A half-naked child pouts by a gray river. Purple paint covers his bare torso. Rain mats his brown hair and his eyes blink away the falling drops of rain. The only noise is wind and the rushing waters. A young man stands beside him on the banks of the river. He wears glasses and the remains of clown facepaint—smudged red on his cheek and white on his chin. His hands hold a simple white sign with a black “UH OH” sprayed on it. The screen fades to black.
Shreveport's Super Water Symphony kick off their tour Oct. 12 at Howlin' Wolf.
The clip is the teaser for “Uh Oh,” Super Water Sympathy’s first single off their second, yet-to-be-named album. The full video features many more purple children, as well as fire and zombies. It dropped on Wednesday, October 10, two days before SWS’s tour kicks off at the Howlin’ Wolf in New Orleans. The Shreveport-based band recently recorded the album in London with Cam Blackwood, who has worked with big names like Florence + the Machine, Coldplay and Morrissey. They also spent the summer playing the Warped Tour, after impressing Warped founder Kevin Lyman with their performance at Atlanta’s Driven Music Conference Showcase.
“Lyrically, we’re more about giving people visual images,” says Ansley Hughes, the singer of Super Water Sympathy. The five members collaborate on songwriting, discussing provocative visuals and words to inspire specific moods and images. She adds, “We don’t necessarily write music about ‘my boyfriend broke up with me and I’m sad now but I’m moving on.’”
On their first album, 2011’s Vesper Belle, the tracks are oddly professional for an unknown band without access to a major recording studio. The album features catchy choruses, clean hooks, and pretty arrangements with meaningful lyrics sung by a talented and likable frontwoman. At the Driven Music Conference, their songwriting attracted the attention of music industry bigwigs.
Today, the band survives by being self-described “black-market songwriters.”
Publishing company Warner/Chappell flies the band to a music business hub like London, New York, or Los Angeles. Hughes and Clyde Hargrove are the songwriters on contract, although other members of the band—Billy Hargrove (bass), along with Ryan Robinson (drums) and Jason Mills (keys)—often contribute to songwriting efforts. Once they write the lyrics, Hughes demos it for the executives. Their first major songwriting credit is “Chandelier,” which will be on B.o.B.’s upcoming album Strange Clouds.
Last year, it seemed like SWS was going to be Shreveport’s Cinderella story. After the band showcased at the Driven Conference in Atlanta, music executives invited them to perform in New York. The Louisiana band, whose members also double as PR and management, were besides themselves.
“We thought we were going to get signed,” says Hughes. “We thought this was incredible.”
When asked to write some new material, the band wrote “Chandelier” with producer Frequency. They thought it was for their new album. It turned out that the executives weren’t looking for a new band to sign—but they were looking for talented songwriters to write the next Top 40 hit, which was where SWS fit in.
“It’s amazing how few people write their own music,” says Hughes. “There’s a reason why the industry hires this black-market group of songwriters.”
Although she describes it as exhausting, Hughes sees the songwriting contract as a blessing. The contract gives the band a way to stay independent, fund their next tour, and get their foot in the door of the music industry. SWS invested the proceeds from their songwriting contract into their second album and upcoming tour. They hired Blackwood to produce the new album. Additionally, they can afford to go on a tour that includes famous venues like L.A.’s Viper Room and New York’s Bowery Electric.
“We can do the band and we can do songwriting. We can potentially fund the band without even having a label,” Hughes says. But independence isn’t easy. The members of SWS double as tour managers, promoters, accountants and PR. They cold-call clubs, they promote, and they schedule their own tours. Email SWS and their lead guitarist Billy Hargrove replies. However, the songwriting gig makes SWS cherish their current musical freedom.
“As a band, writing music is so much more fun. We have creative range and don’t have to answer to anyone,” says Hughes. “We can write what we feel and what we feel sounds the way we want it to sound. Lyrically, we don’t have to worry about someone not understanding it, because it’s our music.”
SWS play Friday night at the Howlin’ Wolf with the Happy Devil and the Quail Dogs. Doors open at 9 p.m. and the show starts at 10. Tickets are $10. Show is 18 & up. Tickets available at door and at Ticketweb. “Uh Oh” is now available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.
