And this girl's got attitude like no other as well! Not bad.

Melissa: A year of touring! It's amazing how much everything will change.

Tricia: It's just kind of us grown up in a way. Us, kind of a little better at everything we do.

Brian: And I think the album overall is gonna be more diverse. In parts it might hit a little harder, maybe be a little more aggressive. And then in some parts, it will be a little bit more serious, and more intense. Whereas, I'd say the general attitude of the last album was pretty much...

Tricia: ...Fun...

Matt: ...And pretty much established from the first song, maintained until "Let It Be," pretty much. So, it'll be more diverse.

Tricia: We're gonna still talk about issues, but maybe a little more specific and a little more mature. Stuff that doesn't feel like it's a girl or teenage album, but stuff like heartbreak and things that everybody goes through. Adults can relate. Like on the days when we wake up and we don't feel like we can go on. You know, when it doesn't feel like it will be okay. So, I think we're gonna just delve a little bit more into serious things.

Greg: When you write songs, do you try to make them accessible to a wide audience, or does that just kind of happen? I mean, almost every band we've talked to has talked about how they would like to see their music effect the mainstream, but your music is everywhere.

Tricia: I don't think we tried. I honestly don't think we tried to be Christian or mainstream. People ask if we wanted to be one or the other, and, honestly, Max wrote -- 'cause the first time it was all him pretty much -- and he wrote what was in his heart and what he loved. He wrote songs that he thought were just cool and that he enjoyed, and he honestly was just like, 'I think this is what kids need to hear and I think they're gonna like it, and whatever God chooses to do...' God has so blessed us by, I think, honoring that, and he's made it accessible to both. We didn't really know what would happen with it, and, amazingly, it's gone both ways.

Melissa: And I think with the second album, too, I don't think we've necessarily set out to target anything specific. Because some people would be like, "Okay, we've hit the junior high crowd that time, let's try to be this now." It's all just kind of happening and I don't know who it's gonna end up appealing to. But we like it. There's six people we know that like it.

(Everyone laughs.)

Tricia: I think it will be an older crowd and a younger crowd. You know, it gets very diverse enough that we'll gain more [listeners].

Matt: We're not gonna ditch our fans.

Greg: That's what's cool about labels like Inpop and Gotee. They aren't trying to mold you for Christian radio. Because Christian radio is kind of in a sad place right now, anyway.

Tricia: Well, you know, we do make the little jokes, and little comments about, "We need our radio hit," but they know that we're not gonna sit down and write a song and be like, "J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S," just because we want radio hits, so that we'll sell more records.

Matt: Not to say that people do that.

Greg: Right.

Tricia: Because, that's what's on their heart -- the people that write the songs that get played there. That's because that's their heart. And we write songs that we want people to relate to.

Melissa: [Songs] that are our heart.

Tricia: So, it would be selling out to us, if we were like, "Okay. This has got to have the word 'God' in it three times, and this is gonna be a winner! We're gonna make some money!"

Matt: We got no distorted guitars in this one!

Tricia: Yeah. No screaming!

(Everyone laughs.)

Greg: What would you say is your goal for Superchick for the next year? Maybe 5 years, 10 years? Do you see yourselves together for a long time?

Matt: We're gonna be together 70 years like Aerosmith! (Laughs.) No, just to honor God and honor each other. We don't really have like a business plan, necessarily. We aren't like, "Alright, now we've targeted these people. This is our demographic, now we need promotion, promotion, promotion!"

Melissa: I don't think we've ever had a timeline.

Tricia: Never really had a plan, or a timeline. It's always just been so in God's hands.

Brian: I think we'll know when our work is done, or when God says it's time.

Tricia: 'Cause he's made it very evident to us when doors are opened. And I do think that we were sort of messengers for something that needed to be said, and we definitely feel that responsibility and that honor right now, because we're seeing people clinging to our album and to "Barlow Girls" and to being bold for God and to making a difference and all that stuff. I don't know, I think all along we've been like, if this is a certain time that this band is needed, and it's a certain message, we'll be completely fine with however many years or whatever it goes on. If it's only one more year, and God clearly opens up stuff for us to do other than this band, none of us will be disappointed or sad. 'Cause it's just God's. It's God's message.

Melissa: The one thing that I've been learning lately over the last couple months, because I'm very big on making timelines for myself. Like, "I'm gonna do this by then, be married by then, and have kids and all this stuff." The one thing that I always forget to do is enjoy the time that I am having right then. And so that's the thing God keeps telling me, is like, "Yeah, you may want to be doing this at one point, but I've given you this now, just enjoy what you can! Live it."

