The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Neal Stein of El Supremo

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Sometimes I play guitar and make records.

Describe your first musical memory.

Music goes all the way back for me. My mom played guitar and sang in church and apparently when she was pregnant and played guitar I would quit fussing and kicking. I remember sitting in front of my parents’ stereo when I was very young and being just fascinated with it.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

The more I try to think of a single answer to that, the harder it gets. There have been those moments jamming with people you’ve spent a lot of time with where things happen spontaneously and simultaneously like you’re all on the same wavelength or whatever. That shit rules.

There have been some pretty incredible shows, too. Freak Valley in 2015 stands out. We didn’t even play that tight of a set, but the whole atmosphere of that show was really special. I was worried about the weather since it was grey and kinda looked like rain all morning, but the sky cleared up as we were on stage and it just felt like we were doing exactly what we should be doing at that moment.

Other smaller shows where the intense enthusiasm of everyone there outshines the fact that there aren’t many people make for some memorable experiences, too.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Not sure, honestly. I don’t have a lot of precious beliefs. During the process making a record there’s always a point where I question my belief that music is a worthwhile endeavor, especially in the last two or three years.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I suppose it’s a combination of finding your strengths and working with those and also finding new ways of doing things or finding out you’re capable of more than you previously thought. Getting better at playing your instrument; better at working with other people; learning new tools or new ways to use them. Getting more fluent at the language of creating, turning ideas into something tangible.

How do you define success?

Being able to spend more of your time doing what you care about instead of having to trade the majority of your time and energy working on shit you don’t want to do just to get by. There’s that kind of success, being able to sustain your chosen preferred activity. There’s also the success of just knowing you’ve seen something through, stuck it out until the album is done or the song is written or the tour is complete or whatever.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Besides the morbid or gross shit out there…
I wish I didn’t see people pissing away their lives. Squandered talent or opportunities. Whether it’s shitty jobs, bad relationships, substance abuse. A lot of people just sort of exist.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Part of my brain wants to say “an ambitious orchestral work that integrates mixed media for an immersive, mind-altering experience.” Really, though, I’d just like to make a good record in a real studio like Electrical Audio or something. Everything I’ve done has been DIY. It would be nice to have someone who actually knows what they’re doing record and mix while I can focus on playing.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

That’s a big question. I think it can transcend the sort of functionality that might be ascribed to a tool or something. It can connect people to each other, to their world, to ways of thinking they haven’t experienced. It can affect people on primal, intellectual, and emotional levels. I think that’s one of the things that makes us human and keeps us human. You take it away or corrupt it and we’re closer to machines or animals. It also functions as a time capsule, preserving an individual expression and even the zeitgeist of when it was created.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Looking forward to the weather getting better so I can get back out on a bicycle again.

[Photo by Meo Photos]

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El Supremo, Acid Universe (2023)

[Click play above to stream El Supremo’s Acid Universe in full. Album is out this Friday, Feb. 24, through Argonauta Records.]

About four years ago, Fargo, North Dakota’s El Supremo made their full-length debut with 2019’s independently-released Clarity Through Distortion (review here), which saw Chad Heille — first multi-instrumentalist and only member, later drummer — build a complete lineup to work in the vein of a demo he’d put together under the moniker in 2008. The years between had found Heille in the drummer position for sludge rockers Egypt, and when that band ended their run after their last album in 2017, he and guitarist Neal Stein (who has also played in any number of more extreme outfits) took refuge in the revived El Supremo, making that record on which Heille also played bass and eventually joining together with bassist Cameron Dewald and, crucially, organist/keyboardist Chris Gould as a full, stage-ready instrumental four-piece. Clarity Through Distortion was more than a second demo, more substantial both in terms of the amount of material and the presence of an actual band, but felt like the initial offering it was, as the band seemed to feel their way through a sound informed by classic heavy, weighted groove and a bit of psychedelic flourish.

Acid Universe is El Supremo‘s second long-player, first to be issued on Argonauta Records, and sharpens their take to light a way forward and see them become all the more of cognizant of who they are and what they want to do as a group. At five tracks and 40 minutes recorded, mixed and mastered by Stein, it strips about 15 minutes of runtime off the debut and feels more specifically geared toward vinyl, and its sound is marked by a distinguished but casual saunter, grooves that swing not wildly, but with an accessible, easily engaged presence — by the end of the record, you might call it ‘friendly’ for the tonal warmth and the manner in which it brings the listener along its course — that is as much bolder in its progressive aspects on centerpiece “261 to Lisbon” as it is unbridled in its funk-out on the subsequent “White Hot Fever Dream.”

I do not know the circumstances in which the writing happened — there were a wacky few years in the time since the first album; anything’s possible — but from the more horror-themed organ work on the sample-topped leadoff intro “Crowley Magick” through the graceful hypnotic twists, mellow and heavy and far from aggressive, of its 11:30 closing title-track, Acid Universe takes the explorations of Clarity Through Distortion and perhaps some of the meditative implications of the debut’s title, and solidifies an approach while remaining wholly, delightfully unpretentious.

Where one might expect from instrumental heavy rock fare that, as often happens, it’s lead guitar stepping into the forward role that vocals might otherwise occupy, on Acid Universe, it’s Stein and Gould sharing that spotlight in a dynamic that, following the swelling, receding, and swelling again of “Crowley Magick” and the almost circus-like mood that sets, the 10-minute “The Ghost Of…” establishes smoothly. Atop a steady, rolling rhythm, layers of lead guitar and keys work in unison or break off, each going their own way only to unite again later on.

