Indie Champs: Superlitio

Posted in MusicWorld on March 11, 2010 by Nuria Net

Superlitio will perform during BMI’s official SXSW showcase at Maggie Mae’s (323 East 6th St, Austin, TX) on Thursday, March 18. Superlitio will take the stage at 11:15 p.m.

On March 18, Colombian band Superlitio will take the stage at the BMI Showcase at the prestigious South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival in Austin. The six band members, who have been around for more than a decade and just had one of the best years in their career, are undaunted. “We generally surprise people,” says bassist Pedro Rovetto, “It always feels like we have more to prove being from Colombia and with the language barrier.”

That language barrier is not much of an impediment, after all, since Superlitio’s vocalist Mauricio Campo sings in Spanish, English and French. This accessibility is also evident in their music, an easy mix of rock, funk, reggae and pop. Their latest and fourth album, Calidosound, will be released on iTunes in the US on March 16.

Even though Superlitio is one of Colombia’s best known bands (last year, they headlined Rock Al  Parque, the biggest music festival in Latin America, and won Recording of the Year at the Shock Awards, Colombia’s Grammys) they remain fiercely independent. They do not have a record label, only distribution deals, and have been very smart and collaborative about placing their songs in TV and film. Most recently, they contributed the title song for Perro Come Perro, which won accolades on Sundance and countless other festivals.

To lead up to the release of Calidosound last summer, Superlitio gave away seven songs from the album for free online, reaching 40,000 downloads and unprecedented buzz. “It was a gamble but it paid off,” says Pedro. “For us to reach that amount of people via sales would have been almost impossible in Colombia.”

Calidosound, produced by LA-based producer Rafa Sardina (Macy Gray, Beyonce) evokes their city of Cali in Western Colombia, and has more salsa and reggae elements. As usual, the core ideas were conceived by Mauricio, Pedro and keyboardist Andres Felipe Bravo, and then developed with the rest of the band members.

Their goal for 2010 is to promote and tour in the US, and it all starts at SXSW. Says Pedro: “People will get to experience all our new music and hopefully get infected by the Litio virus!”

View the full BMI at SXSW schedule.

SOURCEMusicWorld TAGS Latin Macy Gray Rafa Sardina Superlitio