Tricia Brock of Superchick: Interview
10/26/09 @ 12:05 PM
Morning Star Music Memo: So, how is the tour going so far?
Tricia Brock: Good actually. Really, really good!
MSMM: Awesome! Well, let’s get down to business shall we?
Tricia: Sounds good.
MSMM: So how did Superchick become a band? Like how did you all first get started?
Tricia: My sister and I were at a festival in Cincinnati, OH near where we grew up, and it was called Spirit Song. It’s a whole week of shows, and that night was a bunch of bands, and the Newsboys were headlining. So we were watching, and this was like, the summer I just graduated High School, and we were watching, and we had to go to the restroom, and we were going to come back for the Newsboys. So we come back and there’s these guys sitting in our seats, and we recognized them as the band that had just played. They were called “Church of Rhythm”. It was kind of funny ‘cause it was assigned seats. So we kinda’ were like, “What are we going to do?” So we walk over and talk to them, we were like, “Hey, you’re sitting in our seats.” And they were like, “Oh! Hey… sorry, we didn’t know if anyone was here. We were just gonna watch the Newsboys.” So we ended up finding out Melissa, my sister, had gone to college with the drummer, so we had a lot in common. We ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the show. And Max [current producer] and Dave [current guitarist] were in that band! So they had this vision for this chick group called, “Superchick”, and they had even started writing some of the music for it, and were just looking for the girls. So that’s how it happened. It was their vision. So we kept in touch, we gave them our e-mails, and they ended up writing us about six months later. My sister and I both met with them, to hear what their vision was for this group. We had been trained vocally, but never really planned to use that as, ya’ know, our living. *chuckles* Bet we thought, wow! What an interesting thing! And not many people just get that opportunity just thrown at them. So we decided to give it a try! I think that was about…. About eleven years ago. So we started working on a demo and stuff right away, played some local shows, and within about a year, we were signed to Inpop.
MSMM: So that all kind of snowballed into you all meeting BarlowGirl at a show, correct?
Tricia: We did. Yeah. That was one of our first big festivals, the first summer we played, where we actually met the girls. Yeah.
MSMM: So tell me a little back story about that. How did you guys kick off your friendship, and bring you to where you are today?
Tricia: We were kind of in the merch area of the festival, it’s called Life Fest, in Green Bay, WI… no actually it was Oshkosh, WI. Back then it was a really sort of chill festival, like all the artists would come and hang out at their own booths, and kinda walk around and talk and meet other bands. It was our first year, so it wasn’t like we were getting noticed and we could just walk around. So we ended up just running into them in that little merch tent area and we started talking to them. And I think it was one of those things, our parents were there with us and I think us and our parents just stood and talked for a really long time. So they were kinda telling us their hearts behind wanting to grow up and be different and set apart and not date. They were just really sweet girls, and still really had that innocence about them, that you really don’t see a lot in teenagers. So we were telling the boys about them al little bit on the way home, the boys had met them, but didn’t really get to know them as well. We got home that week and the boys started writing the song “Barlow Girls” as kind of a funny little…. Just a little song about how the good girls don’t get noticed and don’t really get appreciated, and it’s the flirty girls and the opposite that get attention from guys, and even sometimes just people in general. It was kind of meant to be a cute little song for them, and then when we put out our first album, our record label loved it so it was one of that ya know… they want it on the album.
MSMM: It’s been interesting, because I have been a fan of you guys for a very long time, and its been interesting to see the evolution of your sound over time. You started with like a Punk/Pop sound on “Karaoke Superstars” and “Last one Picked” and then kind of an edgier Rock/Hip-Hop sort of thing with “Regeneration” and “Beauty From Pain”, and now with your self described “Rock-O-Tronic” sound on “Rock What You Got” which seems to be brining in some pretty awesome reviews, and you even got nominated for a Grammy for it last year, so my question is how do you maintain such an eclectic style?
Tricia: Well I really think that it’s a tribute to the fact that… that all of us write together, it’s not just one person. We’ve never wanted to just keep one sound just because we thought, “Oh that song worked on the last album…” ya know… music all changes so if we kept the same sound it would probably get really old to people. I do think that album by album some of the changes have been pretty dramatic. I think that the sound now is a lot more… it’s what we all really enjoy and maybe it just took us that long to get to this point. Every album we would just write and try to be creative, and by this album I think we all… we all I think love more of the rock, and I love 80’s music and I really tried to put that into the mix and into the vocals. I think it’s just us being like, have we really found what we think we are? It’s just fun to kind of re-invent yourself for each album.
