Q&A with frontman Daniel Lawrence of Supreme Fiction

UNC alumni rockers Supreme Fiction will be putting out their new extended play (EP), Quivering Things, July 3 with a release show at the Pinhook.

Arts & Diversions Editor Marcela Guimaraes talked to frontman Daniel Lawrence about the new record, the struggles with a changing lineup and how their sound has evolved through the years.

THE DAILY TAR HEEL: Where do you guys draw inspiration from?

DANIEL LAWRENCE: What we’re maybe commenting on or drawing on songs are pretty silly, geeky, pop culture related things. We have two songs on our upcoming EP that reference TV shows. We have pretty esoteric stuff in the lyrics, referring to actual events in history, some 800 years back.

The juxtaposition of childish, fantastical, imaginative elements and having a kind of empathetic adult perspective on those things I think is a big part that drives us.

DTH: What inspired you guys to come out with a new EP after three years?

DL: The short answer is that we didn’t intend on it taking three years. We actually started working on the EP in late 2012, which feels like a billion years ago right now. But we sort of had a few obstacles along the way. One of them was that one of the things we were interested in exploring was the sound of what was at the time the five of us, making music together and exploring sounds.

On the first record we really mapped everything out. I think I had written a lot of parts and melodies beforehand, so we knew what every instrument was going to do before we did it. But going forward we kind of wanted to see some of what our band’s installed musical personality was. That was a cool process, but it also took a lot more time and we also learned what some of the drawbacks are.

In 2013, gradually a couple of members had to leave the band, which was something amicable and the right thing for them at that time, but that was maybe a setback. That was probably the biggest reason why we’re just getting to release the new EP now.

DTH: How do you think the band’s sound has changed through the years?

DL: It’s definitely changed a lot. Logistically speaking, I definitely played a lot more acoustic guitar when we started off. I think our arrangements were kind of more of the stacked vertical arrangements on our first album, where every instrument in the band had a very discrete role, they were all kind of doing the same thing for the entire song. In part because of personnel reasons, we were a four-piece then we were a five-piece then we were a four-piece again then we were a three-piece.

We’ve adapted and we’ve grown as players too to where things aren’t so linear and so vertical anymore. Instruments explore the harmonic space and step out more. I think that playing has meshed and sort of grown inward together. I think you hear that on this EP in ways that weren’t there as much in the album.

DTH: What’s next for the band?

DL: We are looking to obviously keep playing shows going forward. We are also finishing up recording on a new album. That’s one of the advantages of taking so long to put out our EP is that I guess we did manage to do some other things. So we’re finishing up our second record right now at Nightsound Studios in Carrboro. We’re really excited to hopefully be putting that out in the fall of 2014, so we have that to look forward to.