Hope, energy drives Christian band

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BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star

Forty years ago, rock bands generally weren’t seen in churches.

Fifteen years ago, the Zach brothers hadn’t listened to rock music.

Fast-forward to last week. The Zachs, whose band is called Remedy Drive, are on stage in the Christ United Methodist Church gym, rocking out to celebrate the release of “Daylight is Coming,” their major label debut.

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"I like to call us a recovering jam band," said David Zach (foreground). In back is Philip Zach. (Courtesy photo)

"I like to call us a recovering jam band," said David Zach (foreground). In back is Philip Zach. (Courtesy photo)

Signed to Word Records, the Christian music division of Warner Brothers Records, Remedy Drive has come a long way in a short time, a very short time.

“We quit our day jobs five years ago,” David Zach said. “We were roofing houses. We made three grand in two weeks. Then we made three grand in three days playing three shows. We thought, ‘We can pay ourselves minimum wage roofing or we can pay ourselves minimum wage and be in a band.’”

So the Zachs, singer/guitarist/keyboardist David, Philip on bass, guitarist Paul and Daniel on drums, have worked as hard at music as they did hammering shingles, playing 200 shows a year at clubs and conferences, festivals and churches, building a rock-solid following in the Heartland.

A seasoned “professional” band, Remedy Drive hits the stage with tightly fused energy. Leaping off amplifiers and bouncing off the bass drum, David Zach grabs the attention of the 200 or so in the gym and doesn’t release it for more than an hour.

Fans, some wearing T-shirts from the first days of the band, sing along to some songs and listen carefully to newer tunes, connecting with the band and, by extension, its message.

Midway through the set, Remedy Drive breaks into an instrumental that begins to sprawl with David’s guitar taking on icy Santana-like tones — a move back to the early days of the group.

“I like to call us a recovering jam band,” said David Zach, 29. “We love instrumentals, that’s where we’re coming from.”

So Ian Eskelin, a contemporary Christian music veteran and Dove Award-nominated producer, had to help Remedy Drive get into the pop hooks and away from the long stretches of guitar.

“We needed him to be our sponsor in jam band recovery,” David Zach said. “He’s way out on the edge of pop music so we needed him.”

Those pop sensibilities stand out across “Daylight is Coming,” which was No. 5 on the iTunes Christian music albums chart on the day it was released and remains in the top 10 a week later.

The album is packed with anthemic, hook-filled songs, most notably the ringing title cut “Daylight” that is being added at Christian radio stations across the country.

Getting radio play is far easier when you’ve got a major label behind you than as an indie band. Just ask Philip Zach.

“About four years ago, we asked our fans to call KGBI (Omaha’s Christian radio station) and request that they play one of our songs,” he said. “They were getting 20 or 25 calls a day, and they were like, ‘We are not going to play that song no matter how many calls we get.’ They just added the song. Now, the fans can call, and they’ll play it.”

Understandably, “Daylight” is being pushed on Christian radio, and the band spent last weekend playing to thousands at a Christian music festival in South Dakota and at a Kansas City concert.

“We played to more people in a weekend that we ever have in our lives,” said Philip Zach. “There were 5,000 to 10,000 people at each of the shows. It was a lot of fun. We had a record weekend selling CDs, we sold more than 500. That’s unheard of for Remedy Drive.”

 Remedy Drive is hoping that its music eventually breaks out of the Christian rock niche and finds a wider audience.

“That’s probably the biggest concern,” David Zach said. “You put a label on music, and people aren’t going to listen to it because of what they think it’s going to be. There are things Bono says that have really reached me and impacted my life. That’s what I want to do — to write songs that impact people and not commit ourselves to a conservative subculture.

“I’m not trying to hide anything. I just think there’s a way to talk about hope, a new heart, a second chance, redemption where someone without the same view as myself can enjoy it for what it is. Maybe this is someone looking for hope, and I can help them find it.”

As members of an indie band, each of the Zachs had specific responsibilities. Philip, for example, handled the graphics, band photos, etc., and Paul did the booking. Now there’s a label designer doing the album graphics, and the band is being booked by the heavyweight William Morris Agency.

But David Zach continued his old duties as band spokesman, sitting down for an hourlong interview. In the course of our discussion, he made repeated references to U2 and Bono, the most popular and influential overtly Christian band ever.

“Ironically, the band that has had the most impact is not part of the (Christian music) industry,” David Zach said. “Like it or not, that’s the industry we’re in. There’s nothing I can do about people’s preconceived idea of what we’re going to be. I don’t want to be another close-minded person who says we have all the answers. All I know is my hope is bigger than rock music, bigger than the American dream, and it’s not going to fade away.”

The Zachs’ faith comes from their upbringing. The quartet was raised in Omaha and attended Westside High School before they migrated to Lincoln.

“My parents were hippies,” David Zach said. “My mom was an atheist. After giving up religion, things really fell apart for them. That was when they started looking more at finding out who Jesus Christ is. Things fell apart for them in their 20s. They were always upfront with us about that. And they instilled our values growing up. We didn’t have a TV.

“Now you talk about old TV shows, you talk about classic rock, and we’re scrambling to catch up. But I’m glad it happened the way it did. It made us more creative.”

The brothers, who are more than a little tired of the obvious comparisons with Hanson and the Jonas Brothers, get along pretty well, even when they’re crammed in a van for days at a time.

“If you can deal with your three brothers, hopefully you can handle anything life throws at you,” David Zach said. “We’re committed to each other.”

They’re also committed to their music. Remedy Drive is in the early stages of its “Daylight is Coming” tour, which will stop at Concordia University, Nebraska,  in Seward tonight. They’ll eventually cover the Great Plains from Texas to South Dakota, go as far east as Illinois, as far south as Alabama and as far north and west as Washington and Oregon — and that’s just through November.

In January, it’s likely they’ll be on Winterjam, the largest Christian rock tour of the year, opening for Newsboys and Flyleaf. Then it will be back to the smaller venues, like Omaha’s Slowdown where they played to about 150 people the night after one of the huge South Dakota shows.

“We’ll get our rock star nights, and then we’ll have our nights where we’re lifting our own speakers and soundboard,” David Zach said. “Right now, we’re taking shows for the potential of this. It’s not paying the bills the way it did last year. But there’s so much kinetic energy now. We’re just hoping this boosts us up a little bit.”

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.