Remedy Drive has been working hard on a new album called "Resuscitate". In this interview I talk to the lead singer David Zach, about this new album and also a few bonus questions. I hope you enjoy the interview and feel free to leave as many comments as you would like!
TCMJ: For you personally when did you feel God call you to be a musician?
David: I can't say that I've ever heard a call. I just know that I've always been very attracted to music and to the ability of art to remind my soul of sights yet unseen. I've always been fascinated with melody and the way it makes me feel like I belong somewhere else. I want to keep on putting one note in front of another to find melodies that invite us in to breath the strange and special air of a distant land.
TCMJ: What is one thing you wish you would have known before starting a band?
David: I wish I would have known how to play guitar before I started this band.
TCMJ: So you guys are working on a new album to follow up your first official studio album "Daylight Is Coming". How does this new album differ from the previous?
David: I think our new album Resuscitate is much more of a guitar rock album. There is still a ton of piano on the album but the guitar takes center stage. It's more raw. It's more honest. It's more sad and yet hopeful.
TCMJ: What was the recording process like, and are you still working on recording?
David: It was a lot of fun in the studio with producer Pete Kipley. I learned a lot from him. We spent a lot of time finding the right sounds that the song needed. If the song is a sad song it's bleeding on the album. If it's a celebratory song it sounds like a party. If it's a rock n’ roll song it's punchy and mean.
TCMJ: What is your favorite song off the new album?
David: I think ‘Crystal Sea' is my current favorite to play live. The crowd really seems to like that one and people sing it loud.
TCMJ: So you guys tour quite a bit, where would you say is your favorite place to play?
David: I like playing at festivals. Festivals are like family reunions because people from all over the place come out to sing and sweat together.
TCMJ: Also with playing many different shows I am sure there are some interesting stories....what is your favorite tour story?
David: Just talked to someone this weekend about a guy and a girl that met at a festival a few years back during a Remedy Drive concert. They have now been married for a year.
TCMJ: What is something that God has been trying to show or teach you recently?
David: I'm learning that what there is to know is past finding out - that there is a mystery in love - there is a mystery in redemption that is bigger than I'll ever even imagine in 65 or 70 years. I've grown tired of trying to fit the news of a distant kingdom into constructs built by theologians or boxes built by philosophers. I want to be enamored again, to stand amazed under the stars with the realization that the universe is so big and yet those stars shine for me. I want to consider the heavens, the works of the fingertips of the Creator, and wonder who I am. The idea of being amazed and bewildered, being astonished and being in wonderment, I think that's an important part of this journey that sometimes gets pushed into the peripheral. I think basking in the mystery is the biggest part of adoration and I want to spend more time not knowing and less time thinking I know anything.
5 Random bonus questions:
1. When you were little did you have a toy or blanket that you took everywhere, if so what was it?
I never had this.
2. If you had one day to do anything, anywhere what would you do?
I'd take a tour through history; watch the red sea part, hear the sermon on the mount, hang out with Lewis and Tolkien at a pub in England, revisit my wedding day and the birth of my kids, and a few other select moments.
3. This may sound odd, but what is your favorite scar and how did you get it?
A perfect circle on my belly. From a wheelie gone bad and the rusty handlebar ended up gouging me.
4. What is your favorite movie?
Matrix 1.
5. What is the scariest thing you have ever done?
Being a father.