MSMM: Definitely! How do you feel that the ministry of Superchick has changed you personally? Like how have you seen God work in you throughout the ministry?
Tricia: Well… with me I think even just doing what we do, instead of possibly what I would’ve done otherwise, which would have been just… maybe going to college and pursue a career and probably end up settling down. I think that just the lifestyle of this completely changed me… I was very much more of a homebody I think. Because I was such an introvert I would have tended to stay away from a lifestyle that is exactly like what I do now. I had to learn to be really flexible and to go with the flow. That wasn’t me naturally growing up. It’s been really cool because it’s changed me in a good way there and made kind of a really easy going person. Learning to be in a different city every day and meeting new people every day was stressing for me a lot in the beginning, it wasn’t easy but now… now it’s just really natural, it’s just what I do. It’s neat in that way to see how God used what he wanted me to do, to shape me into a better person. As far as our ministry, we meet broken people and broken kids at every show and I think... it’s amazing to me that what I do, my technically “job” is a ministry, so I feel like I am doing something that makes a difference, and that is really important to me, that it’s not just a job. I think wherever each one of us ends up, God can use us weather it is a normal job or a ministry, God will use us as we allow Him to, if were just open to it. That’s a really cool aspect, to me, of what I do. I feel like I can see tangibly that God uses music in people lives a lot. So for that, I think it has taught me in a way though that whatever I do next, like whatever stage comes after Superchick, that it can always be a ministry. And that’s really what life is meant to be.
MSMM: So you guys just released your new single for “Cross the Line”, and the video for it and everything, and I understand that you all shot it without the help of a major production team. Had you done anything like that before? Or any kind of challenges that you faced with it?
Tricia: No we hadn’t done any videos; we’ve done our own photo shoots for a while, and that is because Max has really become a great photographer, so he is sort of in charge of all of that stuff. We’ve never done a video on our own and we had never done anything like this. It was a lot of learning, and Max really was the one who researched a ton. Max is the brain behind a lot of things, and he just a perfectionist about anything that he does, so I can’t even tell you how many hours he probably spent figuring out how to do this video without like a $100,000 budget! But we had so much fun doing it, and a lot of the crew from our tour at the time came the days that we shot it, and really helped ‘cause we needed a lot of man power, it ended up being so much fun. Max spent so many months editing… he did all the editing himself too, we were on the harnesses, and he had to edit out all the wires so that it looks like they aren’t there. Yeah, I don’t know that much about it, but it took him a long time… he just wanted it to look great. And we’re really proud of it for that reason. It’s cool with the internet and new cameras and technology that you can really do so much on your own. That was the really cool thing about the video for us, that was the idea of the song “Cross the Line”, and for so much of the album for us was just don’t do something half heartedly, like put all of your effort and all of your brain and all of your energy into something and make it amazing. That for us is what that video is, we could have done just a pretty cool live video or something, and it could have looked great, because Max has a great camera, but he wanted something that no one had done before, he wanted to just say, we can all do this, we can be creative and we can push ourselves more than we think we can. He kind of jokes, I don’t know if you’ve seen the video?
MSMM: I have.
Tricia: Well, with all of the flips that I did and the back flips, but I probably did a hundred of those during shooting, and in the video you only see a couple, but I was almost throwing up! *laughs* Every time I did a back flip, after the take, a couple guys would have to come over and flip me forward so that the wires wouldn’t get twisted! So I did twice as many as you could imagine I did. *laughs* It was pretty hilarious. There was a point where really I wanted to say, “Okay! I’m done! I’m sorry… no more!”
MSMM: *laughs* Any sort of new things that we can look forward to from you on this tour? Any surprises that the fans can look forward to?
