Portland is all about community and, in the local music scene, nothing has reflected this more than Supernature, a monthly event at Rotture focusing on local dance acts. Now, following a highly successful festival last summer, local electronic music aficionado and event planner Manny Reyes will be teaming up with a bundle of local talent to bring us Superfresh!
Reyes, who heads up the band Atole, and his friends, Eric Mast (E*Rock) and Marius Libman (Copy), started Supernature as a way to connect not only with local musicians, but also to connect with each other.
“The three of us wanted to have a night that we could get together and hang out on a regular basis,” Reyes said. “But also the main focus of Supernature is local electronic or local dance bands, which sets it apart from any other dance night in town. It helps everyone out and we have fun doing it.”
After over 20 runs of the monthly event, Reyes and his friends decided to take things to the next level and began planning a two-day festival deemed Superfest! that took place last summer. The festival, which featured notable artists like YACHT, Starfucker (now PYRAMIDDD) and Explode into Colors, ended up taking off and turned into something much bigger.
“In order to do that at a space like Rotture it has to be big so we made it big,” Reyes said. “It sold out [and] it was lots of fun. We didn’t have any plans to do anything like it again. We were just going for it and it worked out so well that Rotture told us that night that we were welcome to do it again. Had you asked me if we were going to do a winter fest this summer, I would have said no, so you never know. Time tells and things change. It’s a really exciting time still so I’m just having fun.”
Using his influence and tapping into the array of talented friends he accumulated during his time in Portland, Reyes was able to snag some current Portland favorites like May Ling, Deelay Ceelay and Strength.
“Manny is a friend of ours and we’ve played a couple times with [him],” said Patrick Morris of Strength. “When [he] asked us to do it…we were just like, ‘Yeah, yeah! We want to play! Manny’s putting it together, it’s going to be great.’ We trusted that Manny would come up with a cool show.”
Strength, who will be playing the second night of the festival, are currently nearing the beginning of the end in recording their second album, a project they’ve been steadily chipping away at since March of last year. They’ll be selling a new 7-inch at the event, featuring their song “Metal” and a B-side.
A major aspect of Superfresh! is the fact that it is one of the only all-ages events of its kind in Portland and will be featuring a number of acts that have, in the past, rarely played to the under-21 set like Glass Candy and Dat’r.
“I have a lot more fun playing all-ages shows and my favorite audience is the all-ages audience,” said Reyes. “A lot of kids had their first opportunity to go to something like this, whereas…I had never heard of a festival like it before.”
Deelay Ceelay, who toured nationally this fall with Starfucker, had been hesitant to take on new projects in an effort to work on recording their next album. When presented with the opportunity to be a part of Superfresh! though, the drumming duo couldn’t say no.
“There’s awesome people putting it on and a good venue and all of our favorite bands,” said band member Chris Lael Larson. “And also, playing in a band, it’s sometimes hard to go watch shows ’cause once you play it’s super fun to go see other bands but it’s not really as fun as when you’re playing yourself. This is the best of both worlds cause you get to go to a show you really want to see and play.”
Larson was also impressed by the running of the event as more of a friendly affair and a celebration of creativity, rather than a business venture.
“They’re not people who do things to just make money or for personal gain,” Larson said. “They really truly like the music. It’s not a business proposition. They’re putting it on because it’s what they love to do.”
With a lineup that can’t disappoint, a group of people organizing the event who care and the kind of crowd that isn’t embarrassed to dance, Superfresh! looks like it will be the perfect way to ring in a new year and get out all that pent up winter energy.
“I’m excited that this one is in the dead of winter,” Larson said. “If you can get people out—they get a little cabin fever stir crazy—so sometimes you get really crazy parties in the winter. Everyone is so cold and in their house that when you finally get out and pack people into a club, I don’t know, it’s a good energy.”