Simon Houghton

Barnsley may still be musically best known for pedestrian hard-rockers Saxon of ‘Denim and Leather’ infamy. All available indicators and graphs, however, suggest that their place at the top of the town’s rock tables will soon be occupied by SUPERfreak.

Behind the sleepy South Yorkshire town’s unflattering façade of closed pits, pound shops and warm bitter lies a surprisingly fertile music scene, with SUPERfreak as its brightest proprietors. The local college’s array of music courses bring dozens of aspiring musicians to the town every year, and these educational opportunities were the catalyst that brought SUPERfreak, the Anglo-Finnish federation of funk, together.

The nucleus of the group – singer Baggie, bassist Dave and drummer Bob, all from Bradford – had been chiselling at the coalface of groove in ever-evolving line-ups for a good couple of years, writing and demoing bewildering piles of original material but plagued by a lack of compatible compatriots to complete the ideas into fully fleshed-out songs. When the trio bumped into guitarist Ari, who, being from Helsinki, represents the Baltic region in the band, and keyboardist Chris, both music students with a background of playing in innumerable outfits, in jam sessions and various impromptu projects around the town it soon became obvious that the missing links in the band’s evolution had been located. Baggie remembers the celebratory moment in early 2003 when the band’s sound clicked vividly.

The Neptunes’s nasty funk-rock incarnation N.E.R.D. in particular is an outfit Superfreak feel they share some common musical goals with, although veterans such as diminutive funk-rock dynamo Prince and soul genius Stevie Wonder also get the band’s collective seal of approval. According to Ari, the band’s wide array of influences with variable personal favourites leads to some interesting and unpredictable outcomes during the writing process.

“We all have our individual preferences that come out when we work on stuff. I want dub with marimba, Dave goes for a Beck meets Squarepusher ballad, Chris opts for drum ‘n’ bass polka whilst Baggie wants to dance to it. It’s a mess, basically.”

“We hope that SUPERfreak gets the recognition we deserve. Recognition from everybody: friends, family, wider audience, venues, promoters, management and record labels,” Baggie summarises the band’s attitude and short-term goals, before finishing with a convincing sales pitch: “We are on fire right now. I just hope someone sees that and realises our potential.”

Find out more about SUPERfreak and their new Album on their myspace page… SUPERFreak

It isn’t likely that there is a more valuable asset that a new e-entrepreneur can have than a good and capable mentor. Someone who has already made all of the mistakes can help you to avoid making all of the mistakes yourself.

They have the wisdom that comes from experience to point out pitfalls and to help direct you toward the better of choices.

Why, you ask, would anyone who has it made want to take their time to help a newbie succeed?

Maybe I can answer that by telling you about my friend who is an accomplished musician. He played with some of the biggest stars in the business. He is a very, very fine guitarist who is now in his 70’s.

He has about three young guitarists that he spends many hours not only teaching how to play but counseling them on career choices.

I asked him why he spent so much time doing that and he said, “It is like gaining immortality. If I teach them and they teach others, then what I know lives forever.”

Successful internet marketers want that ‘immortality’ as well. The ones who are the very most successful are the ones, amazingly enough, who are the most likely to mentor an up and coming e-entrepreneur.

Of course, these successful internet marketers are not going to be interested in wasting their time on a person who has not already worked hard to lay those first three corner stones themselves.

These potential mentors are looking for new comers who show that they have a right and healthy mindset, who are working hard at leveraging and who are well aware of how important it is to know all the players and the RIGHT people.

It short, the new comer most likely to get a mentor is one who is already working hard and helping himself and not looking for someone who can just smooth the way for him.

Tags: Business Mentor, Success Mindset Series

SUPERfreak

The sound of SUPERfreak is convincing and oozing with class - polished but bustling with verve, commercial yet never even remotely disposable. The songs are equally fit for busting a move on the dancefloor or an intense aural massage at home. This accomplished EP is destined to cross SUPERfreak over to the wider attention they fully deserve. The Freak shall inherit the earth!

SUPERfreak

Tags: Funk, Yorkshire, Band, SUPERfreak, Live Music