Tricia: We’ve definitely done some changes to the set that I think kind of you’ll… I guess we’ll say it will be more fun if you come see it live, but we’ve changed the way some things happen in the actual set and in our changes between songs. We’ve made a lot more... we’ve made it a show that flows a lot more. It’s not as choppy, and were not stopping in between each song. We’ve really just tried to polish it up and to make it a really great show, but still leaving time to interact with the crowd. We added some rehearsal dates before the tour and we really wanted to make it better and better. On top of what we feel like our songs mean, and hoping that they’re inspiring to people when they come out to our shows, we do also want to be excellent and to make our show better and to not have excuses for why it’s not as good as something put out in the mainstream market. It’ll definitely be a new show, and it’s a great night! VOTA is opening up the tour and people are just leaving really happy. We get to meet people after the show and they seem like they have really had just a great night. A lot of families are coming out, a lot of college kids that have grown up with us, are all coming out to see us which is really cool. I can definitely promise it will be a good night, and not just a good show, but that you will really feel that it is a night of ministry.
MSMM: So we’re going to start wrapping up here, but here a few fun little questions for you.
Tricia: Okay.
MSMM: What is the last good book you have read?
Tricia: The last book that I read…. That is a good question! Let me think here. *both laugh* I am so bad with titles, but I am at my house so I’ll go look… I actually do love to read, I haven’t been reading quite as much… Well I guess the last one I read, but I am not done with yet, but I am newly married, like a year now, so my friends had given my husband and I those books by Shaunti Feldhahn, the books For Men and For Women Only. I actually read it a while ago, but I just picked it back up and thought that now I am married like maybe reading it I will be like, “Oh my gosh! That makes so much sense now!”, or whatever. And also a devotional that I am reading that I have been loving… with my girls bible study, we went through Joyce Meyer’s DVD of Battlefield of the Mind, and the devotional book of that I’ve been going through and loving that. She’s awesome. She is a “tell it the way it is” kind of lady.
MSMM: How about the most played song or album on your iPod right now?
Tricia: That would be…. Hmm… most played. I would say probably David Crowder Band, I believe it’s the “Illuminate” album. Not the newest, but a few before it. I absolutely loved it. That and I think it was the first Leeland album [Sound of Melodies]. As far as what I enjoy as a worship CD. It really helps you to get into the right mind set when I listen to them. I listen to a lot of different stuff, but I think that David Crowder album wins out.
MSMM: Now you did mention that you are recently married, to Nick from Thousand Foot Krutch correct?
Tricia: Correct!
MSMM: Any advice that you would give to young newly married couples, which are strong Christians, but are just starting on this adventure of marriage?
Tricia: Mhmm! Well… I would definitely say that we had a lot of strong people in our lives giving us good advice before the wedding. I think for that reason we didn’t have a lot of shock. Actually our first year of marriage was really tough, but it wasn’t about us, but it was a lot of things in peoples’ lives around us, but it was really amazing to see how we worked together when things were kind of hard with our families and our friends. I would just say that there will be fairytale moments, but there is also reality, like you have to pay the bills together, and you go through grouchy days together, and you don’t just see each other when you’re on a date, happy to see them for just that moment. Marriage is just a beautiful reflection… who you are is just completely reflected in a mirror back at you, so this person sees the good and the bad and it’s just really great cause you have to say, “Well… I need to work on this…” So sure it’s going to be tough because you can’t ever face that until you wake up with that person and go to bed with that person every night and they see everything about you. You’re going to grow up no matter what, which for me was a really cool experience, like it’s been tough at times, but I married a really sweet guy who makes me laugh all the time. Just stay well communicated, don’t really let fights go. My uncles’ advice to me when we got married was to never go to be without him. Like don’t get in a fight and go to bed and not talk about it before the night is over. That was really good advice, cause you can let things go and be dramatic and kind of be a brat, but really it’s just not worth it.
MSMM: Well, my last question for you, because a lot of people have asked, any plans for anything new from Superchick in the near future?
Tricia: We do. Yeah. This winter as soon as we get back from this fall tour, there is new music that we are going to start working on more. Were not exactly sure what that is going to be. The record label really wanted a remix album, but honestly we don’t know if that is going to happen, or if it’s going to be just brand new songs. I think it’s going to be new songs; it may turn into some remixes and some new stuff, but yeah. There is new stuff in the works. We’re excited as much as hopefully our fans are! *laughs*
MSMM: Well thanks so much for your time! We really appreciate it, and I can’t wait to see you live in a few weeks!
Tricia: Yes! Definitely! Come out and see us!
