ROGUE WAVE
TEXT ASHFORD TUCKER
PHOTO JESSE WINTER
DATE AUGUST 16, 2004

Walk into Echo Lounge in Atlanta alone after a 10 minute drive from Ma’s house. Drive everywhere in Atlanta, limit booze intake. Hands get bored and smoke all the cigarettes. Fuck. Forgot my camera. ‘Sup has ooh aah unique pictures for brains. Drive to sketchy gas station. Overpay for disposable camera and ammonia lung fun. Return to venue just in time for show. Find a spot on a rail, close enough and stage left. Small place, sounds okay. Smoke more cigarettes. Debate taking action photos of the band on stage. Not that guy yet. Not for this money.
Rogue Wave first caught my attention via a Sub Pop mailer. Seattle sends presale promos in the form of compact discs with the same nothing, but no shit serious-font, spelling out band/album names on solid colored backgrounds. Theirs was the only one in the batch whose color didn’t make me want to eat glass. The Album Leaf drew Gatorade green. Rogue Wave drew a handsome crimson. It’s a landslide.
One listen and I was pretty sure I heard big things. Hard to throw down the “GREAT” stamp so soon, but certainly worth telling pals about after just three tracks. All told, Zach Rogue’s songs are old-fashioned indie rock. Out of the Shadow is a throwback to seven years ago. And that’s a compliment. No intemperate artistic ambition or disgusting dance-beat narcissism. It’s plainly likeable pop. Strong hooks, compelling arrangements, and vocals almost too pretty, too friendly. Superior taste in the employ of actual talent. A regular goddamn Pegasus to my Harry Hamlin.
It took Rogue’s self-released pressing to grab the attention of his soon-to-be bandmates. The freshly formed Oakland-based group found favor with fellow rock act the Clientele and made their way up the coast on a maiden tour playing support. They were summarily greeted and, shortly thereafter, signed by Sub Pop. Thus, time to tour some more.
The show is good. Once again faced with the proud East Atlanta “Village,” I was a bit preoccupied with the odd social situation I’d created for myself. Land of the PBR-obsessed, white asshole who, not only bums cigarettes, but also obliges you with complaints of broke-ness. Hippies changed clothes. Anyhow, the guy with the afro’s a heavy hitter on the ride cymbal. Makes all the difference in the world. Good stuff. The show ends. A sullen fellow toting a beloved CD and freshly purchased poster approaches the backstage door. I’m pulling for him. The band loads shit off stage in between a smattering of homerun handshakes from an unusually eager, friendly crowd. Eeyore misses his window.
Upstairs, I find out that ‘Sup threw the band a photo shoot a few days earlier in New York. And being the perennial butt of so many jokes, including the one we call manners, I’m the bastard, who’s now ripping guitar/keyboard player Gram Lebron away from the few precious moments he has to spend with his parents on this lone date in the deeper Southeast. Oh well. We sat down. I smoked. They allowed me to. I coughed. A power outlet was located, and we passed around one of those lil’ UN microphones.
Some of your songs feature two people singing two different interweaving melodies. Do you (Zach) write all the vocal melodies yourself?
Zach: It’s kind of a case-by-case basis, certainly for the album. As I recorded, I’d try to create melodies and counterpoint melodies. When we started playing the songs live, we couldn’t play all the instruments that are on the record because there’s too many to duplicate live. So we’d take counterpoint melodies that other instruments would play and use our voices to do that. And also, it’s context. Sometimes it’s about range of vocal. Sonya has a real ethereal, kinda high, feminine voice. And Gram has a high-end kind of voice that can really project. And everyone has a different range. It’s kind of a combination of figuring out what was on the recording and then what our strengths are vocally. What can we not be pitchy on and what will blend with my voice. That’s for the songs on the record. And then for new songs, a lot of times I have an idea of what I think, and I’ll throw it out there. And then somebody else will say, ‘Well, what about this?’ And, kinda through consensus, we just figure it out. For me, usually if it’s a vocal line I’m singing, I have in my mind at least a couple of other ideas of things that will blend with it. But everyone has their own in their own mind. Because it’s kinda like how it’s hard to sing a cover song sometimes because it’s not your voice. So I feel like if somebody’s gonna be singing something, it’s cool if it’s in their voice. Sometimes it’s hard to sing a harmony because you’re not singing the whole time and you’ve got to jump in and be on pitch. So it’s got to be something that they’re comfortable with. That’s kind of a long-winded way of saying, ‘I fucking don’t know.’
And the only new one tonight was the opener, “Bird on a Wire”?
Zach: And “Love’s Lost Guarantee.” One of the ones where we swapped instruments.
Oh, right. Pat played guitar.
Zach: Yeah.
Gram: That was a really collaborative one. From early on. That was our first practice.
Zach: Was it?
Gram: My first practice with you, yeah.
Zach: And it’s funny now – we almost feel stupid calling songs “new songs,” because a lot of the songs we play, we started playing them at the same time we started playing songs from the record. But my impression is that the only way someone has heard of us, if they have at all, is from the record.
Gram: It’s funny, because “Seasick on Land” is a new song for us. We’ve been playing that for two months, but it’s on the record. We just never got around to learning it. Whereas a song, like “Bird on a Wire” or “Love’s Lost Guarantee,” we’ve been playing for a year and a half. But yeah, we figured we ought to be able to play the whole record. And now we can do that.
Did you play all the instruments on the record, Zach?
