What’s Supercrunk?

On a sunny Wednesday in the lunch quad, I spoke with Aaron McCarty, a member of the band Supercrunk. It’s a band made up of McClatchy seniors that has become increasingly popular this year, well known for playing music at events in and around campus. 

If the mosh pits I’ve watched assemble within minutes at all of their concerts are any indication, kids at school definitely seem to vibe with Supercrunk’s sound. I would guess people are also into the cool and casual stoner/punk aesthetic they encapsulate, because it is a good reflection of the style that a lot of CKM students like–and our whole generation, really. The band’s tracks are fairly  unique, but in our conversation Aaron mentioned a few inspirations for their sound, as well as artists that some listeners have compared them to. This includes Rock subgenres like Punk, Indie, and Alternative Rock, and bands like Hum and Dinosaur Jr. 

“To start off, who are the members of Supercrunk?”

“Currently, it is myself [Aaron McCarty] (bass guitar), Jack McCarthy (singer, songwriter, guitarist), Antonio “Tony” Valencia (singer, occasional guitar player), and Matthew Stepheson (drums).”

“When was Supercrunk created?”

“Around 2019. It started with us jammin’ out at Jack’s house sometimes, because I picked up the bass that year and Matthew picked up the drums. Jack has always been a guitarist, because his dad is a really musical person. So we always listened to music, liked to play around with various instruments there, and fantasized about starting a band, even in middle school. Once Matthew and I got good enough that we could jam with Jack, we had a lot of fun improvising together, and then Tony started jamming with us probably in the first summer of quarantine. During Covid especially, we’d skate around our neighborhood together all day, and when we got tired we’d go to Jack’s house and try writing some stuff. We’d do that like two or three times a week, and that kinda just became a way of life for us throughout all of quarantine.” 

“Is there any special meaning behind the name Supercrunk?”

*Aaron and Quinn laugh* “We’ve gone through a few names at this point, and we tend to smush words together that we think sound funny – like ‘Liquid Soft’ and ‘Super Crunk.’ We played our first show under the name ‘Strong Male Lead’. It was supposed to be ironic because none of the band members were very muscular. But we became Supercrunk pretty soon after that.”

“Give me a run down on the events you guys have had so far.”

“Our first show was April of last year. Somebody who graduated last year asked us to play at like a gender health fundraiser for their senior project, and we played at some park downtown, and it was cool. And then like a week later we played at The Colony in Oak Park. And it was super epic, and there was moshing, and it was super punk and crazy. After that, we played at a concert for Life Skills Club in October, and then at the McClatchy Talent Show in March. And most recently we played at lunch about two weeks ago (in the back corner of the lunch quad) which was lit.”

“How many songs do you have?”

Aaron: “The CD has like nine real tracks, a few of which are not exactly songs, and two of them have some Spanish. You can listen to them on Bandcamp.”

Quinn: “There’s a ton of songs that they’ve recorded but Jack won’t upload them to Bandcamp because they’re not done yet. I think he’s just getting really into the art of sound engineering and stuff like that. He seems passionate about all of that and plans to study it at Chico State, so that seems to be his main focus. Or he’s being lazy.”

“Do you have any specific inspirations?”

“Well, we all collectively listen to a lot of grunge and Alternative Rock, so that kind of comes out in all of our music. In our sound, a lot of people say we’re similar to Dinosaur Jr. – I don’t really see it, but yeah. This one band called Hum is a really big influence in our sound. Jack and I discovered them around two years ago I think. Matthew never got that into them, but since Jack writes a lot of the songs, you can hear them. For example, I think ‘Girl in Crocs’ sounds a lot like Hum. 

“Do you plan to make merch?”

“Yeah, we’ve thought about making merch. Maybe shirts, I don’t know. Our productivity levels are pretty low right now cuz we don’t really care about much. We’re kinda crazy, we’re kinda rebellious…We don’t care about the norms.”

“Do you know when you might perform next?”

“I kinda wanna do another lunchtime thing without telling anyone, because last time we just winged it without planning what we would play, and it was spontaneous and cool. On the last day of school for the underclassmen, we might play a house show at Arlo Payne’s house, so people should come out. But, once Jack goes to Chico, the group will be pretty separated, so I don’t think we’ll keep recording anything. Tony’s going to the Marines on April 16th, so if we do that house show he won’t even be able to make it.”

*Sidenote* “Some of the members have a couple side projects you should talk about too. Jack, Matthew, Tony, and I have this side project called Booster Seat that’s literally just Supercrunk with a different name. Then Jack, Lucas, myself, and our friend Vidal Menard created this other side project called Teenage Runaways and we’re currently working on a song that we’re aiming to release this month.”

“Cool! Do you have any long term intentions for this group in the future?”

Aaron: “I dunno, again maybe a reunion when Jack comes back from Chico. We definitely won’t see Tony for a while… We’re gonna stay in touch though, so maybe a reunion in ten years.”

Ethan: “Going on tour worldwide, man”

Quinn: “New York, Dubai, Los Angeles, Las Vegas…”

Ethan: “Chico State” 

Aaron: “Yeah we’re pretty big, it’s pretty crazy.”

*Bell rings*

“Thanks for answering my long list of questions today! I loved hearing some background info on the birth of Supercrunk and its evolution, and I’m pumped to go to the next show.” 

This concludes our inside look into the lives of the highly acclaimed, Punk Rock, self-declared “Hesh Riot Grrrl,” musical group of McClatchy High School. Below is a link to their digital album: 

https://supercrunk.bandcamp.com/album/supercrunk-demo