10/26/09 @ 12:05 PM
Morning Star Music Memo: So, how is the tour going so far?
Tricia Brock: Good actually. Really, really good!
MSMM: Awesome! Well, let’s get down to business shall we?
Tricia: Sounds good.
MSMM: So how did Superchick become a band? Like how did you all first get started?
Tricia: My sister and I were at a festival in Cincinnati, OH near where we grew up, and it was called Spirit Song. It’s a whole week of shows, and that night was a bunch of bands, and the Newsboys were headlining. So we were watching, and this was like, the summer I just graduated High School, and we were watching, and we had to go to the restroom, and we were going to come back for the Newsboys. So we come back and there’s these guys sitting in our seats, and we recognized them as the band that had just played. They were called “Church of Rhythm”. It was kind of funny ‘cause it was assigned seats. So we kinda’ were like, “What are we going to do?” So we walk over and talk to them, we were like, “Hey, you’re sitting in our seats.” And they were like, “Oh! Hey… sorry, we didn’t know if anyone was here. We were just gonna watch the Newsboys.” So we ended up finding out Melissa, my sister, had gone to college with the drummer, so we had a lot in common. We ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the show. And Max [current producer] and Dave [current guitarist] were in that band! So they had this vision for this chick group called, “Superchick”, and they had even started writing some of the music for it, and were just looking for the girls. So that’s how it happened. It was their vision. So we kept in touch, we gave them our e-mails, and they ended up writing us about six months later. My sister and I both met with them, to hear what their vision was for this group. We had been trained vocally, but never really planned to use that as, ya’ know, our living. *chuckles* Bet we thought, wow! What an interesting thing! And not many people just get that opportunity just thrown at them. So we decided to give it a try! I think that was about…. About eleven years ago. So we started working on a demo and stuff right away, played some local shows, and within about a year, we were signed to Inpop.
MSMM: So that all kind of snowballed into you all meeting BarlowGirl at a show, correct?
Tricia: We did. Yeah. That was one of our first big festivals, the first summer we played, where we actually met the girls. Yeah.
MSMM: So tell me a little back story about that. How did you guys kick off your friendship, and bring you to where you are today?
Tricia: We were kind of in the merch area of the festival, it’s called Life Fest, in Green Bay, WI… no actually it was Oshkosh, WI. Back then it was a really sort of chill festival, like all the artists would come and hang out at their own booths, and kinda walk around and talk and meet other bands. It was our first year, so it wasn’t like we were getting noticed and we could just walk around. So we ended up just running into them in that little merch tent area and we started talking to them. And I think it was one of those things, our parents were there with us and I think us and our parents just stood and talked for a really long time. So they were kinda telling us their hearts behind wanting to grow up and be different and set apart and not date. They were just really sweet girls, and still really had that innocence about them, that you really don’t see a lot in teenagers. So we were telling the boys about them al little bit on the way home, the boys had met them, but didn’t really get to know them as well. We got home that week and the boys started writing the song “Barlow Girls” as kind of a funny little…. Just a little song about how the good girls don’t get noticed and don’t really get appreciated, and it’s the flirty girls and the opposite that get attention from guys, and even sometimes just people in general. It was kind of meant to be a cute little song for them, and then when we put out our first album, our record label loved it so it was one of that ya know… they want it on the album.
MSMM: It’s been interesting, because I have been a fan of you guys for a very long time, and its been interesting to see the evolution of your sound over time. You started with like a Punk/Pop sound on “Karaoke Superstars” and “Last one Picked” and then kind of an edgier Rock/Hip-Hop sort of thing with “Regeneration” and “Beauty From Pain”, and now with your self described “Rock-O-Tronic” sound on “Rock What You Got” which seems to be brining in some pretty awesome reviews, and you even got nominated for a Grammy for it last year, so my question is how do you maintain such an eclectic style?
Tricia: Well I really think that it’s a tribute to the fact that… that all of us write together, it’s not just one person. We’ve never wanted to just keep one sound just because we thought, “Oh that song worked on the last album…” ya know… music all changes so if we kept the same sound it would probably get really old to people. I do think that album by album some of the changes have been pretty dramatic. I think that the sound now is a lot more… it’s what we all really enjoy and maybe it just took us that long to get to this point. Every album we would just write and try to be creative, and by this album I think we all… we all I think love more of the rock, and I love 80’s music and I really tried to put that into the mix and into the vocals. I think it’s just us being like, have we really found what we think we are? It’s just fun to kind of re-invent yourself for each album.
