A Quick Chat with Super Florence Jam

60 Big Ones was recorded in 2012, lost for a decade, and only recently resurrected. How did it feel to revisit these tracks after all these years?

It was like recording duets with our younger selves. Half of the songs – especially Haunted and Want It Now – had enough tracks unfinished from 2012 that we totally rewrote them, maintaining the original structures but with our new perspectives ironed in. Want It Now on one level is us addressing a version of ourselves in the past: "never mind your empty pockets, strap yourself into the rockets / we wish you the best for ten more years of endless contest." There are other resonances now too. Even where songs weren't reworked, we threw in things that today seem obvious but aren't what we might've done at the time.

It was also easier to hear how 60 Big Ones was a natural step from our previous EP, We Always Knew It Would Come To This. I had started to sing more and bring in keys and synths on that – so here it's all more fully-formed, with the keys driving half of the songs – Adam has a guitar synth in there too. So it's necromancy but very logical necromancy. And closure, because we like to see things through.

You describe the record as “exuberant, melancholy, and anthemic.” What emotions and themes do you feel define this collection of songs the most?

There’s a kind of ambivalence in the lyrics ... about disconnection between people which either can't be solved or can only be overcome by turning to pure sensation in the form of nature or unbridled lust. On the surface there's a frenzied and paranoid affair, a sex holiday around Europe, a relationship coming to a melancholic end et cetera – but elsewhere there's something about the passage of time, either the changing of priorities or, as a review from Germany put it, defeating time itself. So one foot in connections and disconnections, and the other foot somewhere that's secretly much bigger and stranger.

Your sound blends noise pop, garage rock, 60s harmonies, and bluesy rave-ups. Were there specific artists or albums that shaped the sonic direction of 60 Big Ones at the time?

We had a few things seeping in that were in the popular consciousness in 2012, a year which still felt pre-Spotify even though it wasn't. Want It Now I wanted to have a Sleigh Bells vibe – in fact I developed this way of playing overdriven guitar and keyboard at the same time for it. But wherever we reference anything we’re making use of it as a familiar anchor to dig for new things in ourselves. Also, we were really into the ecstasy shift at the time, upping the key in the last chorus. "What the hell, sure."

Alex Wilson of sleepmakeswaves helped bring this record back to life. What was it like working with him, and how did he contribute to the final version?

Alex is an old friend, so he isn’t just a good ear but has a full understanding of our idiosyncrasies, like our tendency towards maximalism. Besides cleaning up what we already had, sometimes he'd have us (today) doubling our vocals from 2012 and then choosing where it worked, or be suggesting subliminal touches to elevate sequences here and there. super FLORENCE jam was always a live band first, so it was good to have a bit more freedom and creativity in the studio this time that didn’t sacrifice the live, spontaneous side. But maybe the main thing is that he was able to make six songs we once thought were quite different become a single package.

Many bands leave behind “lost albums,” but few get a chance to release them properly. Do you see 60 Big Ones as a closing chapter, or is there a chance of more material surfacing in the future?

We’re not always a band that does what makes sense. But we're always ready to unleash new material on an unsuspecting world that, as we've seen in the intervening years, not only hasn't suffered enough but almost definitionally will NEVER suffer enough. The door to our tomb – any tomb – is always open.

For those who have followed super FLORENCE jam since the beginning—and for those just discovering you through 60 Big Ones—what would you like to say to them?

What we say in the liner notes: "Here lies super FLORENCE jam: still alive."