Two years ago, Remedy Drive faced what may have been for many bands an impossible obstacle— the band of four brothers became a band of one as three of the Zach brothers felt God calling them to move on to other things in their lives. Lead singer David Zach was left with the seemingly insurmountable task of finding three new band members and rebuilding Remedy Drive from the ground up. Two years, an EP, and a fresh album later, it's clear that God's not done with this band quite yet.

Remedy Drive has long stated their message to be one of hope. This mission is aided by their infectiously energetic piano-driven tunes and their enthusiastic live performances. All of these elements have earned them a dedicated fan following and a place on festival stages across the country each summer.

In anticipation of the band's fall 2012 release of Resuscitate, NewReleaseTuesday's Bill Lurwick caught up with intrepid Remedy Drive frontman David Zach to discuss the band's reinvention and the pulse behind the new songs.

Let’s talk about Resuscitate. You guys have been working on this for– is it safe to say— almost three years?

On some of these songs, the original idea dates back to before Daylight Is Coming came out, but then a lot of the songs were completed in the last two years. Some of them even came from a song idea from three years ago combined with a song I did one year ago. So it’s been a while.

I know you met one of your new band members while you were at a Switchfoot show. The first single out, “Resuscitate Me,” kind of has a Switchfoot feel to it.

I listen to a lot of Switchfoot, but I think more so I listen to a lot of bands that Switchfoot worked with too. Going all the way back to when I was in high school, bands I know had a big influence on Switchfoot.

Seriously though, about the song itself, it’s a real anthem kind of thing. It’s something that we all need, right?

I think so. I think people need it on multiple levels. I need to hear it on multiple levels. I know what it feels like to be given up on and to give up on myself, to wonder if there’s hope, wonder if there’s a chance for a restart.

Not just for me as an individual, but for my band. So every night when I scream that out, “It’s not too late to resuscitate me,” I need to hear it in my soul.


David, I’ve heard that “Crystal Sea” was taken somewhat from the book of Revelation. Is that accurate?

Yeah. C.S. Lewis is always saying stuff along those lines too. So I thought it would be more common. I’m kind of glad it’s more of a secret, more of something you’ve got to dig to understand. It says that there’s a throne and inside the throne is a piece of glass like a crystal. So for me the idea is everything is just beneath my seat.

My wife and I, when everything changed with the band, we sold our house. We moved to Nashville. We just had a baby. We were looking for a new record label, a new manager, and three new band members. So it was probably the most crazy least stable time in our lives ever.

The idea is everything else can be taken away. Everything else can fall down and break apart and burn out, but we’ll still have these songs to sing and we’re going to sing them together by the crystal sea. That’s where that song came from.

I was privileged to hear the project, some cuts from the project, about six months ago. My favorite song is “God I Hope So,” and that’s a real personal song.

That day my brothers told me – we’d been talking about it for years. We’d been on the road together for eight years almost full time, most of those years in a van before we got our bus. I knew it was coming, but at the same time I didn't expect it.

The song starts out “I could see it in your eyes,” and I could tell with my brother Paul how hard it was for him to break the news that they were going to be calling it quits and yet they gave me their blessing to go forward. At the same time in that moment there was the despair, the fear, so many emotions all at the same time and not understanding why it’s got to be this way.

The chorus comes out, “Maybe this is just the way it had to be. Maybe there’s beauty in the tragedy, I don't know, but I hope so. Maybe time, it doesn’t ever let you choose. Maybe learning how to find is learning how to lose. I don't know, but God I hope so.”

For me, just to write that song— we haven’t performed it yet live— but to write it, it was so important for me to help me move from that place. It’s so hard. I couldn’t imagine two years ago when that happened celebrating the release of a new album because I’m not releasing it with my brothers.

At the same time, looking back at the last two years, I’ve come to grips with it, and I think it took writing this song to come to grips with the fact it’s time for a new chapter. I know there’s people dealing with fractured relationships, dealing with loss, dealing with the loss of loved ones, the loss of things that are important.

I hope that it can mean something and resonate with somebody the way it did with me the first time I sang it.

A lot of folks have loved Remedy Drive’s live show over the years and they may be saying, “Wait a minute. All the brothers aren’t involved.” What’s a Remedy Drive live show going to look like here in the future?  I’m pretty sure it’s going to look pretty good, isn’t it?

I hope so. I never got to watch one myself.

You guys put a lot of energy into it.

I love watching Timmy back there on the drums. You can see it on YouTube, especially our “Resuscitate Me” official video which shows footage from around the country, but Timmy’s pretty rowdy back there. Sometimes he ends up next to me or in the crowd.

Dave just rocks it on the guitar. The work that Dave did on this album on the guitar is pretty special.
 
The album, I think it’s still a piano album, but it has so much more guitar in it. I don't know how to describe it. There’s just more guitar than we used to have.

Corey is doing great over there. Sometimes I’ll see him and it just looks like he’s lost in it. That’s my favorite moment when I see the guys just mouthing the words and playing their instruments and loving life.

Dave, where do you hope to be in the next 10 years? Still doing what you’re doing?

I never want to stop playing music. I don't know what that looks like. I want to keep on writing songs for Remedy Drive as long as that goes on. I don't know if I’ll do some side projects, but I hope I’m writing songs in 10 years and performing.
 
I love writing. I love recording, but playing music in front of people and having people sing songs that come from somewhere deep inside my soul really is something amazing that’s hard to describe.

Sounds a little bit like heaven.

I agree with you. I think whatever it is, it sounds like it, but it’s only a shadow. Just like anything else that it great in this life. It’s just a shadow, and He’s just barely pointing at something that’s more real and more tangible and more lustrous with being than music.

How can you have a rhythm, like four beats per minute, 120 beats per minute if there are no minutes? That’s always a question for me.

Good stuff. I can’t tell you how excited we are about this.

I’m excited you guys are excited because I am really excited for people to be singing these songs.