MSMM: Definitely! How do you feel that the ministry of Superchick has changed you personally? Like how have you seen God work in you throughout the ministry?
Tricia: Well… with me I think even just doing what we do, instead of possibly what I would’ve done otherwise, which would have been just… maybe going to college and pursue a career and probably end up settling down. I think that just the lifestyle of this completely changed me… I was very much more of a homebody I think. Because I was such an introvert I would have tended to stay away from a lifestyle that is exactly like what I do now. I had to learn to be really flexible and to go with the flow. That wasn’t me naturally growing up. It’s been really cool because it’s changed me in a good way there and made kind of a really easy going person. Learning to be in a different city every day and meeting new people every day was stressing for me a lot in the beginning, it wasn’t easy but now… now it’s just really natural, it’s just what I do. It’s neat in that way to see how God used what he wanted me to do, to shape me into a better person. As far as our ministry, we meet broken people and broken kids at every show and I think... it’s amazing to me that what I do, my technically “job” is a ministry, so I feel like I am doing something that makes a difference, and that is really important to me, that it’s not just a job. I think wherever each one of us ends up, God can use us weather it is a normal job or a ministry, God will use us as we allow Him to, if were just open to it. That’s a really cool aspect, to me, of what I do. I feel like I can see tangibly that God uses music in people lives a lot. So for that, I think it has taught me in a way though that whatever I do next, like whatever stage comes after Superchick, that it can always be a ministry. And that’s really what life is meant to be.
MSMM: So you guys just released your new single for “Cross the Line”, and the video for it and everything, and I understand that you all shot it without the help of a major production team. Had you done anything like that before? Or any kind of challenges that you faced with it?
Tricia: No we hadn’t done any videos; we’ve done our own photo shoots for a while, and that is because Max has really become a great photographer, so he is sort of in charge of all of that stuff. We’ve never done a video on our own and we had never done anything like this. It was a lot of learning, and Max really was the one who researched a ton. Max is the brain behind a lot of things, and he just a perfectionist about anything that he does, so I can’t even tell you how many hours he probably spent figuring out how to do this video without like a $100,000 budget! But we had so much fun doing it, and a lot of the crew from our tour at the time came the days that we shot it, and really helped ‘cause we needed a lot of man power, it ended up being so much fun. Max spent so many months editing… he did all the editing himself too, we were on the harnesses, and he had to edit out all the wires so that it looks like they aren’t there. Yeah, I don’t know that much about it, but it took him a long time… he just wanted it to look great. And we’re really proud of it for that reason. It’s cool with the internet and new cameras and technology that you can really do so much on your own. That was the really cool thing about the video for us, that was the idea of the song “Cross the Line”, and for so much of the album for us was just don’t do something half heartedly, like put all of your effort and all of your brain and all of your energy into something and make it amazing. That for us is what that video is, we could have done just a pretty cool live video or something, and it could have looked great, because Max has a great camera, but he wanted something that no one had done before, he wanted to just say, we can all do this, we can be creative and we can push ourselves more than we think we can. He kind of jokes, I don’t know if you’ve seen the video?
MSMM: I have.
Tricia: Well, with all of the flips that I did and the back flips, but I probably did a hundred of those during shooting, and in the video you only see a couple, but I was almost throwing up! *laughs* Every time I did a back flip, after the take, a couple guys would have to come over and flip me forward so that the wires wouldn’t get twisted! So I did twice as many as you could imagine I did. *laughs* It was pretty hilarious. There was a point where really I wanted to say, “Okay! I’m done! I’m sorry… no more!”
MSMM: *laughs* Any sort of new things that we can look forward to from you on this tour? Any surprises that the fans can look forward to?