Zach: I had some friends. Where there’s a drum kit, it’s my friend Nathan Petty playing. And there’s lap or pedal steel guitar, my friend Dominic did that. And Alex, who I used to be in a band with, he does some harmony vocals and plays some Wurlitzer. I had friends throw stuff on there, but most of the tracking and stuff I did.
(At this point, drummer Pat Sturgeon leaned back in his chair and feigned taking a nap)
Zach: He’s mad at you.
We better ask him some cymbal questions.
Pat: Wait, I gotta go (Fakes getting up and accidentally spills some water).
Aww, no. Don’t go.
Pat: No, I’m just sitting back because a lot of it’s stuff where I gotta listen to him talk.
Zach: Ask him a question.
Pat: No, don’t.
You don’t wanna take a question-
Pat: My water broke.
Sonya: (Laughs)
I’m not a drummer, so I may be making this up, but you do a lot of stuff with the ride cymbal at times to take up space. Was that something that you picked up and added on from listening to the record?
Pat: Well, that’s just stuff that comes more naturally to me. Jeez, I don’t even know what’s on the record as far as drum parts anymore because we’ve been playing the songs for so long and they’ve sorta evolved into our thing. But I never intended to change the record drum parts ever because I liked how it was done verbatim. It’s just a few stylistic things that come through.
This band’s been together for a year and a half, two years?
Zach: We’re getting close to two years.
How did the band come together?
Zach: I’m sure these guys are getting tired of me answering this one.
All: (Laughs)
Sorry guys.
Zach: Oh no. It’s not-
But it’s not like you’re the fucking Beatles and everybody knows this shit.
Zach: Exactly. Don’t even apologize. It’s just funny.
Didn’t mean to sound like, “So Zach, where’d you get all these assholes?”
Zach: It’s just funny because I look at them and they’re like, ‘Dude, I don’t wanna listen to you talk anymore.’
Gram: It’s like that in the Radiohead movie. Have you seen it?
I think I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t like Radiohead.
Gram: Even still, the funny part of the movie is this a series of video clips of them being interviewed, and it’s 20 different people asking them the same question. So we laugh about it, but at the same time-
Zach: Seriously. Honestly, the fact that people are interested in what I’m doing and what we’re doing is a thrill, so I don’t mean to be petty.
Of course. And I didn’t mean to come off like a dick. I just don’t know these things.
Gram: No, not at all.
Zach: It is funny. We’re pretty much totally unknown. And lately, because of this Sub Pop thing, we’ve been getting interviewed a lot. And a lot of the questions are gonna be, “How’d you guys form?” and “How’d you meet?” And that makes sense, but I recorded the record before I met them. It was a very organic record because it wasn’t supposed to be a band doing a “thing.” There was no label. It was just me and my friend. We were just recording demos. I was at a place in my life where I had all this time because I’d lost a job. And I wanted to record a record – or I wanted to just record. And then he wanted to record because he was experimenting at being an engineer. So we started tracking together and it just became a record. That was a really cool way to just discover. By the end of it, I was really happy with it. I felt like it said what I wanted to say; kind of encapsulated that period of my life really well. That sense of discovery, that I can make a record if I want to. So for that reason I decided I wanted to try to get a band. And I know a lot of people in the Bay Area, but I didn’t know anybody that I could connect with for a band. The guy who drummed on the record, I wanted to get him but he was too busy. So I just started putting out ads. She [Sonya] responded and we got together and played in my garage. And then Pat responded very soon after that. I pretty much used the record as a lure to get people to play. Gram was friends with Pat and he’d heard the record. He saw our first show as a three-piece and liked it, so we invited him to play with us. We were a band within a matter of a month.
Gram: We were practicing all the time. It was all we wanted to do. I had a lot of fun.
Zach: And we already had this template. We had a record we could reverse engineer. It was a lot of figuring out our strengths and who could do what. And then we discovered that we all wanted to sing, that we all wanted to play more than just our own instruments. Again, it was a sense of discovery. That this could be a band that we could all be, hopefully, very happy in.
Which has gotta be a load off your shoulders, being the guy who’s been the lone creative impetus up to that point.
Zach: It was really thrilling that there were these other people that cared about the music. That cared about it to the point that they were willing to quit all their other bands. The fact that I could bring a song that emotionally meant a lot to me and they were right there with me. And they were excited about the songs and wanted to work on them and put the time in.
What does it feel like to find songs that you like and then be able to play on them?
Sonya: I think it feels great. I mean, I fell in love with the album when I first heard these songs. And when people talk to me about the album I feel like I can be somewhat unbiased because I wasn’t on the album. I was a fan first.
Zach: Are you a fan still?
Sonya: No. (Laughs)
And Pat?
Pat: Yeah, I feel the same way. I heard that record and it blew me away. It’s kind of fun that I have a CD-R copy of the exact record as it is now that is brand new to a lot of people. We’ve been listening to it for almost two years now. And I’ve liked it for that long. It’s joining a band that you’ve already liked for a long time. If Guided By Voices was like, “Hey, why don’t you come play drums with us?” Okay, kick ass. I love your songs.
Zach: The other side of it, you know, for future recordings, I want to make sure that we approach things similarly in the future. The freedom of making the first record was there was no band, so you didn’t necessarily have to have the obligatory guitar, bass, drums. I want to always approach songs holistically. You’re not thinking in terms of okay, every little piece is there like a formal band. I like thinking, “What does this song mean? What is the mood here? And what elements should make sense for this?” And I feel like we can do that. Especially since the people aren’t so regimented. Pat plays drums, but he can play everything. It’s whatever we want to do. And those are the records I like, too, that don’t just sound like every song’s the same. And there’s a movement between songs. There is a whole.