In a tightly knit music town like Athens, collaboration between bands is common. Side projects grow like wildflowers and guitarist swapping is just an understood thing. But every once in a while, a group of musicians will really click and become more than just a band. They become a community, a family. And for Supercluster, that is what it’s all about.

Supercluster is an incredibly appropriate moniker for a project that contains musicians from a rough dozen or so other bands from the Athens area. Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon) and Hannah Jones (New Sound of Numbers) gathered up some friends from Olivia Tremor Control, Instruments, Casper & the Cookies, The Squalls, and Deerhunter to create what the members called “just a fun little thing.”

With so many influences and musical leanings, Supercluster could have imploded. Instead, the band quickly hit upon a sound that it calls “Appalachian wave,” a mix of trance and dance with some pop and experimental touches. Having enough inspiration for songs was not a problem. Having any musicians in town at the time of recording, however, was a different animal.

“Pylon was only doing the occasional show here and there, so I had time for Supercluster,” says Briscoe Hay. “It’s getting everyone in the same room at the same time; that’s the challenge.”

Fortunately, Supercluster leaned more towards a recording project than a touring one, allowing its members to come and go through town with their other bands and not upset the balance. When the band did play live, the collective pulled from its many side projects for members, making each show unique. The band’s songs began to reflect their wide variety of tastes.

“Making the album was like playing with a Ouija board, I guess,” says Jason NeSmith, who acted as both mixer and musician on the record. “We just all put our hands into it and let it go where it wanted.”

By “we” NeSmith also means the numerous family members that helped to create Supercluster’s debut album Waves. Briscoe Hay would often end up humming a tune to herself all day until she could get to her keyboard or phone to record it. The bandmembers would add in their parts, like a cello here and a paper bag there. Briscoe Hay’s daughter Hana Hay contributed a few song additions of her own.

Supercluster somehow manages to steer clear of being compared to any one of the bands it is formed from. Like a musical magnet, pieces from the most Elephant Six-sounding bits to the more pop-oriented song become rearranged and settled in a way that few have before. As for the topics Supercluster tackles on its first venture out, they range from the seriousness of war to lighthearted tales about mermaids.

As a live band, Supercluster is really something to see, mainly because one can never be sure what the lineup will look like that night. Joining the Supercluster family in live gigs from time to time are musicians like Heather McIntosh (Instruments) and Brian Poole (Of Montreal), contributing their own talents to the band’s three female vocalists, a nearly full string quartet and good old-fashioned drums and guitar.

The lives of the entire Supercluster family were turned upside down when guitarist Randy Bewley (Pylon, New Sound of Numbers) died in February this year. As a bandmember, Bewley had been stepping outside of his boundaries with his guitar stylings and was beginning to experiment. With their dear friend and bandmate suddenly gone, the project was put on hold for a bit.

“It was a while before I could listen to any of the recordings,” says Briscoe Hay. “Towards the end, he came up with these delicate little guitar parts. They were beautiful.”

With Bewley’s place now vacant, NeSmith and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox stepped in as guitarists to help Supercluster finish the recording. It was an emotional process for the band, but it was one they were determined to get through together. The final decision to release Waves was something that no one even thought twice about.

“There was never any doubt that we would release it,” says Briscoe Hay. “We felt like the world deserved to hear Randy.”

It is fitting, then, that Supercluster’s debut album was released on Oct. 6, just a little bit before Pylon’s reissue of Chomp. Besides featuring Bewley's guitar wrk, both albums also have his artwork on their covers: a dinosaur on Chomp and a funky guitar on Waves. It’s a musical family’s memorial to one of their own.

The release party is taking place at Little Kings, the place where Pylon made a triumphant return during a now legendary show a few years back. Time has passed quickly since then, but Bewley’s love of music is carried forward by his bandmates in Supercluster, who continue to press on to new musical horizons.

Says Briscoe Hay, “I can’t wait to see where we go next.”

Jordan Stepp

WHO	Supercluster
WHERE	Little Kings Shuffle Club
WHEN	Friday, Oct. 23
HOW MUCH	TBA