Feb 11, 2005  |  By: VAN GOWE  | COMMENTS     

GERLINDA GRIMES, LEAD singer/ guitarist/lyricist of weaklazyliar, is a lesbian. But she says her intent isn’t to play only to gay listeners, so she opts instead to tell universal tales to which anyone can relate.

The Atlanta indie alt-pop quartet’s new CD, “Songs for Any Occasion,” is scheduled to be released on Feb. 15.

“I don’t make any kind of conscious attempt to write, or not write, about gay themes in my music,” she says. “Honestly, I’m not even sure what a ‘gay theme’ would be.”

Further, Grimes believes weaklazyliar’s brand of pensive folk-pop isn’t necessarily the only fitting genre for expressing gay sentiments in music.

“I think you can express how it feels to be a gay person effectively through any creative medium, including the creative medium of day-to-day life itself,” she says.

Grimes, who cites singer Suzanne Vega’s “amazing lyrics and pure, quiet voice” as primary influences, has a voice that is sometimes slightly reminiscent of both Vega and former Sixpence None The Richer vocalist Leigh Nash. It’s that element, and Grimes’ own intensely poetic lyrics, that help convey the sometimes bittersweet but ultimately life-affirming moments in the band’s songs.

“I’m driving through Birmingham / Everything has brought me right here, / To where I am / Of all the small things I’ve ever done / This is one / This is one,” Grimes sings on “Broken Windows in Factories.”

In the wistful “When Joe Lived on Mary Street,” Grimes sings, “When Joe lived on Mary Street / Rain was a devil dancer in a dark coat / He wanted so many impossible things / He didn’t know which one to choose / He let them all go.”

SUCH SONGS ARE akin to old-fashioned ballads, with characters facing difficult choices in life and love.

The band formed in 1996 when Grimes met bassist Chris Mathewson and the two connected over songwriting. Drummer Jeff Frazier joined them soon after.

Over the next eight years, the group went through several lineup changes but continued to write, perform and record. They gradually accrued a critical following, thanks to their debut EP and subsequent CDs, “Yesterday Night” and “The November Diaries.” Their songs have been featured on the TV shows “Felicity,” “The Education of Max Bickford,” and the Saturday morning teen series “Just Deal.”

So far, Grimes says her status as the band’s front woman, and its only gay member, has been a positive experience.

“The guys are supportive to the point that none of us ever think about the fact that I’m gay. To them, I’m just Gerlinda,” she says. “All of our fans, gay and straight and in-between, seem OK with it, too.”

The “guys” are Mathewson, Frazier, and keyboardist Ryan Taylor.

Despite weaklazyliar’s ambivalence regarding gay themes in its music and Grimes’ sexual orientation, the sweet song “Elevator” — laced with Taylor’s evocative, almost William Orbit-inspired keyboard flourishes — comes perhaps the closest to indirectly conveying gay sentiments: “Suddenly, I am aware of my knees / They’re funny and lonely and small / Here is my family: laughing in the corridor / I don’t know who I am at all.”

“Maybe that’s a ‘gay theme,’ but it’s also a human theme,” Grimes says.

With three straight men and a lesbian playing together like a fine-tuned, indie-pop machine with heart, there’s little wonder that their reflective folk-pop continues to win them fans.