Super Open-Minded

"Some of the songs [I wrote] for Fuel TV are on my new CD," says Superunloader drummer Chad Farran about his recently released second solo album, Another Ride.

"Fuel TV is one of Fox Network's affiliates," says Farran. "They are based out of L.A. and are available on most cable and satellite providers.... The show that I create the music for is called On Surfari. It is a travel/surf show.... The music plays an integral part of the show, taking sounds and instrumentation from the countries the show travels to.

"For the India show, I had a friend from India, Debu, play some sitar and sing some melodies.... On the Italy show, I had my friend Karen Reavis play some accordion, mixed it with some Italian opera samples, and made some rigatoni rap.... For the Caribbean show, [the host had me] dress up as a Taino Indian boy and dance around in the San Diego brush to exemplify the late Taino Indian traditions. He had me strip down to my briefs, dressed me up in scraps of leather and some of his wife's jewelry and makeup that was laying around the house. Then he gave me a drum to beat on as I grunted out in my pathetic Indian tongue the words he had scribbled on a sheet of paper....

"[The show host] also learned that the Taino invented a version of the red rubber ball we see in our grade-school playgrounds. So he decided to have me dance around, dribbling this big rubber ball in the sagebrush like some extinct Indian basketball buffoon.... These scenes were good for some laughs, but I can't help wonder if we insulted some Taino relatives that happened to be watching....

"I will be releasing the soundtracks for these shows on Superunloader reCorDs, but for now you can hear some samples on the Superunloader website."

What's going on with Superunloader these days?

"Superunloader is still a band," says Farran "although we haven't been playing much. We plan to record our fourth CD soon, and we'll have some gigs coming up."