Tricia: We’ve definitely done some changes to the set that I think kind of you’ll… I guess we’ll say it will be more fun if you come see it live, but we’ve changed the way some things happen in the actual set and in our changes between songs. We’ve made a lot more... we’ve made it a show that flows a lot more. It’s not as choppy, and were not stopping in between each song. We’ve really just tried to polish it up and to make it a really great show, but still leaving time to interact with the crowd. We added some rehearsal dates before the tour and we really wanted to make it better and better. On top of what we feel like our songs mean, and hoping that they’re inspiring to people when they come out to our shows, we do also want to be excellent and to make our show better and to not have excuses for why it’s not as good as something put out in the mainstream market. It’ll definitely be a new show, and it’s a great night! VOTA is opening up the tour and people are just leaving really happy. We get to meet people after the show and they seem like they have really had just a great night. A lot of families are coming out, a lot of college kids that have grown up with us, are all coming out to see us which is really cool. I can definitely promise it will be a good night, and not just a good show, but that you will really feel that it is a night of ministry.
MSMM: So we’re going to start wrapping up here, but here a few fun little questions for you.
Tricia: Okay.
MSMM: What is the last good book you have read?
Tricia: The last book that I read…. That is a good question! Let me think here. *both laugh* I am so bad with titles, but I am at my house so I’ll go look… I actually do love to read, I haven’t been reading quite as much… Well I guess the last one I read, but I am not done with yet, but I am newly married, like a year now, so my friends had given my husband and I those books by Shaunti Feldhahn, the books For Men and For Women Only. I actually read it a while ago, but I just picked it back up and thought that now I am married like maybe reading it I will be like, “Oh my gosh! That makes so much sense now!”, or whatever. And also a devotional that I am reading that I have been loving… with my girls bible study, we went through Joyce Meyer’s DVD of Battlefield of the Mind, and the devotional book of that I’ve been going through and loving that. She’s awesome. She is a “tell it the way it is” kind of lady.
MSMM: How about the most played song or album on your iPod right now?
Tricia: That would be…. Hmm… most played. I would say probably David Crowder Band, I believe it’s the “Illuminate” album. Not the newest, but a few before it. I absolutely loved it. That and I think it was the first Leeland album [Sound of Melodies]. As far as what I enjoy as a worship CD. It really helps you to get into the right mind set when I listen to them. I listen to a lot of different stuff, but I think that David Crowder album wins out.
MSMM: Now you did mention that you are recently married, to Nick from Thousand Foot Krutch correct?
Tricia: Correct!
MSMM: Any advice that you would give to young newly married couples, which are strong Christians, but are just starting on this adventure of marriage?
Tricia: Mhmm! Well… I would definitely say that we had a lot of strong people in our lives giving us good advice before the wedding. I think for that reason we didn’t have a lot of shock. Actually our first year of marriage was really tough, but it wasn’t about us, but it was a lot of things in peoples’ lives around us, but it was really amazing to see how we worked together when things were kind of hard with our families and our friends. I would just say that there will be fairytale moments, but there is also reality, like you have to pay the bills together, and you go through grouchy days together, and you don’t just see each other when you’re on a date, happy to see them for just that moment. Marriage is just a beautiful reflection… who you are is just completely reflected in a mirror back at you, so this person sees the good and the bad and it’s just really great cause you have to say, “Well… I need to work on this…” So sure it’s going to be tough because you can’t ever face that until you wake up with that person and go to bed with that person every night and they see everything about you. You’re going to grow up no matter what, which for me was a really cool experience, like it’s been tough at times, but I married a really sweet guy who makes me laugh all the time. Just stay well communicated, don’t really let fights go. My uncles’ advice to me when we got married was to never go to be without him. Like don’t get in a fight and go to bed and not talk about it before the night is over. That was really good advice, cause you can let things go and be dramatic and kind of be a brat, but really it’s just not worth it.
MSMM: Well, my last question for you, because a lot of people have asked, any plans for anything new from Superchick in the near future?
Tricia: We do. Yeah. This winter as soon as we get back from this fall tour, there is new music that we are going to start working on more. Were not exactly sure what that is going to be. The record label really wanted a remix album, but honestly we don’t know if that is going to happen, or if it’s going to be just brand new songs. I think it’s going to be new songs; it may turn into some remixes and some new stuff, but yeah. There is new stuff in the works. We’re excited as much as hopefully our fans are! *laughs*
MSMM: Well thanks so much for your time! We really appreciate it, and I can’t wait to see you live in a few weeks!
Tricia: Yes! Definitely! Come out and see us!
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