In this feature we explore some of our favourite artists’ passions outside of their musical endeavours.

This time we speak with Orono Noguchi, frontwoman of transnational multimedia behemoth Superorganism, about her life-long passions outside of music.

For the dwindling few of you who are unaware of Superorganism’s remarkable history, theirs is one that could have only taken place in our present, and it was under mysterious circumstances in early February 2017, that a bizarre yet ravenously addictive track entitled ‘Something For Your M.I.N.D.’ surfaced on SoundCloud. The scarce supplementary information provided suggested the song was created by an eight-piece band named Superorganism; their members were scattered across the globe; and their lead singer was a 17-year-old girl from Maine. Indeed, it’s only from recent interviews we’ve retrospectively learnt that the band largely met via online forums and began collaborating by passing demos across the internet ether.

As the story goes, the band sent the original ‘Something For You M.I.N.D.’ demo to a young acquaintance of theirs - Noguchi - hailing from Japan but based in Maine asking if she’d lend some vocals. She returned the track within the hour and the final iteration of Superorganism was born. Since then, Superorganism’s rise has been nothing short of spectacular.

At present, all Superorganism’s band members share an East London commune-cum-studio-cum-non-stop production house, and it was from this hive mind headquarters that much of Superorganism’s eponymous debut LP (released via Domino Records in March of this year) was consolidated.

And what a record it is.

Unwaveringly DIY in aesthetic, Superorganism have voraciously consumed, digested and recast a seemingly endless supply of influences, memories and 21^st century content in their deliriously off-kilter full-length. With its warped guitars, squelching synths, YouTube samples and Windows 95 nostalgia, it’s an infectiously charming collage of ideas, and with their instant, inescapable singability, Noguchi’s deadpan delivery of at once madcap and disarmingly affecting lyrics only seal the deal.

Now, Noguchi’s pivotal role in the legend of Superorganism has been well documented (and given this band’s damn near unbelievable origin story, how could it not be?), but what might be less known is that she’s an avid artist as well, creating the cover artwork for all the band’s releases thus far.

Given her demonstrable talents as an artist, we caught up with Noguchi to learn a little more about her creative pursuits parallel to music, and as we came to learn, music really is just the tip of the creative iceberg…

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TMR: Superorganism is such a multimedia project so it makes sense that you all have creative interests parallel to music. Can you describe the atmosphere, process and day-to-day happenings at Superorganism HQ?

It's probably not as exciting as you think it is. Usually there's some of us in this tiny, disgusting kitchen, eating food or drinking coffee, talking about anything from a good movie that we watched the previous night to a hilarious article that we just read ("Michael Nesmith of the Monkees Loves Vaporwave. Seriously." by the Rolling Stone). Perhaps my favorite article of all time. And anyone who's not in the kitchen is probably scheming for a new song, a music video, or a multimedia extravaganza in their own bedrooms.

TMR: You’ve done the artwork for many of the Superorganism records but how did you personally get started in the world of visual art?

*Coughs* I've done the artworks for all of our original material! I guess I got started as a kid, doodling Lizzie McGuire or something. Then in art class at school obviously. I disliked art class in Japan though, particularly during middle school. I just hate being told what to do creatively. On top of that, Japanese education promotes complete memorization of everything rather than a comprehensive understanding of the given material, so my frustrations grew stronger every day, until my parents and I decided to quit the school that I was going to in Japan and transfer to a school in Maine. Best decision ever. Ms. Burns was the best art teacher that I could ever ask for; she really reignited my love for the visual arts.

TMR: Where, or from whom, do you find inspiration for your visual art?

Anything and everything...? This is a tough one because I don't really have a go-to thing for inspiration, they tend to come to me naturally. Here's an example: we were in a van on our way back to our Airbnb in LA and I saw the most beautiful, picturesque Walgreens that I had ever seen in my entire life. It was extremely inspirational. I plan on painting it soon.

 

TMR: What’s your favourite piece of artwork you’ve made for a Superorganism cover? How did this piece come about and what made it so appropriate for the cover art?

Probably the cover for ‘It's All Good/Nobody Cares’. It was originally the cover for ‘SFYM’, the first thing that we ever put out into the world. Emily and I were talking about the single artwork and he knew that I had some stuff lying around, so I sent him some photos. He immediately chose the self-portrait that I had made the previous year, which I actually kind of disliked for some reason. I think it was because I put it in the school art show and I had multiple people come up to me and say that my self-portrait was "really weird". During the process of making that I was in a really weird state of mind (I think I stayed up several nights in a row to finish it) so I couldn't tell if the feedback was positive or negative. Guess it was neither; it was just captivating enough that it caught lots of people's eyes... which made it so perfect for our first single cover.

TMR: Of course you’re a lyricist and writer as well. Where do your roots lie on the literary side of things?

It stems from my dad just constantly telling me to read as a kid. He said that the more I read, the smarter I got. He's a cheap man, so he never got me all the cool toys and shoes and whatnot that all the other kids in school had, but he always got me books that I wanted to read. Impressing my dad was very important to me, also. I went through a transcendentalism phase during my sophomore year, I'm also really into John Irving's novels. I like everything.

TMR: Who or what inspires your lyrics nowadays?

I've been watching heaps and heaps of RuPaul lately so I'm gonna go with that. I have an intense amount of respect for drag queens and am just extremely fascinated by drag culture just in general.



TMR: We’ve heard that writing fan fiction was a particular joy of yours at one point and we’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of these stories brought to life on Superorganism’s YouTube channel. There’s a whole online community writing countless fan fiction stories, what was your route into this world and why was it so attractive?

I only wrote one fan fiction series that involved lots of celebrities, including Katy Perry and Ezra Koenig. The ones that are up on our YouTube channel were written specifically for the video series, so none of them actually have anything to do with what I used to write as a 12-year-old. Nope, I wasn't really involved with a fan fiction community, nor was I attracted to it. I actually considered the whole thing to be super embarrassing so I only really showed it to my friends at school. I refused to call it a fan fiction too. I think I started writing it because I so desperately wanted to create a universe where all of my idols knew one another.

TMR: You’re heavily involved in the spheres of music, visual art and writing, all of which are quite different practices but do you find them to be linked at all? If so, how?

To me they don't come off as different things, just because I grew up with all of them. This is a tough question... just because I consider most things to be connected in one way or another, but I never think about it consciously. Especially those three because I've engaged with them early on in my life. Is that good enough of an answer?

TMR: Do you have any other creative dreams outside of music, visual art or writing?

Kind of. I plan on becoming a professor at some point.

TMR: What does the rest of 2018 hold for yourself and Superorganism? 

Continue touring around the world, finish up the next album, all that jazz. Just boring stuff.



Superorganism is out now via Domino Records.

-Karl Jawara