Singled Out: Tunnel's Super Charged Powerball

Keavin Wiggins | 06-09-2020

Montreal duo Tunnel recently released their new studio album "Out For a While" and to celebrate we asked them to tell us about the song "Super Charged Powerball". Here is the story:

Super Charged Powerball? What does that mean you wonder? Well, it's the name of a dishwasher soap that we bought at the corner store during a break from our sessions in the studio. And it pretty much sums the vibe of the track. It's the kind of music a dishwasher would listen to, you know... if it could.

Francois' demo track was just an instrumental with the main guit/bass unison riff and the B section riff. We recorded the track, as with most of the album at a house we rented way out in the middle of a valley, surrounded by forest, a river and only one neighbor, Jean-Paul and his dog Hatchi. No internet, no phone, just music. And Jean-Paul who would show up from time to time unannounced to see what we were up to.

We listened back to the demo, we knew it was a keeper and we had to develop the 2 riffs of the song. The theme as we were making the record was really to go all out with our ideas, as crazy or weird as they may seem and try to not to be too serious or judge one anothers' ideas. After the drums were tracked, the fun/hippy/disco/crazy vibe of the track was clear. We had to make this as far-out as possible and keep it short and sweet. One thing led to another, we tracked the keyboard melody in the first section, and then Kevin began freestyling lyrics through guitar pedals which nailed things into place. We even re-amped a separate drum track through Francois' ENZO pedal in the bridge for the weird distorted disco dance part. It was whack and we loved it. The lyrics are just a mishmash of improv based on what we were doing... "We spent a week in the woods....Jean Paul tell me where you've been all day...SuperCharged Powerball!!!!" Does it all make sense? We don't know. And it doesn't matter. But we had a ton of fun tracking this song and can't wait to play it live once we're legally allowed to play shows again. Until then, think twice about what music you could be listening to while your dishwasher is running.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here