Superchick

Mainstream recognition has been building for pop-rock outfit Superchick for quite a few years. Their music has soundtracked more than 60 TV shows, including Alias, The Practice and Joan of Arcadia, as well as movies including Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and Stuart Little. And as they prepare their fourth album for launch later this year, this time it’s with Columbia/Sony Records.

“We haven’t released an album yet with Columbia so we haven’t seen exactly whether that’s going to affect us in a different way,” says Tricia Brock, who fronts the band and shares vocals with her guitarist sister, Melissa. “We’re working on an album right now for them—hopefully it will be released later this year—so we’ll see.

“We prayed a lot of years about whether we were just going to stay in the Christian music industry or what was going to happen with that,” she explains. “We met with a lot of mainstream labels but they didn’t ever quite feel like it was where we were supposed to go. Now we’ve signed with Columbia/Sony and they’ve been really great, saying, ‘We just want to release your album. We want you to do what you do with no limitations on what you want to say or how you want to say it.’

“So we’re really excited to see what happens. We kind of go year-by-year and we just figure if God opens doors, we pray about it and it seems He has and so we walk until He stops us.”

Technically the new album will be their second release with the big label after Beauty from Pain was re-released into the mainstream last year as Beauty from Pain 1.1. According to Melissa, fans should expect a similar sound with perhaps a more upbeat attitude. “We’ll probably go at it with the same approach,” she says. “We always try to have a good mixture, if we can. Granted, the last record we were all pretty sad. So I think some of the themes were like, ‘Wow, somebody got dumped here,’ but none of us have been dumped right now, so we’re probably going to make happier music.”

Bassist Matt Dally echoes the positive message the band is trying to express. “I think God has called us first and foremost to encourage every single one out there that God has a plan for their life,” he explains. “I think it’s something we all struggle with sometimes. So I think that was one of the main messages from the beginning and that’s something we still try to encourage everybody to.”

And it is just such a plan that he sees working out in the life of Superchick. “When you’re working for a bigger label, there are more opportunities there because they have the funds to be able to put you places,” he says. “So far, we’re excited just to have the opportunities. We shot a really huge-budget video for ‘We live’ and it was cool to be on the set with people and really show them what Christ is like, just by treating them with respect and saying hi and saying thankyou.

“By the end of third day of the shoot, everybody was like totally cool and trying to watch their mouths and everyone was like, ‘You guys are really nice and we really appreciate that.’ I think that’s how we can impact non-Christians, just by loving people and, especially in LA, just showing people respect.”

At the beginning of this new chapter in the life of the Superchick, the Chicago-based band toured briefly in Australia earlier this year including a headlining performance at the Australian Gospel Music Festival (AGMF) on the Easter weekend in Toowoomba, Queensland and they reflected on the eight years so far.

“Melissa and I are sisters, so we met when she was born,” says Tricia with a smile. “But we went to a concert and [guitarist] Dave and [keyboardist/DJ/producer] Max were in another band called Church of Rhythm. Melissa had gone to college with their drummer so we kind of ran into them after the show and it was one of those—I like to say random but it wasn’t random because I believe it was God—things. We started talking and they said, ‘We want to start up this chick band. Do you guys know any girls who sing?’ And we had both been trained classically by an opera singer . . .”

“She would cry if she heard us now,” interjects Melissa.

Tricia agrees. “We had never planned on being in a rock band,” she continues, “it was kind of like beneath us. But it was definitely God’s timing.

“We were both seeking God about what we were going to do with our lives. I was doing mission work and I had to decide, ‘Am I going to go to college and be a nurse like I had planned or will I be in this band and give this a try?’ It felt like where we were supposed to be so we just all got thrown together.”

In an industry where image is everything, Tricia admits they have wrestled with the issues of image and marketing. “I think we realise we do have a say,” she reflects. “If it came down to it and we argued something, it wouldn’t happen and we’ve always kept it that way. We have management we trust and everything that happens goes at least through them.

“But by being accessible to people, we hope our heart comes through. The imaging has to happen, because if they’re going to spend $100,000 to push you in the market, they want you to look the way they want you to look. So some of that has to happen, but I think we always try to be accessible to fans, to people, to youth leaders.

“At festivals like this [AGMF], we always want to do this because we want you to know our heart, that we’re not just a product that they’re selling and that it’s our heart and our songs that you’re connecting with,” Tricia explains earnestly.

But then she adds with a laugh, “And we don’t look as good in person as we do in the photo shoots, so that helps.”