The Zummers — Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, spelling, and readability. Music excerpts are noted where they appear in the episode.

Cold open

Tom: The first record, it’s always the best. We’ve got to make this one the best. We kind of had to pick the cream of the crop.

Tom: I think it’ll sort of define our starting period, for sure, and the best songs from that period.

[Music]

Eric Chan: I’m Eric Chan, and you’re listening to Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.

The Zummers are a four-piece band out of Pemberton, B.C., and even though they haven’t been a band for very long, this first record already feels like a snapshot of a band finding its shape quickly. In this episode, they look back on when it started to feel real, and how that early momentum turned into their debut album, Distracted.

Tom: After that battle of the bands, we actually did join another battle of the bands in Squamish, which kind of felt like another step up, maybe a bit of a larger audience. And then we won that one as well.

I think we were already feeling the connection, and the music was really good. That definitely helped solidify it a bit more as well. The Squamish one, that’s at the Brackendale Art Gallery, one of our favourite venues to play. They’ve got a big stage, they’ve got a good sound system, and there’s a couple hundred people there. So yeah, that definitely felt more real.

And also just jamming together, the first few months, we wrote so many songs together and we probably had around ten songs ready to be played in less than two months. The creativity part of it was really flowing. We really saw that there was chemistry there, and that the jams were efficient, and there was something to be done with this group. So that really convinced us to keep going, and now we’re here.

Yeah, it’s funny. I’ve got to say, I never necessarily planned on trying to go on tour and make albums and stuff, but I’ve always wanted to do that, and I guess I’d abandoned hope. But then these guys were into it and keen, and it was like, okay, yeah, let’s keep doing that. Let’s keep playing songs. Let’s keep playing shows. Let’s go record. And yeah, here we are. We’ve got our album now, and we’re planning our next album.

[Music: “End of the World” excerpt]

Eric Chan: Once the chemistry was there, the songs started taking shape quickly too. Vocalist Tom and guitarist Alex explain how those ideas started turning into something that felt like The Zummers.

Tom: It started in different ways. I had a bunch of older songs that I’d written on my own, and we started playing those. But these guys would still bring extra elements, and that’s what I love about the band. It’s not just my songs.

Then Mikey will come with one of his songs, and then Alex will be like, here, I’ve got this riff I’ve been wanting to do. Jesse plays a bass line. Sometimes it’s someone just playing a part, and that’s the root of a new song. We jam it out. Sometimes someone has a fully written song and it just needs lyrics or whatever. So yeah, like Alex was saying, it’s very collaborative. We all have our own ideas that we bring forward, and it just seems like there’s non-stop material.

Alex: And the writing usually is pretty quick. When we have an idea, we just kind of jam it out, and then we know instantly if it’s going to work or not. I think some bands probably take a lot more time, but we kind of just go with it. If the first feeling is good, then we keep going until it’s not anymore, and then we decide what to do. Usually it’s pretty efficient, and those songs kind of just happen naturally, which is a good feeling.

[Music: “Grenoble” excerpt]

Eric Chan: You can hear that most clearly when they talk about a song changing shape once it stops belonging to one person. Here’s Alex.

Alex: Personally, it would be “Pour No More,” because that’s a song that I brought to the table. I’d always heard it one way, and then when Tom started singing it, it was like, oh wow, this is The Zummers’ sound, which I could put on a song of my own. That made it really interesting. Taking something personal and putting it in the band, and then it becomes our thing.

Tom: That was a cool experience for me too, because I’ve never really had someone write the music and say, okay, sing to this. Or, you know, I wrote the lyrics and sang to it. I feel like I got lucky. I looked through my phone and found some lyrics that just seemed to fit. But yeah, that was a really cool experience. It’s a different challenge that I guess I’d never really done.

[Music: “Pour No More” excerpt]

Eric Chan: A first record can say a lot, even when it only captures one chapter of a band’s story.

Tom: When we were at the studio, we had to decide which songs do we record. And I know Mikey said early on, the first record is always the best. We’ve got to make this one the best. Obviously we want them all to be the best, but yeah, I think it’ll remind me of those decisions that we made.

Like I said, we’re cutting songs that we still really like, and we kind of had to pick the cream of the crop. I think it’ll sort of define our starting period, for sure, and the best songs from that period.

Eric Chan: Drummer Mikey hears something else in the record too — a lot of Tom’s life leading up to it.

Mikey: I feel like this album too is a lot of Tom’s history, your life up to a certain point. There are songs that you wrote a while back that we as a band revamped and remade. So there are stories of love and loss, and even a childhood thing.

Tom: Yeah. Childhood stories, and now your own kids coming into this world. That’s definitely a big theme.

[Music: “Distracted” excerpt]

Eric Chan: That first chapter wasn’t only shaped by the songs. It was also shaped by what the band was willing to do to keep it moving.

Alex: Last summer, we drove a lot to get to gigs. For example, we played this festival in Hudson’s Hope called Peace Valley. That was a fourteen-hour drive to go play a one-hour set at a festival up north.

Being on the road with three other friends that I now consider real friends, even though they were kind of random dudes not too long ago, and just seeing the dedication that we all have for the craft, is pretty cool. It’s always a special moment when you come back from a good gig and we’re all just thriving.

[Music: “Tonight” excerpt]

Eric Chan: And for all the movement in that first chapter, some of the best moments came in the studio.

Tom: Those were some of my most fun days. Like you said, kind of hanging out with buds, but also we were focused, right? You get a high off that, seeing your work come to fruition.

And also our recording studio engineer, Emilio at Holy Cow Studios, he’s kind of like a fifth member of the band. He’s such a fun hang, and just such a genius. I really look forward to going back there, partly to make music, but also just for the good time.

Eric Chan: And that was The Zummers, talking about the early chapter behind their debut album, Distracted. I’m Eric Chan, and you’ve been listening to Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.

[Music fades out]