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After three long years of silence, indie punk rock artist Grant Summerland has finally made their awaited return with the release of his latest EP, Unnatural History, out everywhere on February 10th. As the second release from the Santa Cruz musician, he reintroduces his project with raging anthems and introspective ballads that explore the passage of time and growing up, all wrapped in a blanket of dynamic soundscape and authentic lyricism.

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. Artists such as Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, and IDLES to artists such as Cymbals Eat Guitars, Weezer, and Prince Daddy & The Hyena seep in as evident influences on the sophomore EP but blend into Grant's tenacity for creating introspective and engaging genre-blending DIY punk rock. 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 tour scheduled for Spring 2023.

We had the opportunity to chat with Grant about the record, his influences, and the unnatural things we do in our everyday lives.

It's been three years since your last release Bigfoot Museum. What inspired you to start working on Unnatural History, and how does the record differ in your opinion?

Bigfoot Museum was purely a concept album, and I never intended to play it live as it was on record. That record came out the first week of COVID shutdowns in California, so it wasn't until late 2021 that I could start playing shows. But that was sort of a challenge - it wasn't clear to me how to take songs from Bigfoot Museum and make them compatible with a live setting. So then this EP continued as a natural progression from that. The question mainly was, "what would work live?" The most fun I've ever had at concerts has 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." So I wanted this EP to be enjoyable and fun live - that was a necessity. They're records with completely different goals, as far as I see. I wanted all these songs to stand completely on their own - their own self-contained little guys.

Did you know that you were making a record in the early days of recording, or was it a more organic process?

The EP really started during the last days of COVID. I was thinking a lot about playing live shows and sat down to make a song meant to be played live. The output of that was 'Real Boy', which I wasn't even going to use for anything; I meant for it to be more of a songwriting exercise. When demoing it, it made sense to put this folk riff at the end as the feedback fades out, and that was how I got to constructing "Backwoods Alabama." Once I had those, I knew the next project had to open with them. After I got to Portland last year, I formed a band - we play as 'Grant & The Summerlands' out here. Eventually, it was clear we needed music to reflect how we sounded live in the slightest. People have come up to us at shows like, "I thought you were going to do a concept album solo set." So this EP was very intentional - I wanted five songs that sounded like our shows, so once I got to recording it for real with Joel Lane it was very much "this is the EP, these are the five songs, this is the order."

Do you feel like your songwriting process has changed since the Bigfoot Museum EP, or do you feel like your process right now has stayed pretty consistent?

Bigfoot Museum was the slowest and most intentional songwriting I've ever done, and this EP was completely different. With every song on Bigfoot, the question was always, "how does this pertain to the bigger picture of this album?" So lots of songs for that one were completely rewritten or thrown out by the time the final product came to be. This EP, however, was meant to just be five solid songs that represented how my band and I sound live. In many ways, it felt more natural to put this one together. 

For some songs, like "Darling, Ain't It a Shame," for instance, I came up with the "ain't it a shame it keeps on going" line one night while with friends, and I built everything around that. The song got written in about a day. "NICER" was actually a unique one in that originally, I put together a punk song for my band to play "NICER" off of Bigfoot Museum - the music and structure were different, but the lyrics were the same. I eventually got sick of these lyrics and wrote new songs - at that point, I realized it was a completely new song. All songs are different, but the fact that each song was its own song and nothing else meant that I could write with more ease.

What does the name of your album Unnatural History mean to you? How does its significance seep into the EP as a whole? (Totally ok if it's not that deep, and it just sounds cool!)

The original idea was to keep with the naming theme of Bigfoot Musem. At one point, I realized that natural history museums are likely the most common of all the kinds of museums out there. Mostly because what defines "natural history" is pretty broad - natural history is everywhere. Where is there no natural history? Nowhere. That's kind of the point! The only thing I could think of that wasn't really natural history was people at this point in time - not just because of terminology but also because I feel like our lives feel so unnatural. We're up to unnatural shit every day. Have you ever been on your phone WHILE watching TV and felt like you've lost your fucking mind? I feel like a lot of my friends are constantly saying shit like, "if only I could eat berries and forage all day like I was supposed to." If only.

You shared that the intro track "Real Boy" was partly inspired by power rock from the 1970s and 1990s with a dash of modern indie rock. Where else are you finding inspiration right now, and how do those influences show up in the record?

Right now, I'm listening to a lot of twangy stuff, which has never been big for me. I think Angel Olsen's Big Time was one of the best albums of last year, and I say that as someone who wasn't even really a big fan of hers up to this point. Something about that very old country style is cool. It's not even the musical components necessarily - it's more just how that music is able to face down everything hard in life. It's the original emo music. Also, Origami Angel is in heavy rotation.

Is there one particular song that wasn't released as a single that you're most excited for people to hear?

Even though I love how fun and light this EP is, I really like that "Backwoods Alabama" gets a bit deeper and darker than everything else on the album. I think the transition from Real Boy into that song makes it work especially well. If "Real Boy" is to come out as loud and flippant as possible, "Backwoods Alabama" is the necessary come down and recalibration. Especially live, that grouping really shows what my band and I can do - all in about 7 minutes.

Which song was the most cathartic for you to write?

I think "NICER" is the most honest and cathartic song I have. What if we don't accomplish everything we want in life? Sometimes you just have to say that out loud.

What is your favorite track on the record? My personal fav is "Impressionable!"

I think in terms of the final product, I'm actually really excited about "Darling, Ain't It a Shame." After it was tracked, I was like, "lets make it a Steely Dan song." Joel and I kept pushing to be smoother and smoother. I think the final product is the cleanest thing I've ever done. The sax solo especially, was wild to me. It was more of a like, "wouldn't it be crazy if I did this?" No, it wouldn't. But to me it felt exciting and new to ask around and get someone to play sax on it. Directing them too like "hey make it sound like the solo on 'Dirty Work'" - I just thought that was hilarious. To me, that song is great, but that smooth, soft jazz-rock sound is music for chilling in the marina in Santa Barbara with your finance coworkers or something, so to include an influence like that was funny. But it turned out great. Something about having just this very concise, clean, and honest song to close the record just feels very right.

What's your favorite song to perform live?

"Real Boy" is still my favorite to play live. I love love love guitar feedback. I think if I wasn't interested in writing songs, I'd be in a noise band that like plays in some abandoned construction site at night just so I could fuck around with feedback for a whole set. Opening with it at all our shows is really fun and you love to see people jumping around like 30 seconds into your set.

If you had to make a Spotify playlist based on this EP, what would you call it?

"Music for Museums" 

Be sure to check out Grant Summerland’s latest EP Unnatural History on Feburary 10th!

UNNATURAL HISTORY - EP TRACKLISTING

01. Real Boy

02. Backwoods Alabama

03. Nicer

04. Impressionable (August Version)

05. Darling, Ain't It A Shame