Today we continue our Summer Stars series, which offers the latest from groups out there making the rounds on the festival circuit. Each piece will offer a profile/update along with some thoughts from the band members regarding a variety of summer favorites. ALO will appear at Summer Camp this Saturday, followed by slots at Wakarusa and Bonnaroo over the weeks to follow. Here’s a link to view all of our Summer Star pieces which we will post over the coming weeks

When ALO entered the studio to work on the follow-up to 2010’s Man of the World, the band was in an expansive mood. The group’s Zach Gill explains, “When we play live, the songs always breathe, and a lot of times you get into the studio and that’s the first thing that gets cut out. In the past, we were whittling down to make something fit into four minutes and cutting out some cool parts. We thought some of that was gratuitous but this time around, we thought it was generous – at least to ourselves.”

The group’s fans likely will share this assessment. ALO opted to develop the material for their new release Sounds Like This during studio sessions, rather than focusing on pre-existing songs and demos. This unstructured approach then manifested itself in the arrangements; while Sounds Like This captures ALO’s signature song craft and their particular flair for melody, it also reflects the group’s penchant to open things up in the live setting.

Both of these elements will be on display this summer when the group traverses the country to appear at events such as Summer Camp, Wakarusa, All Good and Bonnaroo, as well as ALO’s local High Sierra Music Festival where, “we’re deeply entwined and get to do some really fun thematic late night events.”

The band members are avowed festival enthusiasts, although Gill also shares the potential hazards of the festival bill in this story from Bonnaroo 2005: “We had a funky version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ that was almost like The Meters meet Zeppelin. It was a hot cover for us and we thought we might even open with it. The band playing before us was Rose Hill Drive and they ended with ‘Immigrant Song.’ We thought we had this ace in the hole and it was gone. So we decided, ‘We don’t need covers, we’ll just play originals and it will be fine.’ And it was.”

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Best album for a warm summer night: My favorite, as of late, is Solo Piano by Gonzales. It’s a great dreamy, vibey, under-the-stars album. Other than that, I’m fan of anthemic rock songs that talk about being outside like [Van Halen’s] “Summer Nights” or something you feel guilty about but pumps you up anyway.

In the forest versus beach debate: I choose forest because although a great show on the beach is awesome, I’m into the mystical forest vibe.

This one time at this festival: At the Health and Harmony Festival ²⁰⁰⁷, Mike Stern was one of the artists at large and we had him sit in which led us into 70s jazz fusion land. He was taking us to some cool places and during our song “Barbeque,” this beardy dready character emerged from the grassy knoll behind the sound booth and began walking towards the stage, almost like a zombie. There was no pit up front and all of a sudden he’s climbed six feet onto the stage and he just goes for Steve’s bass. His eyes were all red and I imagined he was thinking “I must find the source…I must have the thunder stick.” The jam’s just going and half the band doesn’t notice yet and Steve’s wrestling with the guy who’s trying to get the bass out of his arms. They were wrestling and the song keeps going and I’m just watching it happen. Then security flies out and the guy gets his glasses knocked off and he goes limp. It was a whole spectacle. Steve was really holding his ground and wouldn’t give up his bass and finally they got the guy off the stage and we just kind of continued on.