Tricia: Do not take anything for granted. Because, we're being given so many opportunities that some people would just die for and may work years for. We just try to remind each other of that every day. We don't take this lightly. Because sometimes we have rough days, but we're being spoiled brats if we don't appreciate what God's given us.

Greg: This question is for each of you. What is a passage of Scripture or Scripture verse that has been important to you at this stage in your life?

Melissa: For me, it's Psalms 139, talking about God forming me in my mother's womb. That has kind of become my platform with Superchick, just in dealing with self-esteem and things like that. But, it's amazing, [because], at the [same] time, I was looking for something that kind of fit what I was talking about. And as I've been repeating it over and over, it's speaking more and more into my life. In verse 14 it says, "I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made," and I've dealt with self-esteem problems and anorexia, and things like that all my life. So through that, and through talking about it, that Scripture has just made me start to really see the creation that God has made in each of us. I didn't realize that I was going to be talking about something that's actually helping me more, as I'm doing it. But that Scripture has become very foundational for me.

Tricia: And, for me, it's been a lot through "Barlow Girls" -- I mean meeting the actual girls a few years back.

Greg: Oh, so it's based on actual girls?

Tricia: Yeah. They're from Chicago. They're like 16, 19, and 22, or something like that now. They're all totally single still.

Melissa: Amazing women!

Tricia: They are amazing girls.

Matt: Yeah. They are!

Greg: I'll give you my email address.

(Everyone laughs.)

Tricia: Seriously, we could get some money off that!

But, just through meeting them, and through God working in my life lately, He's speaking to me through some books I've read and been studying. I came across Proverbs 31, in verses 10-31, about the wife of noble character. It was funny because that came after we wrote "Barlow Girls," and we met the Barlow girls. But, it sort of has fit perfectly into our show, and I share it because I read that passage every day and I try to live my life by it. It talks about how strong of a woman this is, you know she can laugh at days to come, her children call her blessed, she brings her husband good and not harm all the days of her life. I always tell girls, that tells me, that convicts me, with the things I do now. It's so easy to get into relationships with the opposite sex and not think seriously about it. You know, treating them a certain way, being a flirt. And I can't say I don't do it every day. It's so easy. It's a natural thing, you know? But that Scripture convicts me of it, because when I act that way, I'm not respecting the guy I'll marry some day. I'm not acting the way I want my girls to act some day.

Matt: Or boys!

Tricia: Yeah! My boys and girls. So I know that Scripture talks about how charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. And, that's what the Barlow girls were to us. They were women who feared the Lord and they lived that way! They don't just fear Him, but they love Him with all their hearts. That's what I want to be, and I've got it sort of etched on my heart.

Matt: My verse is definitely Phillipians 4:6-7: "Do not worry about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition, bring your request to God and the peace of the Lord which transcends all understanding will guide your heart and mind in Christ Jesus." Usually, I use that verse as an excuse not to get too anxious about anything. My personality is like, I don't worry about too many things. But the second part of that verse really kinda keeps me in check. You know, in everything -- in everything -- bring it before God in prayer, and that's something that I strive for. God wants us to be people, I think, of prayer, and that's just something that I strive for more and more. To no matter what, always keep a reminder to talk to God and be like -- even if when I see somebody, even if it's just like, "Lord, be with that person today," or as I'm driving in the middle of the night, praying for every truck that drives past -- even though there's not that many. (Laughs.) And it keeps you awake as well! Not saying that I'm using God as an excuse to keep awake.

(Everyone laughs.)

Melissa: Fitch, what's your Scripture?

Brian: I've been reading Galatians lately. Galatians 2:20 stuck out at me,and that's where Paul's talking about how he's crucified his flesh, and he's with Christ.

(Tricia starts singing "Crucified With Christ.")

Brian:Then, I think in 2:18 he talks about, he says "if I rebuild what I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.' So, that's kind of like as a Christian, we need to be built up in Christ. If we, as Christians, rebuild the habits and the ways of the world…if we aren't building with Christ as our foundation, then we are just proving to God all the more how sinful we are. It goes on to talk about how we need to crucify that and be crucified with Christ at the cross.

Greg: Okay. One final question: what's your favorite cartoon?

(Everyone laughs.)

Melissa: Scooby Doo!

Brian: Thundercats!

(Tricia starts singing the Scooby Doo theme song.)

Matt: Thundercats! Nah, dude, Scooby Doo is mine!

Brian: I'll take Mighty Mouse, then!

Melissa: Scooby Doo's the old school, but the new school is PowerPuff Girls.

Matt: Yeah, I'd like PowerPuff Girls if they were good, but they're not. So...

Melissa: Big debate in the band!

Tricia: Yeah, the big debate in the band!

(Everyone laughs.)