FUSE TV - Superheaven on Struggling Financially, Being Called "Shoegaze"

Arriving in stores on May 4, Superheaven's Ours Is Chrome is a beast of an album. The record finds the Pennsylvania combo firing off guitar riffs that are thick as molasses and wedging in hummable vocal melodies right beneath the surface. Released under their original name, Daylight, Superheaven's 2013 debut album Jar was a critical success and propelled them into full "band to watch" status.

With Ours Is Chrome just a few weeks away, I spoke with Superheaven vocalist and guitarist Taylor Madison about his feelings on being called "shoegaze," the financial struggle of being in an underground touring band, and which groups he sees as peers.

The first question I have to ask you is what brought on the name change?

Well, there’s another band called Daylight. We knew about them for years, but never really worried about copyright issues. It was brought to our attention that they owned the rights to the name, internationally. Rather than continue putting out records and printing shirts with a name we knew we’d inevitably have to change, we just changed it preemptively. It sucked and was a giant pain in the ass, but it’s whatever. Now we have a name that when you type it in somewhere, we are the only thing that comes up.

I remember when Jar first came out, some of my musician friends and music writer buddies started saying it was “very '90s,” in a good way. What’s your take on that?

I don’t know. We’re definitely influenced by ‘90s music, but we’re influenced by all kinds of music. I get why people say that. It makes sense. But it gets to the point where people are kind of obnoxious about it. Like, saying we have long hair and wear flannel shirts sometimes, acting like we’re trying our hardest to look “grunge” or some shit. Please. I’ve been wearing flannel shirts my whole life, and I promise you it has nothing to do with trying to be “grunge.” I’m a goddamn adult. I dress however the hell I want, and that’s the only reason I do anything.