Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild tells Billboard.com that once you’ve been driven over by a large truck and have broken various bones in your shoulder, life offers a bit of a new perspective.
“I feel really lucky to be alive,” says a humbled Fairchild, who fell out of Grandaddy touring partner Pete Yorn’s bus last month and was run over by a production truck. “Very, very happy. I’m kind of terrified of some vehicles now. I’ll give them like a 20-foot berth when I don’t need to. Truthfully, I’ve always tried to appreciate life and those around me, as much as humanly possible, but even more so now.”
On Aug. 1, Grandaddy begins another leg of touring behind its recently released V2 disc “Sumday,” which comes three years after the critically acclaimed “The Sophtware Slump” caught the ear of indie rock lovers everywhere. Fairchild admits a cloud of uncertainty hung over the Modesto, Calif.-based band prior to entering frontman Jason Lytle’s home studio to record the new set.
“We toured [‘The Sophtware Slump’] so much last time, we were kind of burned out when we got home,” says Fairchild. “I think there was an overall feeling of, ‘Well, if we can’t provide something to ourselves and to the audience that is not a pretty significant step up, then we shouldn’t do it at all.’ There were a lot of unstable moments, where we really weren’t sure whether or not we were going to make another record.”
But soon after, the band had 30-some Lytle penned songs to work with, eventually paring down the track listing of “Sumday” to a dozen. Fairchild says there are plenty of leftovers such as “Trouble With a Capital T” and “Aisle Seat 37D” for B-sides and potential EP releases. Overall, Fairchild sees the material as being more optimistic than on the last album, based on the band’s newfound confidence.
“It’s like now, we are comfortable with who we are,” Fairchild observes. “I think Jason was thinking a lot about that, as a person, when he was writing these songs. Hopefully, you get to the point where you are a person who just is comfortable with things going the way that they are going and realizing that change is slow and incremental and there is no point in dwelling on the bad stuff, and maybe even embracing the good stuff.”
As previously reported, Grandaddy and Super Furry Animals will begin a co-headlining tour Sept. 18 in San Francisco.
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