GRANT & THE SUMMERLANDS – UNNATURAL HISTORY
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE ALBUM PREMIERE
A return after three years of silence, Grant Summerland’s Unnatural History EP, the second release from the California musician, marks a reintroduction to the Grant Summerland project. Written and performed entirely by Grant and recorded in Portland with newcomer producer Joel Lane, The 5-track project pays homage to the past 30 years of indie rock and punk music. Influences range from artists such as Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, and Idles to artists such as Cymbals Eat Guitars, Weezer, and Prince Daddy & The Hyena. A combination of anthems and introspective ballads, the EP seeks to build and expand on key themes seen in Grant’s debut 2020 release Bigfoot Museum – namely growing up in the contemporary world and facing the passage of time head on. This EP comes as Grant, along with his Portland, OR based live band Grant & The Summerlands, aims to take the next step on their musical journey by expanding their live show repertoire with a DIY west coast scheduled for Spring 2023.
Grant Summerland hails from the foot of the mountains of Santa Cruz, CA, the beach town most famously known for its boardwalk and the filming location of Lost Boys (1987). In 2020, the very same week that California announced Covid shutdowns, Grant released his debut album Bigfoot Museum. This album was entirely written, performed, produced, and mixed by Grant, and is a concept album that details a teenage horror movie via a nighttime drive through the Santa Cruz Mountains. In 2021, Grant prepped for life after the pandemic by taking the songs from Bigfoot Museum and reworking them for a live setting. The result of these was Patterson-Gimlin: 2021 A four song tape recorded in a series of first-takes with Grant on every instrument, the demos show the songs in a completely different light – looser and leaning into rock and punk influences heavily. This developed into the act Grant & The Summerlands – a four piece live band designed to play these songs in an entirely new context. Unnatural History EP, the first proper release in almost three years, shows the influence of Grant’s live band on his music and hints at a number of fascinating directions the project can go in the years to come.
In paying homage to the past 30 years of indie and punk music with this EP, what were the ways in which you incorporated the sounds of the artists you’re inspired by?
“Despite my first release coming out in 2020, my first live show wasn’t until last March. Developing that live act started with taking songs from my first release Bigfoot Museum and turning them inside out to make them compatible with a live setting. So then this EP continued as a natural progression from that. The question was mostly “what would work live”. The most fun I’ve ever had at concerts have been from the energy – not necessarily how well performed something was. The best concert I’ve been to in years was Prince Daddy & The Hyena in Seattle in April and I remember crowd surfing and thinking “maybe I could have a concert like this”. I wanted this EP to be enjoyable and fun live – that was a necessity.
A lot of writing this EP meant pushing things farther and bolder and making things generally sound bigger than I’ve ever made things. So a lot of acts I’ve always loved but never drawn from – Bruce Springsteen, Crying, Kero Kero Bonita – started coming out which was really cool. I also found myself saying things to Joel (producer) like “no this guitar has got to sound EXACTLY like Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American” or “These drums have to be sounding like they’re coming out of the 1970s Steely Dan studio/coke room”. This was the first project I’ve ever done where I felt comfortable using specific references like that and because of it, I think the EP came out better than it would have otherwise.”
Do you think your new home base of Portland has sonically impacted your work?
“I’d say if there is one thing that Portland has let me do is to embrace noise. I hadn’t thrown a DIY show since high school and when I moved here last year I found myself doing it again as soon as I was up and playing. The bands here are willing to put in the work to make it happen and that’s awesome. In some cities I think you’d be encouraged to rein things in and present your show in a box but here it’s encouraged to be hectic and messy. “NICER” is a song I don’t think I would have put together unless I felt comfortable being as loud as I wanted and I think Portland has played a role in that confidence.”
Where do you derive your lyrics from? Do they come from what you’re experiencing or from another place?
“Its going to sound dumb as hell, but lyrics come from everywhere. The lyrics for ‘NICER’ I wrote all at once the day after having a dream. ‘Backwoods Alabama’ I rewrote three times – it was a lot of trying to get a very specific feeling down on paper. I’d be out biking or driving or running and a little phrase – like “lawn chair evenings” -would worm its way in and I’d note it like “yeah that does it”. So then a song like that comes together more like a collage; just slowly assembled until one day it’s done. The reality is that every song is different and, for me at least, there really is no defined process and there is no specific place to draw from.”
“Bigfoot Museum was a concept album with a story and characters and a lot a lot a lot of attention paid to making it a cohesive work. Writing this EP was a completely different experience. Even though there are overarching themes that are hanging out in the background all throughout Unnatural History there is no story and there are no characters. It felt refreshing to write a song and have the song be a completed work in of itself. I’ll definitely get back to the concept stuff but for this EP I just wanted it to be five straightforward songs that could exist fully on their own.”
Grant Summerland
Unnatural History
(Independent)
Release Date: February 10, 2022
Unnatural History Track Listing
- Rival Boy’
- Backwoods Alabama
- NICER
- Impressionable (August Version)
- Darling, Ain’t It A Shame
Artist Links
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SPILL ALBUM PREMIERE: FACT PATTERN – THE SAME OUTCOME
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SPILL ALBUM PREMIERE: PYPY – SACRED TIMES
