If you want to kick-start your event or wedding in a highly unique and memorable way, then Super Tenants are your people! Tim and Dom are the co-founders of the London-based interactive, party-starting roaming band. For the past ten years, Super Tenants have been playing acoustically at events all over the UK and internationally, ‘breaking the ice, warming the voices and tickling the funny bone’, as they say themselves! Here we chat about performing for Tom Cruise, at Sarah Ferguson’s 60th and with Simon le Bon of Duran Duran at a small private event…
C&B: “Super Tenants have an incredibly unique style and it’s obviously very popular – how many members are in your group and does that ever vary?”
ST: “We’re a collective of amazing musicians who’ve been playing together for ten years, and we have a core of four or five key members of the band; we can appear as a quartet or a quintet with added saxophone…”
C&B: “How did the band form originally – was it a group of friends or did you hold auditions?”
ST: “The original four founding members met whilst playing in a touring samba band; we played all over in that band, all as percussionists – which has given us our unique sense of rhythm and the knowledge of latin music that we bring to our performances. One evening, our gig was cancelled so instead, we went back to one of our flats in London and messed around playing pop covers in a Brazilian style, all the songs from our childhoods that we loved. We then all decided to go busking the following morning at Columbia Road Flower Market in Hackney completely improvising our performance and thus the Super Tenants were born!”
We were in the Sunday Times for a wedding we performed at back in October last year; it was a lovely write up and nice to see our name up there in an iconic British paper…”
Super Tenants
C&B: “That’s an incredible start – Super Tenants came together with amazing synchronicity! Since then, which have been the most memorable events that you’ve performed at?”
ST: “Performing at the Royal Lodge for the 60th birthday of Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson was very special; playing the songs ‘Rio’ and ‘Girls on Film’ in an impromptu duet with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran for a small private party was truly surreal. And finally, giving Tom Cruise a private performance before all the guests got to the Charity Gala Event was unforgettable…he was so friendly and complimentary too!“
C&B: “How incredibly exciting – and great for the CV as well! When not playing Duran Duran hits, what type of songs are you typically requested to play?”
ST: “We get requests for all sorts of songs and people like to test us – we do pride ourselves on our large catalogue of music. Other than the standards, people love a spontaneous ‘sing-along’ and they enjoy it all the more when we surprise them with all songs they forgot they loved!”
C&B: “There are few occasions more fun and bonding than a ‘sing-along’ with friends… other than that, do you write your own lyrics/music, or are all the songs cover versions?”
ST: “We do love playing covers, however all of us are professional songwriters and music producers and you can hear this in how we make these songs our own. Our USP is definitely our epic mash-ups; one of our favourites mixes Spice Girls and Rage Against the Machine!”
C&B: “That sounds wild! You must have a huge range of instruments to achieve the sounds that you do..”
ST: “Yes, we have two acoustic guitars, one double bass and one cajon (box drum) which is our secret weapon, essentially’a drum kit in a box’. We all sing and we all take it in turns to lead the show. We also regularly feature a saxophonist for that extra oomph. The portable and compact nature of our ensemble means we can pop up anywhere in your event and bring the party…”
C&B: “Of all the venues you’ve played at, which have been the most significant, would you say?”
ST: “After ten years of performing we’ve played at hundreds of venues… probably our favourite in the UK was Eastnor Castle, an epic gothic castle in the Herefordshire hills. Abroad it has to be a beautiful wedding venue in Sintra, a fairytale town just outside Lisbon, surrounded by ancient palaces, mountains, woods with an open view to the sea. We’ve also entertained guests at most of the luxury hotels in London including the Four Seasons, Grosvenor House and the Royal Lancaster. We’ve got the party started at lots of sporting venues including at Wembley Stadium, Twickenham and Lords. We’ve strolled around the dinner tables at most horse racing events including Royal Ascot, the Grand National and Epsom. And we’ve got the bride and groom singing at the top of their lungs at historical estates such as Syon Park, Badminton Estate and Aynhoe Park…”
If you’re ever feeling in a festive mood, you can see us appearing in a lovely Christmas film from Sky Cinema called ‘This Is Christmas’. We had loads of fun filming on set in the boiling heat of August alongside Timothy Spall, Alfred Enoch and Kaya Scodelario. You can listen to us on the film soundtrack by searching Super Tenants on all streaming platforms…”
Super Tenants
C&B: “These locations are fabulous! We often think that being a performer is probably one of the best educations you can get – the travel, the people you meet, the venues the events are staged in, the great adventures you all have! Given the opportunity, what would be the next stage of your career, ie what would be your dream project?”
ST: “We’d love to collaborate with music stars that we admire and raise money for a worthy cause in the process; Stevie Wonder would be the ultimate collaboration – although I’m not sure we’d be able to hold the tears back!”
CONTACT: info@supertenants.co.uk for a truly unique event curated by the team. Prices start from £4,000 and vary depending on the date, location and length of performance.
WEBSITE: http://www.supertenants.co.uk
