By Jiminez!

When a group of musicians choose an unusual name for their band, they’re usually fully aware of the consequences. Superjiminez are no exception. Indeed, frontman Ronan Cunningham has heard it all since the group’s formation in 2005: bizarre mispronunciations, conspiracy theories relating to the moniker’s origination, endless questions about what it all means.

“You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff we’ve had to put up with over the years,” he says with a roll of the eyes and a hearty chuckle. “I’m being completely honest, though – there’s no real story behind it. It just really came down to a couple of coincidences. I remember seeing a film calledThe Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada a few years ago, and the character in that is trying to get to a town called Jiminez. Around the same time, someone bought a copy of Playboy magazine. It wasn’t me, I won’t say who bought it! But the model on the front’s name was Penelope Jiminez. So we just felt like this Jiminez thing was coming around and around again.”
Coincidence is something the Dublin-based quartet have relied on since their inception. Cunningham, who spent time busking on the streets of his parents’ hometown of Galway, got tired of the solo life and moved to Dublin after meeting drummer Darragh Coen. When the line-up’s original guitarist (and housemate) absconded, a ‘room wanted’ ad brought Brisbane native Rhys Domagala into their home, hearts and band.
But having an Aussie on board brought its own complications. Recording of their debut album BANG, which is finally set for release this week, was delayed when the Aussie’s visa was not renewed, forcing him to return to the southern hemisphere just when things were looking up for the Dublin foursome.
“We spent about nine months trying to get him back last year,” explains Cunningham. “It definitely set us back by about a year. Rhys is pretty fundamental to the whole group. We really needed to get the album done – so it was either get Rhys back in the band, or the band is finished.”
With all four members eventually reunited, luck was on their side in more than one way. Having sent early demos and singles (including their 2007 release ‘Faye’, which Weezer’s Patrick Wilson got in touch to compliment) to several international producers, Grammy winner Adrian Bushby eventually agreed to record their debut album for the cost of the studio hire alone.
“He showed a lot of faith in us from the beginning,” nods Cunningham. “In hindsight, working with him is probably one of the reasons we took so long to do the album; we placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that we were working with Adrian, and we ended up wasting a lot of time waiting for him. Because he was doing it for free, we played the waiting game while he was off in LA recording the Foo Fighters, or whatever. We were definitely on the backburner, but when we did get time with him, it was brilliant. We learned so much from him too; we were quite amateurish when we started off, we pretty much just wanted to play songs and write music. He really nailed down how to do things in the studio, how you develop and structure songs. And because it took so long, we were continuously writing – so the album was changing all the time. We’re confident that we’ve got ten strong songs that we know makes up a good album.”
He’s not wrong: BANG is a tasty explosion of radio-friendly pop-rock, and should see Superjiminez make an impression on Irish audiences over the summer.
“I’ve nothing against bands who are a bit down-in-the-mouth or are a bit depressed, but I think ours has a bit of life to it,” Cunningham declares. “It’s a feel-good album, it’s upbeat, it’s good driving music. We focused on melody and harmony, not getting bogged down in experimentation.”
With a reprise of their successful Oxegen 2006 performance in their sights for the summer, though, the quartet are simply hoping to enjoy the buzz that having a finished product in their hands will bring – as well as attempting to replicate the success of similar Irish acts.
“Ireland’s such a hard place to break out of, nobody seems to have overnight success anymore,” he nods. “I think if we achieved what bands like The Coronas and The Blizzards have over the past year or two, it’d be a great step for us – it’d be a great step for any band. But we’re proud of the album, and we know that we can succeed if we just work at it hard enough.”