Zachary Gresham is the lead singer/songwriter of the Summer Hymns, the Athens-based band that presently includes Philip Brown and Chris Riser (past collaborators have included such familiar Athens names as Derek Almstead of M Coast, Dottie Alexander and Matt Dawson from Of Montreal, Adrian Finch and Bren Mead of Masters of the Hemisphere, and about a dozen more). Through three full-lengths--1999's Voice Brother and Sister, 2001's A Celebratory Arm Gesture (named after a Mr. Show sketch), and 2003's Clemency--the band has established a consistently subdued, semi-psychedelic sound, utilizing a unique combination of instruments and an eye toward the album form: no song seems to have a particular ending or beginning until the record stops playing. In the three years since Clemency, the Summer Hymns have been hard at work, and the results should bear much fruit in 2006, as new material will be spread across compilation albums, a Summer Hymns Value Series Vol. 2, a maxi-single, and a fourth full-length album.

1) How are you progressing on the new album, and when do you expect it to be released?

We are pretty much done with it except for finishing the mixing, which should be done by the end of April. We hope to turn it in May 1st so that it can come out this fall. We're itching to get back on the road.

2) How long do you typically like to spend on an album before sending it out? I ask because each of your albums has a very cohesive feel, and the songs flow together beautifully.

Thanks. With the exception of Clemency, we've pretty much recorded at our own studio so we can take our time. Typically I don't like for things to drag on as much as we have for this record but generally I just take as long as it takes to make it the record that I want to hear. And usually I seem to write songs in batches, and in this case there have been too many batches to easily focus in on one group of songs.

3) I think we're both fellow Alejandro Jodorowsky fans, as "El Topo" figures prominently in Clemency, and he gets thanked in the credits. Why did you decide to use this film as a theme for the album? ["El Topo" ("The Mole"), directed by Jodorowsky, can't really be described, but briefly: it's a Zen Western from 1970 about a gunfighter who sets out to slay four master warriors who live in the desert; he later seems to die, but is reborn within a mountain, and tunnels his way to the light (and there's much more). The English dub of the film makes a few cameo appearances on the album, and it influenced the album's artwork, as well.]

As with a lot of things, it was kinda accidental. When I got that film, I got into it pretty hardcore and watched it a lot. And some of the times it was playing with the sound down low and I was writing some songs on a handheld, and some of it was bleeding through onto the song, and I just got accustomed to hearing some of those things; and then I was inspired by several things in the film, mainly the image of the mole who digs around underground searching for the sunlight, but when he finally gets out from underground he is blinded by the light because he's been in the darkness so long. On many levels I could relate to that and even wrote a couple of songs directly stemming from thinking about the mole, such as "Wet Mess." Everyone thinks that it's about dirty diapers or some sex shit, when it's just a lament from the mole's perspective.

4) I try to avoid asking this question, though because the Summer Hymns have a very unique, hazy, dream-like quality to the music, I will: who do you like to listen to, and what artists would you consider influential?

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan stuff from the 70's and outtakes and stuff. I've been digging the new Destroyer record. And I love me some Bill Withers, The Staple Singers, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Larry Norman, etc... I got a turntable that you can stack 6 or 7 LPs and it drops them down, and I don't think that Robert Wyatt's Dondestan has been in its case since I moved last year. Also in that stack is Dylan's Planet Waves and Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years. And in the last few weeks I've been listening to some Steely Dan Count Down to Ecstacy and ZZ Top's Tejas.

5) Do you take a different approach to your songs, or to the band, when you play live?

Yeah, I think so. The songs pretty much have three lives, the life when it's born with me and whatever instrument I'm writing on, the life that the band brings into it during recording, and then the life after we play it live a bunch. They usually change after playing them live a bunch.

6) Any memorable incidents from the road that you'd like to share?

There's been a lot of fun times on the road and some of the most memorable I probably shouldn't share. I love touring and can't wait to get back out on the road. I would say that the things that come to mind would be staying at Dottie's aunt and uncle's farm in Vermont on the Destroyer tour and sitting in their outdoor hot tub heated by a wood-burning stove. And we have had some of the best off days imaginable in Austin, Texas, going to swimming holes and barbeque joints.


The Summer Hymns contribute two new songs to the new compilations Athfest 10 (copies of which are now shipping) and WUOG Live in the Lobby. You can listen to music by the band, as well as a "rough, unmastered" version of the new song "14 Inches of Snow" at the Summer Hymns MySpace page. Later this year should see the release of the new Summer Hymns album on Misra Records, as well as Value Series Vol. 2: Repeat Offender and a CD maxi-single. Optical Atlas will post more information as it comes.

Upcoming Shows

Apr 21 2006 8:30PM - Athens, GA @ Flicker Bar
Apr 22 2006 10:00PM - Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle