Song history written by TimelandIsWacky
The only Joey-led song on Gumboot Soup is “Superposition.” It is one of the band’s most unique tracks with a hypnotic 5/4 groove, strange woodwind additions and disorienting production. The song is one of the band’s first to dive into the synthesizer as a foundational aspect of a song’s composition — expanded on albums like Fishing For Fishies, Made In Timeland and The Silver Cord. The lyrics focus on quantum superposition, a scientific principle which describes how a quantum object can exist in multiple places at the same time. Joey sings about superposition as well as moving beyond our current conception of reality to achieve some state of peace.
The track was played by Cavs (drums), Joey (synthesizer/guitar/bass/vocals/percussion) and Stu (flute/saxophone) with the liner notes saying that it was recorded in Joey’s bedroom. Additional parts were also recorded at Whammy Bar in Auckland which the band played at from 2017-12-06 to 2017-12-11. The mix was done by Joey. It saw a release as the fifth song on Gumboot Soup on December 31st, 2017.
Despite releasing at the end of 2017, “Superposition” wasn’t played live for many years. It had been rehearsed for the band’s shows in 2019 but never appeared. For a while the only known glimmer of it on stage was a tease in “Lava” from 2023-03-07. Everything changed during the band’s soundcheck at the Lycabettus Theatre in Athens on 2025-06-05. The song’s main melody had reappeared and word quickly spread among fans. “Superposition” made its live debut on 2025-06-06 as the only “table” song of the night.
The live version of “Superposition” features numerous differences from the studio version. The flute and saxophone are missing, replaced by more synthesizers as well as vocoders.