Image via Facebook / Supertentacles
What do you do when you’re 26 years old and denied a beer on a long flight for looking underage?
Well, you could go full Karen mode and cause a scene. Or, if you’re Milwaukee musician Sean Anderson, you write a contagiously catchy song about the incident that escalates into a commentary on the way that older generations leave behind their messes for younger generations to clean up.
Anderson is the mastermind behind the musical project known as Supertentacles, a one-man-band that has putting out music since 2018 but has yet to play a live show—an elusive Milwaukee hidden gem that you only hear about on social media. He’s about to release the band’s sophomore album King of Nothing later this summer and has teased that release with the single “Older.” That tune draws inspiration from the aforementioned airline incident.
“As I kept writing lyrics (for “Older”), it turned into more of a generational statement,” Anderson says. “It became a ‘middle finger’ song to the older politicians that have been running our country into the ground for decades with zero regard for future generations.”
Anderson plays bass in the Milwaukee group Yum Yum Cult (who have also recently released a new tune), but his creativity runs free in Supertentacles. The name is taken from Anderson’s old Xbox gamer tag but is also eponymous in the way that Anderson uses the many different appendages of his musical talents to write layered songs that sound as if they’re performed by a full band. And that’s actually why Supertentacles has yet to play a live show. Recording software allows Anderson to have as many “arms” as he needs, but getting together a band to pull it off would take quite a bit of rehearsing. But its no longer out of the question for Anderson.
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“I’m more open to that challenge of getting these songs prepared for a live setting—it’s just fun,” Anderson says. “I’m 29 and I’m getting older—performing is the way I’m most social outside of my nuclear group.”
Most Accessible
It’s also an appropriate time in Supertentacles’ career to start debuting its music live. Anderson claims that his new music is his most accessible yet.
“I try to have this underlying pop element to a lot of the songs,” Anderson says. “Before when I was making music I was like ‘I want this to sound like Radiohead B-sides.’”
Those pop elements are transparent in the single “Older” with the catchy-as-hell opening riffs paving the way for Anderson’s tongue-in-cheek vocals mocking the snooty old folks, with lyrics like “You had your chance but now it’s up/Don’t worry we’ll restore the peace/While you enjoy retirement.” It’s easy to bop your head to and the vocals are contagious, but it’s also snarky in its attitude, making it all the more fun to sing along to. Its appropriately sung in a way that almost reminds one of the way that they first rebelled against their elders as a kid.
Other tracks on the album deal with themes of feeling insufficient in life—of not feeling good enough. The track “Turtle Shell” is a groovy jam that is representative of Anderson’s feelings throughout the process of writing the album as a whole: Down on his luck, unemployed and underachieving, yet using those same emotions to create something meaningful.
“(This song) is where the name King of Nothing comes from,” Anderson says. “If i had to choose, I’d say this is my favorite off the album.”
It’s a title that explores the way that Anderson processes his own feelings of self-doubt. “There are lyrics in multiple songs about not knowing what my place is —comparing myself to others who have found their niche,” Anderson says. “But it’s also about conquering all that self-doubt—plowing forward, learning and growing as a person and as a musician.”
And with King of Nothing, it’s clear that Anderson has, for now, found his niche—a poppy arsenal that’s just weird enough to keep you guessing, but not bizarre enough to scare away the most vanilla of listeners. And with that, Anderson can hopefully don a more meaningful crown.
