Photo by Graham Tolbert
Har Mar Superstar
Update (3/26): In the days since the publication of this article, multiple women have come forward accusing Sean Tillmann of sexual assault and harassment, and according to a social media statement the women’s allegations take place over the course of two decades. Three women spoke to the Star Tribune about incidents with Tillmann between 2014 to 2017, that he “aggressively propositioned them for sex and grabbed or touched them inappropriately.” On March 25, Tillmann issued an apology on social media, but denied the allegation of a 2016 assault and did not address any of the others directly.
Tillmann says in his post that the actions were “fueled by a toxic mixture of alcohol, drugs, and cavalier sexuality.” The collective statement from seven women circulating online says that the allegations ranged from “pointed inappropriate sexual comments and grooming to physical sexual assault.”
First Avenue has ceased ticket sales for Tillmann’s upcoming Heart Bones show, and 89.3 the Current has stopped playing his music.
Sean Tillmann didn’t set out to release an album during the pandemic. In fact, for the first half of 2020, he was feeling severely uninspired. After having a months long tour with Heart Bones, his synth-pop project with Sabrina Ellis, cancelled only two weeks in, Tillmann, more commonly known as his stage persona Har Mar Superstar, felt too drained to focus on making anything.
“I didn’t feel like I had anything to say that added to the conversation,” Tillmann says. “That lasted for about six or seven months, and then one day I just kind of woke up creatively.”
While following in the footsteps of artists like John Prine and Charles Bukowski to become a mailman for the U.S. Postal Service, he wrote three songs, then four, then five, and knew he was going to finish an album within weeks. So he did. His seventh studio album Roseville came out last week, while the vinyl drops later in May.
“It feels like a very winter-into-spring record emotionally. That’s why I’m kind of rushing the release,” Tillmann says. “There aren’t many albums coming out right now. It felt like a good time to get people to listen and be excited about something.”
“I just wanted people to be able to hear it,” he says.
Tillmann had tentative plans to make a Har Mar Superstar album in 2020, but was mostly focusing on the tours he had planned across the United States and Europe with Afghan Whigs and his other project, Heart Bones. He had some songs in the works, and the whole band had sat down in early 2020 to do some collaborative sessions. But that quickly got shut down after March rolled around.
“My idea for this album was initially to do it as a whole band in the same room,” Tillmann said. “But we obviously couldn’t keep doing that in good conscience.”
Deciding to actually make an album during quarantine was the hardest part. “It felt crazy,” Tillmann says. “It felt like this was an insane thing to do, but I think it helped us all mentally weather the storm of the pandemic.”
The experience did get challenging at times, with Tillmann putting in over 100 hours per week between his job at the post office and finishing the album. But the hardest part was just getting it done. “There were so many passionate mixes,” Tilmann says. “Everybody really came through.”
By everybody, Tillman does mean everybody. Due to the distanced nature of the creation process, the album became a collaborative process between friends.
Everyone, in Tillmann’s words, “Nailed it. Big time.”
Roseville is the first whole collaborative effort of Tillmann’s touring band. “I think we made an amazing album that we never would have if we had all tried to just write a bunch of songs in a room,” he says. “It was just a whole different process. One piece could come in at the end and change a whole song.” Tillmann would send the band songs to play on to see what direction they’d take it. Because of the social distancing requirements, Tillmann got to collaborate and co-write with different members of his band one on one.
The majority of Roseville was recorded remotely, but occasionally after getting thoroughly tested, Tillmann and one other person would head into Mid City Studios, the band’s homebase, to jam. While many of the songs were written over the final half of 2020, some of the songs on Roseville were written over the course of the last couple years. “The song “Where We Began” was written when we were on tour with Afghan Whigs in the end of 2017,” Tillmann says. “Then I kind of let it go for a while.”
The opening song on the album, “Solid Ghost,” was written in a moment of seclusion during a socially distanced wedding over the summer. “I went home because I was still not used to being around people at that point,” Tillmann says. “I was tired and I went home in between the ceremony and the outdoor party and wrote “Solid Ghost.””
The songs on Roseville jump from genre to genre, but never stray too far from Har Mar Superstar’s inherently dreamy vibe. The funky “Neon Aglow” proves you can never have too many horns on a track, while “Another Century,” a soulful collaboration with Texas music staples Kam Franklin and Jackie Venson, is the perfect song to dance to in your kitchen.
“Patchwork Prisms'' is reminiscent of Carole King’s biographical “Tapestry,” and makes you want to get out your lighter and wave it high with a group of strangers (hopefully we’ll be able to soon). It also features a tiny appearance from Tillmann’s yorkie, Figgy.
“Once there’s a couple songs, you just kind of get in the zone and do it,” Tillmann says. “That's kind of how it always happened for me.”
Tillman says it’s easy for him to produce a chorus and a couple of verses on the piano or guitar. But the bridge might take him two months to get right. “I hate it, but I love it,” he laughs.
His main inspiration behind the album? “Musicals,” Tillmann says. “And 70’s golden A.M. radio.” The sounds of David Bowie, Todd Rundgren, Elton John and more iconic 70’s artists are heavily featured throughout Roseville, and the musical theatre influence can be heard in the sweeping instrumentation and backing vocals. “Real emotional pop music,” Tillman says.
Tillman says Roseville’s 70’s soft rock vibe is a natural progression from his last albums; it feels like the exact right follow up to his last Har Mar release in 2016, Best Summer Ever, which had more of an electronic pop sound. It’s also a homecoming album. Tillmann’s return to Minnesota encapsulated into music.
“The more I move on with making albums, the more me they become.”
