By Zach Collier
Sam Sheppard was waiting for me at Saida Sushi & Noodle House when I walked in. It’s been fun reconnecting with the guys from the band Roseburg lately. Last time I hung out with Sam was over breakfast at Utah State the morning after our bands played Logan City Limits in 2018 or 2019. It’s been far too long. We’ve both grown beards since then.
We sit and look at the menu while we wait for Sam’s bandmate, Roseburg frontman Zach Knell, to arrive. “It’s time to see if I’m actually Zach’s best friend or not,” Sam laughs behind his menu. “He either likes his rice bowl with extra green peppers or none at all.” When the waiter comes, Sam bets it all on extra peppers. They bring out the rice bowl, and Zach arrives.
Turns out, they’re not true best friends after all. Zach Knell hates green peppers.
We laugh a ton as we talk and watch Zach struggle through his meal. We discuss everything from Skinwalker Ranch to modern music marketing techniques. Eventually we settle on the real topic of conversation that brought us together for lunch: the song that saved Roseburg.
That song is “City of Angels” by father/son duo YesterKid.
Roseburg released their first LP, Righteous Punk, in early 2020. The record landed major Spotify editorial playlists, featured a high profile collaboration with Sleeping with Sirens’ Kellin Quinn, and was even generating buzz in Alternative Press. The band had major plans for a U.S. tour with Arrows in Action and had raised over $13,000 on Kickstarter before COVID-19 shut everything down and they were forced to painstakingly reverse course. On everything.
“Life had flipped upside down,” Zach Knell remembers. “Emotions were running high.” Roseburg had been grinding relentlessly up until that point, and it felt like it was all for nothing. A bunch of hungry, wide-eyed 23-year-olds with all the momentum in the world just got the rug pulled out from underneath them in a way literally nobody in the entire world saw coming.
Overwhelmed, Zach Knell cut ties. “Big nasty falling out, yada yada. I’ll be honest, I was young and stupid,” he tells me. “I was so laser-focused on my goals for a music career. I thought we were going to be the biggest band in the world. Now, my entire perspective has changed. Before, I wanted to be the next big thing. Now, I just want to make music with my best friends and have people enjoy it at scale. The intent behind everything is different.”
Sam explains that nobody in Roseburg had really spoken with Zach for about a year until one night Sam and his wife were invited over for dinner. “We ended up just talking and talking. For hours,” Sam says. “Anyone with band friends knows you’ll eventually end up talking about music.”
“We talked about Roseburg. We talked about how much we missed hanging out,” Sam says. “And then I told him that over the last few months I’d been writing songs over Zoom with my dad, and Zach offered to help.”
Initially Zach thought he’d help produce a song or two. Then they started getting together once a week. And then twice a week. When they needed personnel to help track YesterKid songs, they happened to know some guys who could help.
Guys like Roseburg’s drummer Keith Lambson.
And Roseburg’s bassist Soren Buchert.
“YesterKid helped me fall in love with music again. YesterKid healed my relationship with my bandmates. YesterKid is my favorite project I’ve ever worked on,” Zach says. “Endangered Species is beautiful, vibrant, important, and my favorite album of all time. It defines my mid-20s. That is why I have no problem shamelessly self promoting it. It deserves to be listened to.”
Of all the YesterKid tracks, “City of Angels” was the first song that got everyone really excited about making music together again and directly led Roseburg to make 2 in a Million.
“We always felt like of all the songs that went on that YesterKid album, this was one that probably would have been a Roseburg song if we were still together at the time. So we decided to reimagine it and hope to give it a second life. It’s our favorite song,” Knell says.
While a lot of Roseburg’s previous songs were written by Zach Knell and from his perspective, “City of Angels” covers the story of Roseburg from Sam’s perspective. Moving from New York out west to start the band, and everything that came with the rise and fall and the rise again of Roseburg.
How does Sam feel about Roseburg re-releasing a YesterKid song? See for yourself:
“City of Angels” is ushering in a new era for Roseburg. Where Righteous Punk was youthfully self-serious (but rad) and 2 in a Million was unabashedly optimistic (and also rad), “City of Angels” is fusing the two approaches into something more anthemic, more bittersweet, more authentic, and more sentimental than ever before.
“No matter what happens, I’m just really, really grateful,” Sam says. “I’m just glad we’re making music together again.”
Make sure to follow Roseburg and YesterKid on Instagram. You can hear “City of Angels” below.
Zach never finished his rice bowl. H*ck green peppers, man.