This week's Supergroup is a very recent one. So recent in fact that we've only had the chance to hear one of their songs in full so far. This is a group made up of five people from five very different musical genres. This is Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Damian Marley, Dave Stewart and A.R. Rahmen. This is SuperHeavy.
How in the name of God did these five get together?! I mean, how did they meet? I know the music industry is relatively small but you have to admit that this is an odd bunch to form a band. Well, it didn't all come together quite as organically as most other supergroups. The official SuperHeavy website would have you believe that the group formed quite romantically after a few old musical buddies made some phonecalls to each other in order to get together to "write songs which had meaning". However, in reality, the group was initially conceived to help promote the launch of a new platform being developed by Nokia for entertainment media on their smartphones. The Nokia deal eventually collapsed but they decided to continue, presenting themselves as having formed completely on their own and not as a somewhat prefabricated unit, put together mainly for a communications corporation.
But before we go any further let's have a look at who's in the band.
- Mick Jagger: Lead singer in The Rolling Stones, this is the first new band Jagger has been part of in 50 years. Because of the presence of 3 other vocalists in SuperHeavy he not only sings but plays guitar and mouth organ in the band.
- Dave Stewart: One half of 80's pop-rock duo, The Eurythmics. The official line is that SuperHeavy was Stewart's idea which came to him when he got "inspired by the sounds washing into his home in St Ann's Bay, Jamaica". His duties in the band include playing guitar as well as most of their songs production.
- Joss Stone: 24 year old English soul singer. She was invited to join SuperHeavy by Dave Stewart who had just finished co-writing and co-producing her latest album, "LP1".
- Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley: Grammy award-winning reggae/dancehall artist and youngest son of Bob. He brings his distinctive toasting to the band.
- A.R. Rahmen: World famous Indian musician, composer and producer. Most notable for his Oscar-winning work on "Slumdog Millionaire". Rahmen gives SuperHeavy a taste of Indian music through his keyboard playing and vocals as well as his production skills.
In early 2009 the band met up at Jim Henson Studios in Los Angeles. According to Jagger, they all came with "just ideas, a few guitar riffs and a few snippets of lyrics", which isn't his usual way of writing. It seemed to be a technique that worked however, because in ten days they had recorded some 29 songs, some of which were over an hour long. Stewart revealed that the songwriting process included all five participants and that the songs were born out of extended jams which lasted as long as forty minutes apiece, and includes vocal contributions across the board: “It was like a huge long jam session that went on for months that then slowly turned into structure.”
Their first single, "Miracle Worker" was released on iTunes on 7th July 2011. It's a reggae number with a bluesy kind of vibe thanks to Stone's and Jagger's vocals. The accompanying video is a bit of a visual feast too. I have to hand it to Mick because the song and video really come alive when he comes out in his pink suit to deliver some raspy vocals.
"Miracle Worker" is a pretty good first single. Nothing extraordinary but catchy none the less. Their self-titled album is out on 19th/20th September so we'll have to wait until then to see if this whole crazy experiment really works.
