An interview with Tyler Volkmar from Superlunar. Superlunar consists of 3 members, with Tyler Volkmar singing and playing guitar, Kyle Impini playing bass, and Ty Maguiness on drums. Based in Bloomington, the members have been creating music since November 2020.
Question: How did the remaster of Demos Vol. 2 come about? It was on cassette before streaming services?
Volkmar: Yes, we did put it on cassette first with RTR tapes. We were actually their first release, and we put it together pretty quickly after we finished Vol. 2, and its first round. I somewhat by chance, got really into Oasis for the first time ever. I knew who Oasis was, but had never gotten into them before. I had a friend who showed me a few of their songs, to try to put together a cover band for the yearly Blockhouse cover band show. My friend and our producer, Ty Denstorff, we were watching the Oasis documentary, Supersonic, and afterward, we were talking about Demos Vol. 2 and how we wished its initial release had kinda hit the same way as Oasis’s stuff did, with dirtier layered guitars and leaning into the psychedelic stuff as well. For the remastered version of Vol. 2, we also tried to spread the guitars, make it louder, and make the bass and drums bigger as well, I love how it turned out.
Was Oasis a big inspiration for your music?
Volkmar: The inspiration is only about 6 months old, I think it is something that is entering what I do now and how I have written songs recently. Initially, the band has a foundation of Folk music, I am a huge fan of Fleet Foxes and the War on Drugs, and combining that with hip-hop, emo, similar to Lil Peep or JuiceWRLD, as well as singers such as George Clanton. And combining these together to what feels the most genuine to us.
What are your bandmates' inspirations for your music?
Volkmar: I think we all like different things, but we do have overlapping things that we all like, bands like Radiohead and Neutral Milk Hotel. But we all have our own favorites, our drummer's favorite band is Thee Oh Sees, and a very eclectic hip-hop taste and Kyle likes Steely Dan and bands similar to the Grateful Dead.
Do you write the lyrics, and what's the process of creating music like?
Volkmar: My process for songwriting is where I try to put myself in the best scenario to feel comfortable enough to write, ultimately I write a lot of the songs in the bathroom while the shower is running. The focus of the band is to have an emotional impact, so I write a lot of songs, and we usually keep about a third of these. The ones we tend to keep are the ones where things like chords, lyrics, and melody come naturally. For those, I usually don't make many changes to.
Are your lyrics inspired by the bands you mentioned before?
Volkmar: My lyrics are really my own thing, I try to make them straight up about my life, in the first person, and try to use very plain English. I listen to a lot of K-pop, and I think it's had a large effect on my lyrics and trying to get the point across simply. Even with my job and its work, I have to communicate trying to be very clear and to the point, and I think that has helped.
What part of culture shock were you guys most excited for?
Volkmar: We’re excited to play newer songs, it's called Sleep 4ever, and we played it on WFHB for the first time a few weeks ago but this will be the first time we’ll play it live.
Are these new songs out yet anywhere?
Volkmar: No, currently we have 6 songs released but play about 13 live. We have 5 more songs that are going to be on a release probably over the summer. We do have more like, Sleep 4ever, No Hope No Help No Hurt, Summer Keeps Waiting, and those are so new we aren't sure when they'll be out.
What artist would you like to bring back from the dead?
Volkmar: Immediate answer that comes to me is Scott Walker 100%. Scott Walker is one of those people I really enjoy a lot, but others don’t know too much about. He was one of the crooners from the sixties, more experimental. He came back in the 80s and to the end of his life he twisted the crooner idea into more of a goth and experimental idea.
