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Super Sometimes: write down your dreams, then make them come true
Vocalist Guzman still has the essay at home
Everything happens all at once for Super Sometimes
This year, everything happened all at once for Super Sometimes (formerly known as New Aesthetic): a new name, new record label, and a new album drop. It’s arguable that pop-punk popularity has always come and gone in waves. Without going too far back or straying too far from the local scene: Blink-182 is who Super Sometimes are most often compared to, along with the Poway band’s protégés and tour-mates Kut U Up. Has San Diego spawned yet another band that reopens the lid to pop-punk mainstream? Many seem to think so — even hope so.
When things began to take off, “We were having a little moment online,” recalls guitarist/vocalist Dylan “Danger” Guzman (Never mind the quotation marks; Danger is his real middle name). “Then there was another artist who had the name [New Aesthetic], and they told us we had to change it. It was pretty much a done deal once we found out they owned the copyright. We thought we could find a way around it, but we figured it just presented a good opportunity, especially with the kind of moment we were having on social media.”
They landed on Super Sometimes, and happily, it wasn’t until after the name change that their video for the song “Spork” went viral. The video has so far cultivated over two million views. “Nothing too crazy,” Guzman humbly remarks, “but it definitely changed a lot of stuff for us as a band. We went from around 7000 followers [on Instagram] one night, then waking up the next day with like 20,000.” Since then, their following has grown to over 70,000 in just over a month.
Video:
Super Sometimes: "Spork"
“It’s really dope getting into new people’s ears and having people notice us and see ourselves become a significant San Diego band in real time. It’s a very cool feeling. But what I think is special about it more than anything is the general overhead and consensus of us being a band that’s doing pop-punk the right way, the way people used to really love it in the early 2000s. I feel like what we’re doing with it right now is the perfect combination of all the eras put into one. People are really recognizing that.”
As proof to back up that hopeful assertion, the group started being solicited by multiple record labels this past year. Although the band was happy to be fielding so many offers, they decided to keep doing their own indie thing — while holding out hope for signing with Pure Noise Records, label home to likeminded acts The Story So Far, State Champs, Knocked Loose, Drug Church, and Less Than Jake. It didn’t take long for that call to come, and they were officially signed this past summer.
“When we started this band,” recalls Guzman, “the goal had been and has always been to be on Pure Noise. All the best bands from our generation of pop-punk came from that label. We want to be just like the bands we grew up looking up to. When I was in elementary school, we had this project that was about what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives, or what our biggest dream was. The dream I wrote down was that I wanted to be in a famous touring pop-punk band, and I wanted to be signed to Pure Noise Records.” Guzman says he still has the essay at home.
Once officially under the Pure Noise banner, the band released From Then & Now this past August. The compilation record includes their previous eight released songs along with two new singles, including, “Say Something Now” and a cover of “All Systems Go” by Boxcar Racer, paying homage to Blink’s Tom DeLonge. There was a little concern about re-releasing songs they had already put out, but they figured it would all be new for new herd of listeners who had just discovered them.
Plus, "repackaging everything and making it sound better,” says Guzman, “then putting it into this new arrangement of our entire discography, we can present it to people as something new. It was a really good opportunity for us to get those back catalogue songs into people’s ears. We worked on those songs when we were very young. We take pride in them and wanted to give them a second life.”
Playing alongside Guzman, the four-piece band includes Gabriel Munoz (vocals/guitar), Matthew Ludwig (drums), and Matthew Anliker (bass). They’ll be heading back out on tour soon, notably playing Alabama’s Furnace Fest in October. Then the group will find their way back home on November 21 to play the House of Blues, on a bill that includes Belmont and Avoid.
“It feels good to know San Diego is always going to pull up for us,” says Guzman. “It feels like we’re going to show up to that show and fuckin’ smash it out of the park.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Super Sometimes: write down your dreams, then make them come true
Vocalist Guzman still has the essay at home
Super Sometimes: write down your dreams, then make them come true
Vocalist Guzman still has the essay at home
Everything happens all at once for Super Sometimes
This year, everything happened all at once for Super Sometimes (formerly known as New Aesthetic): a new name, new record label, and a new album drop. It’s arguable that pop-punk popularity has always come and gone in waves. Without going too far back or straying too far from the local scene: Blink-182 is who Super Sometimes are most often compared to, along with the Poway band’s protégés and tour-mates Kut U Up. Has San Diego spawned yet another band that reopens the lid to pop-punk mainstream? Many seem to think so — even hope so.
When things began to take off, “We were having a little moment online,” recalls guitarist/vocalist Dylan “Danger” Guzman (Never mind the quotation marks; Danger is his real middle name). “Then there was another artist who had the name [New Aesthetic], and they told us we had to change it. It was pretty much a done deal once we found out they owned the copyright. We thought we could find a way around it, but we figured it just presented a good opportunity, especially with the kind of moment we were having on social media.”
They landed on Super Sometimes, and happily, it wasn’t until after the name change that their video for the song “Spork” went viral. The video has so far cultivated over two million views. “Nothing too crazy,” Guzman humbly remarks, “but it definitely changed a lot of stuff for us as a band. We went from around 7000 followers [on Instagram] one night, then waking up the next day with like 20,000.” Since then, their following has grown to over 70,000 in just over a month.
Video:
Super Sometimes: "Spork"
“It’s really dope getting into new people’s ears and having people notice us and see ourselves become a significant San Diego band in real time. It’s a very cool feeling. But what I think is special about it more than anything is the general overhead and consensus of us being a band that’s doing pop-punk the right way, the way people used to really love it in the early 2000s. I feel like what we’re doing with it right now is the perfect combination of all the eras put into one. People are really recognizing that.”
As proof to back up that hopeful assertion, the group started being solicited by multiple record labels this past year. Although the band was happy to be fielding so many offers, they decided to keep doing their own indie thing — while holding out hope for signing with Pure Noise Records, label home to likeminded acts The Story So Far, State Champs, Knocked Loose, Drug Church, and Less Than Jake. It didn’t take long for that call to come, and they were officially signed this past summer.
“When we started this band,” recalls Guzman, “the goal had been and has always been to be on Pure Noise. All the best bands from our generation of pop-punk came from that label. We want to be just like the bands we grew up looking up to. When I was in elementary school, we had this project that was about what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives, or what our biggest dream was. The dream I wrote down was that I wanted to be in a famous touring pop-punk band, and I wanted to be signed to Pure Noise Records.” Guzman says he still has the essay at home.
Once officially under the Pure Noise banner, the band released From Then & Now this past August. The compilation record includes their previous eight released songs along with two new singles, including, “Say Something Now” and a cover of “All Systems Go” by Boxcar Racer, paying homage to Blink’s Tom DeLonge. There was a little concern about re-releasing songs they had already put out, but they figured it would all be new for new herd of listeners who had just discovered them.
Plus, "repackaging everything and making it sound better,” says Guzman, “then putting it into this new arrangement of our entire discography, we can present it to people as something new. It was a really good opportunity for us to get those back catalogue songs into people’s ears. We worked on those songs when we were very young. We take pride in them and wanted to give them a second life.”
Playing alongside Guzman, the four-piece band includes Gabriel Munoz (vocals/guitar), Matthew Ludwig (drums), and Matthew Anliker (bass). They’ll be heading back out on tour soon, notably playing Alabama’s Furnace Fest in October. Then the group will find their way back home on November 21 to play the House of Blues, on a bill that includes Belmont and Avoid.
“It feels good to know San Diego is always going to pull up for us,” says Guzman. “It feels like we’re going to show up to that show and fuckin’ smash it out of the park.”
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