This weaving pattern becomes essential to the listening experience of El Supremo‘s sophomore LP, and with Gould‘s keys able to flesh out melody even as Stein‘s guitar shifts into later chug on that post-intro leadoff — which seems to find another layer of low-end heft as it moves toward its fade — the interplay of the two instruments is a defining element. They proceed to toy with it, as one would hope, as feedback and organ drift tops the steady drums and holding-it-together bassline on “261 to Lisbon,” which is the psychedelic epicenter of the offering but still terrestrial in its vibe, less meandering than it at first might seem, with a foundation in jamming that’s been broadened and plotted into this final form. Effects-laced guitar and organ trade channels in a call and response in the second half, and the jazzy fluidity resolves — as hoped — in a more densely distorted finish.

The break to silence gives “White Hot Fever Dream” a clean start, and the swaggering funk that emerges feels likewise jam-born but developed into a cohesive song. Gould turns in a highlight performance, bouncing around with the punchy bass while the guitar pulls lead lines out of the air over the upbeat drumming. Classic formula, classic execution. A more prominent guitar solo arrives at about three and a half minutes into the total 7:35, and the keys get accordingly sweatpants funk — as opposed to hotpants funk, which I think requires horns; not advisable in context — with thick tones and groove that still carries a sense of the Woo as it unfolds.

El Supremo build momentum as they twist through a tempo kick, coming to a head and letting the organ have final say, which by then it has well earned. Comparatively mellow at its outset, “Acid Universe” is more directly heavy psych at first, but there’s plenty of room for it to grow as expansive as it does, becoming not so much a summary of everything before it, but more of a standout piece on its own, a circular organ line following behind the sweetly fuzzed guitar for the initial couple minutes before volume turns up and they set into the back and forth that defines the first half of the track while the second, jammier but still fluid from one part to the next, reinforces the conversation happening between guitar and keys that’s been happening all along, turning it into a fitting payoff for the build of “Acid Universe” itself as well as the landing point for Acid Universe, the album, as a whole.

While perhaps not as drenched in the lysergic as its title implies, Acid Universe still has an open mindset in terms of the band following where the songs lead them. One can sit and have agency debates about creative works (of all stripes) forever — and hey, it might be fun — but what comes through in El Supremo‘s material in terms of vibe is that the pieces making up the album became what they are organically. They do not sound forced, or rushed, or shoehorned into being something other than they wanted to be. As an entirety, the record is smooth, cushy in its tones and breadth, without being in any way overbearing or asking more of the listener than they deliver back in terms of quality of craft and performance. There is something almost unassuming about it. A quiet confidence oozing through loud amplifiers. And for the places it goes and the routes it uses to get there, it accomplishes what the band set out to do, by this or any other universe’s standards.

El Supremo on Facebook

El Supremo on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Argonauta Records on Instagram

Argonauta Records store

In 2022, I learned, or at least re-confirmed, that among the great many things for which I’m a sucker is the 11-minute single. Good to know. The new album from El Supremo follows the band’s signing to Argonauta Records last year after releasing Clarity Through Distortion (review here) in 2019. I know the four years between 2019-2023 doesn’t seem like much, but consider that record was the band’s first outing since 2008 and mostly made as a solo-project from Chad Heille (also ex-Egypt), and the prospect of a sophomore full-length piques interest since no matter what it’s doing, it’s bound to be exploring new ground for the band, if only (and likely not only) because they’re actually a band now, and sludgier-rockin’ heads might note that Neal Stein is also an Egypt alum.

What to expect? Heavy groove, if the title-track is anything to go by. It’s a not-insubstantial glimpse at the record, which only runs five tracks, and as the closer, it’s got an exploratory feel that makes it easy to dig as well as sonically hypnotic. Have fun, I guess is what I’m saying. Also I’m looking forward to more. Also, is the cover art AI? I kind of like that I’m not sure.

From the PR wire:

US Instrumental Psych Rockers EL SUPREMO reveal full album details; first single streaming now

Fargo (ND) US-based Psychedelic Rockers EL SUPREMO reveal full details of their highly anticipated new album “Acid Universe”, to be released by ARGONAUTA Records on February 24th.

After their critically acclaimed full length “Clarity Through Distortion” (2019), the band continued with its strong line-up featuring Chad Heille on drums, Neal Stein on guitar, Chris Gould on organ/keys and Cameron Dewald on bass.

El Supremo was originally formed as a one-man project with Chad Heille playing all the instruments and handling recording/production. A self-titled full-length demo was released in 2008, with Tom Canning and Neal Stein contributing guitar solos to the recording.

Chad and Neal went on to play in the band EGYPT from 2012 to 2018. During that time, Egypt released three full-length records, a split LP, made numerous compilation appearances, reissued their first demo and toured 16 different countries playing several notable festivals.

After Egypt split, it was decided to revive the El Supremo name, whose sound today ranges from psychedelic and melodic to heavy and doomy. Influences are rooted in classic rock, stoner rock, blues, and old-school metal.

“Acid Universe” will be released on February 24 by Argonauta Records on VINYL and DIGITAL editions. Watch out for more news to follow in the not so distant future.

TRACKLIST:
Crowley Magick
The Ghost Of…
261 To Lisbon
White Hot Fever Dream
Acid Universe

El Supremo:
Chad Heille: drums
Neal Stein: guitar
Chris Gould: organ/keys
Cameron Dewald: bass

https://www.facebook.com/elsupremofuzz
https://elsupremo.bandcamp.com/

www.instagram.com/argonautarecords
www.facebook.com/argonuatarecords
www.argonautarecords.com/shop

El Supremo, “Acid Universe”