The Superpowers

"The Boston Afrobeat Society has quickly become a well-oiled and well-respected machine. Well-versed in what seems to be infinite styles of World music, the group is happily riding shotgun in the re-emergence of the Afrobeat Nation." - Mike Schaefer - The Stowe Reporter

"One of the finest young American bands purveying the afrobeat form." - Will Spitz - The Boston Phoenix

You’ve gotta love — or at least like — any band with a song called “So Long Donald Rumsfeld.” - Jon Garelick - The Boston Phoenix

"I have watched this band for 2 years and they deserve to be heard and supported by anybody who appreciates the power and joy of music. These are 11 young men who have developed a sound that is at once funky and serious, full of creative nuance and adherence to the tradition of Afrobeat, Jazz, Modern, Avant Garde, and Dance music, and aligned with World Peace and Good Will. Support their good vibrations!!!!" - Al Green
- Al "POPDUKES" Green

Q. So how did The Superpowers get started?
A. I started the band in the spring of 2005 and we’ve just been chipping away since then.

Q. What made you want to start the band?
A. I had an extreme interest in Afrobeat music. It was music that I had been looking into pretty much exclusively for about a year. There wasn’t a band doing it in the New England area at all. So I was really into the music and wanted to play it and decided to start the band…not really with any long term intentions because you never know what’s going to happen with a band.

Q. Did you know all the band members before?
A. I went to school with pretty much all of them. Most of them I had met at New England Conservatory of Music. Part of the thing of having a big band is it hasn’t always been the same people. Six people have been there the whole time, but we’re on the third of fourth generations of band members.

Q. How many people are in the band now?
A. I don’t like to put any kind of specific number on it. We’ve done shows with seven or eight. It just depends on who can make the gig. We would all love to just be traveling and playing this music, but it’s just not happening right now. Sometimes we do gigs with seven people and we’ve done gigs with 13 people. If it were up to me I’d have 80 people in my band.

Q. Why so many?
A. It’s all about the sound. There’s a polyphonic sound that you get with having all these different parts ... Each person has a specific role. When you put it all together you get a grand sound that’s very epic, like in an African drum circle. You only get the context of it when you hear the whole.

Q. Explain Afrobeat.
A. The quick and dirty explanation is it’s like James Brown’s band goes to Africa. Really funky guitars, psychedelic keyboards and a big horn section playing really powerful, epic horn lines. It’s like trance, with very specific written parts and long songs. It has everything to do with the universe and the rhythms of the world and trying to get everyone to unify.

Q. Is it hard to find acceptance playing this African-inspired music when only one member of your band is of African descent?
A. It can be difficult. [But] every African that’s ever seen us is always so excited to see a bunch of white boys just playing their asses off to this funky Afrobeat music. We put 110 percent of our blood, sweat, tears and souls into this music.

Q. What instruments do you play besides the drums?
A. I play piano and bass and guitar and I’m starting to play the sax a little bit. I try to get my hands on as many instruments as I can. I grew up playing piano first and I started playing drums with the Glenvar Middle School band. Then I went to Virginia Tech for two years after I graduated [from Glenvar High School] in 2000 and started playing jazz. Then I transferred to New England Conservatory in 2002. I got a B.A. of Music in Contemporary Improvisation.

Q. What activities did you do in high school?
A. I was in the marching band from eighth to twelfth grade. I ran track, played baseball and was on the golf team. I was valedictorian at Glenvar in 2000. Right around ninth or tenth grade I realized that music was pretty much what I wanted to do.

Q. What kind of music were you listening to back then?
A. I listened to Metallica and Guns N’ Roses… then I listened to Phish and Medeski Martin and Wood, and that’s where my whole perception of music changed. It was a much freer, artistic vibe.

Q. Do you have any other jobs?
A. I teach music. Drums, piano bass … That’s where I get my most steady source of income. Next to playing shows and music, that’s the most gratifying thing I could think of doing is spreading music to young people and helping them to understand and learn it. Hopefully it will permeate their soul and their spirit like it did mine … I try to make them see the joy of art and music.

Q. So what will come after The Superpowers for you?
A. This band is it for me. If it doesn’t work out with this band I’ll probably just quit playing music. I can’t imagine that I’d ever play in a band that’s much better than this one.

Q. How often do you make it home to Salem?
A. I come back for the holidays and I make it back three or four times a year. All my family lives in Salem. They’re all still there so it’s good to come back and see them. I bring the band down with me and we stay in my house and my mom fixes a bunch of food and they love to come hang out with my family as much as I do. The band wouldn’t be able to exist if it wasn’t for my parents, Shelley and Stacey Clark. If it wasn’t for them The Superpowers would never have lasted as long as they have. - Roanoke Times

"They don’t sound much like Antibalas but they’re just as good...They could have gone on for twice as long as they did and nobody in the audience would have complained." -Anonymous - Lucid Culture

"The Boston Afrobeat Society on WERS' Live Music Week 2006 represents one of Boston's super-solid local bands kicking ass and taking names!" - Micheal Brodeur - The Weekly Dig - Boston

"The BAS feeds on Fela's inspiration to create original instumental Afrobeat with fiery rhythmic expressions, hard-hitting grooves, and powerful horn solos." - Martin Pillsbury - Boston World Rhythm Calendar

"A band built on face-melting percussive breakdowns and funky brass showoff pieces with a badass vibe...armed with limitless positive musical energy and/or retractable razor claws." - Weekly Dig

"The whole spiritual brotherhood aside, the best thing about The Superpowers is that they’re a band who can just play... I can’t stress enough the good vibes at this show. Everyone was simply happy to be there, most of all The Superpowers themselves, coming back out on stage after playing for two hours straight for another half-hour encore...As a sonic explosion of polyrhythmic sounds and ideas, it took over people’s inhibitions. One word: Success."

Jon Meyer - WERS 88.9 Emerson College