Premiere: Grant Summerland Drops “Unnatural History” EP

A return after three years of silence, Grant Summerland’s Unnatural History EP, the second release from the California musician, marks a reintroduction to the Grant Summerland project. 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. Influences range from artists such as Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, and IDLES to artists such as Cymbals Eat Guitars, Weezer, and Prince Daddy & The Hyena. A combination of anthems and introspective ballads, the EP seeks to build and expand on key themes seen in Grant’s debut 2020 release Bigfoot Museum – namely growing up in the contemporary world and facing the passage of time head on. 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 scheduled for Spring 2023.

Grant Summerland hails from the foot of the mountains of Santa Cruz, CA, the beach town most famously known for its boardwalk and the filming location of Lost Boys (1987). In 2020, the very same week that California announced COVID shutdowns, Grant released his debut album Bigfoot Museum. This album was entirely written, performed, produced, and mixed by Grant, and is a concept album that details a teenage horror movie via a nighttime drive through the Santa Cruz Mountains. In 2021, Grant prepped for life after the pandemic by taking the songs from Bigfoot Museum and reworking them for a live setting. The result of these was PATTERSON-GIMLIN: 2021 DEMOS. A four song tape recorded in a series of first-takes with Grant on every instrument, the demos show the songs in a completely different light – looser and leaning into rock and punk influences heavily. This developed into the act GRANT & THE SUMMERLANDS – a four piece live band designed to play these songs in an entirely new context. Unnatural History EP, the first proper release in almost three years, shows the influence of Grant’s live band on his music and hints at a number of fascinating directions the project can go in the years to come.