Charley Saufley said the members of his band, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, all come from different musical backgrounds.
"My sister and I came from a musical family," said Saufley in a telephone interview from the band's stop in New York.
His sister, by the way, is Camilla Saufley, the band's keyboardist and flutist. The rest of the San Francisco-based band includes guitarist and bassist Jefferson Marshall and drummer Michael Lardas.
"While I wasn't the most musical of the family, I was the biggest album nerd and, thanks to my older siblings, got into a lot of music that included but was not limited to '60s garage stuff, the Beatles, the Stones and some strange weird prog-stuff from the '70s.
"And my mom sang those scary folk songs about floods and disasters."
Saufley said Marshall came from a classic hard-core and metal background, and Lardas cut his teeth rhythmically with soul radio.
"Mike and I had worked together playing funk and Latin records at parties," said Saufley. "I met Jefferson one night and had a great conversation about music and found that we loved all kinds of music — everything from Black Flag to Japanese noise bands."
So after more discussions about music, everyone thought it would be nice to get together.
"Our music isn't as complex as all of our influences," Saufley said with a laugh. "But we found that bringing all those backgrounds together was less of a challenge than we thought."
Three albums later, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound is still finding ways to cover new musical ground.
"In the past, we have been categorized as a heavy band," Saufley said. "But with the new CD ('When Sweet Sleep Returned'), we wanted to touch upon some more melodic themes. We were looking to get inside of the more '60s Byrds sound."
To accomplish that goal, the band reunited with producer Tim Green, who produced its last album, "Ekranoplan."
"Tim is an uncommonly gifted musician," said Saufley. "Although you see his resume that features heavy bands like the Melvins and all, he is like us and has an immense knowledge of all kinds of music. He loves '70s pop for what it is and doesn't like it in an ironic way. So he was instrumental in helping us find the way to make the new album."
One of the songs on the "When Sweet Sleep Returned" is called "Kolob Canyon."
"Jefferson is from the Midwest and an East Coast guy," said Saufley. "His girlfriend is from Salt Lake City, and she took him to Kolob Canyon. It blew him away. So he had to name a song after it."
Saufley said the song's lyrics have nothing to do with the canyon itself, but the feel of the arrangement captures what Marshall was trying to convey.
"We originally tried to record it as a psychedelic, Carter Family piece, but all it became was a botched experiment.
"So on election night, while I was watching TV and seeing everyone in a celebratory mood, I decided to work some of the lyrics together and arrange it on the keyboard. And that's how that song came to be."
If you go …
What: Sleepy Sun, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Silver Antlers
Where: Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court
When: Oct. 2, 7 p.m.
How much: $7
Web: www.kilbycourt.com
e-mail: scott@desnews.com