Zach of all trades

Zach Gill is keeping busy this summer touring internationally with two new albums from two bands. While Gill and his band ALO are not yet household names, Jack Johnson is one of the most recognizable singer-songwriters of the decade.

Bridging the gap between rock and jam band, Gill and his band mates in ALO began playing together Saratoga High School. Gill first met Johnson when the two were attending college at University of California, Santa Barbara.

"We were in rival bands, then we ended the rivalry and eventually started playing together," Gill said. "I moved up to the Bay area to do stuff with ALO, and he stayed in Santa Barbara and did gigs in L.A. Years later he was really popular. He picked ALO up on his label and eventually I joined his band. It all kind of happened gradually."

ALO re-released their first album "Fly Between Falls" on Johnson's Brushfire Records in 2006 and recorded "Roses & Clover" in 2007 after opening for Johnson across Europe in 2005.

"He had a trio for the longest time," Gill said. "The first time I ever sat in was at the end of the night on accordion. It was a pretty good vibe. Then it was ‘why don't you come out and play piano on a couple songs and we'll see how that works.' At first it was just going to be a couple songs, then it was a few more, then all of a sudden it was the whole night. I don't think he had in mind that I'd become a member of the band."

Gill became a member of the band on Johnson's "In Between Dreams" playing piano, accordion and melodica.

"That was my first tour," Gill said. "I was still the new guy. It was a pretty good time to come on board. I skipped a lot of the mini-van touring. My first gig was Saturday Night Live when David Spade was the host."

The biggest adjustment for Gill was the size of crowds at Johnson's shows and the adjustments required musically.

"When I first started playing in Jack's band, it was a whole new experience to play for crowds that big," Gill said. "ALO is a band that does well in the small clubs. We just have that kind of energy. I had no idea it would sound so different on the stage. Being in a small room you feed off the room itself. You hear and see so much of the crowd. Then you're standing on a big stage and you hear a lot of the echo coming back to you."

Johnson has the blessing and curse of his voice sounding nearly identical from album to stage. Adding Gill's piano accompaniment and backup vocals provided a new dynamic to the live performances and Johnson's last three studio releases.

"There was a little bit of piano on Jack's album before I joined the band; It wasn't a totally foreign sound," Gill said. "But any time you incorporate a fourth member in, it changes. I sing a lot of harmonies live. We've discovered a lot of things live, then when we've gone to the studio we've incorporated those things in."

Many of those discoveries can be heard on Johnson's latest release "To the Sea." Johnson has influenced Gill's band as well, producing "Man of the World," ALO's third studio album.

"It feels fresh and is some of my favorite music to play with ALO," Gill said. "It got me pumped because the whole process of making it was different than our other albums. In previous albums the instruments would be isolated. This time we were all in a room together. It felt more musical and playful. It ended up being a lot more fun. Everybody is excited to go back into the studio again."

Gill prefers the passion and imperfection of recording as a group rather than recording parts individually in the studio. "What is perfect, and what is everybody's goal? Is it to get the perfect drum take or is it to serve the recording? When you don't have the luxury of overdubbing, you get into a cool place where there's a little bit of an edge. You know if you go too far you might blow it for everybody else, but your instinct is to go for it. You get into a nice zone."

Gill's instinct to "go for it" extends to the stage, where his number one goal is to appease the crowd.

"ALO is always caught between trying to keep the party going and getting introspective on ourselves," he said. "Every album is a blend of those two things. When playing in front of a bunch of people, my instinct goes toward a celebration. There are all these songs that never end up getting played because you tend to gravitate toward the up-tempo ones."