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By Cristina Carrazza-- Regional Head, Midwest
The Summer Set are definitely the band to watch this year. After releasing their debut album “A Love Like This,” the Arizona quintet is stealing hearts with its catchy tunes and Taylor Swift covers. This spring, the band opened the annual AP Tour, sharing the stage with Nevershoutnever, Hey Monday and The Cab. After finishing their run on the Vans Warped Tour, The Summer Set will embark on their first headlining tour. I got a chance to talk to guitarist Josh to learn more about this up and coming band.
Cristina: First of all, introduce yourself
Josh: Hi I’m Josh from The Summer Set.
CC: How would you describe The Summer Set?
JM: I think the best way to put it is The Summer Set is good old-fashioned rock and roll. We’re a bunch of kids who grew up together and we love music.
CC: You guys recently released your first full length “A Love Like This” last fall. Can you tell us a little bit about the record?
JM: “A Love Like This” is our first full length that came out last October. We’ve been touring off it since then. It’s been going really well. Even though that record got released we’re still writing songs and writing new music. But we’re really proud of it.
CC: You guys just got off of the Spring AP Tour with the Cab, Hey Monday and Nevershoutnever. How was that experience? It seems that from the beginning you guys have already shared the stage with some pretty well known acts.
JM: Yeah. I feel like every tour we have done gets a little bit better than the last. The AP Tor was awesome. It was a ton of fun; we made a lot of really great friends. We were already friends with The Cab but we got to meet Nevershoutnever and got close with them. Hey Monday and Every Avenue were great too.. So that was just one of the best tour experiences I’ve ever been on. We had a great response every night and we had an awesome time. And now we’re on Warped Tour!
CC: Yes! How is the Warped Tour experience so far?
JM: Warped Tour is awesome. It’s punk rock summer camp you know? We wake up early and are up late, and we do it all over again the next day. It’s been incredible.
CC: Since Warped Tour has such an eclectic selection of bands, how has the reception to the Summer Set been so far?
JM: I feel that our music is very universal. I mean, we’re definitely not comparable to any heavy bands but I feel like if you’re a fan of songs you will like our music.
CC: You guys just released a music video for “The Boys You Do” and I have to say The Summer Set has some of the most creative, fun videos I’ve seen in a long time. So how are you guys involved with them?
JM: Thank you! “The Boys You Do” was our second video we did, and we got a ton of treatment from producers but we didn’t like any of them. So we said “screw it” and we wrote our own. The whole concept, and even the cameras we used to film the video were our pick. So the whole thing was our creation and I’m very happy with it.
CC: It seems you’re a very hands-on band.
JM: Yeah. We basically don’t let anyone do anything for us. We like to do it all ourselves. Even when it comes to designing our own merchandise, our own t-shirts, music videos, we just like to do everything. It’s all us.
CC: Recently, you also re-released “A Love Like This” with an EP of Taylor Swift covers.
JM: I mean, we’re all Taylor Swift fans. We did the Taylor Swift songs for the Hoodwink Festival [which is part of the Bamboozle] in New Jersey. The response was very good. So we thought we had these songs, we’re going to re-release our record in Walmart so why not give away some free songs along with it. So we did. And it’s been fun. We play a Taylor Swift song everyday on Warped Tour and people love it. I mean, it’s pretty universal. I mean, if you don’t like Taylor Swift then there’s something wrong with you.
CC: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about The Summer Set?
JM: Hmm….Honestly, I think we’re a pretty straight forward band. You hear a lot fo shit. If you’re in a band, people hate on you no matter what. It’s doesn’t matter if you’re the best band. So what we do is we’re just ourselves. Some people think we’re very soft and Disney, and some people think we’re too hard. So just experience it for yourself. You get to know each of us as individuals and not just as a band and you’ll know that we’re five completely different people with different likes and dislikes. And our fans usually enjoy us.
CC: What is in the future for the Summer Set?
JM: We’ll be doing a fall headliner, which no one really knows too much about. Hopefully we’ll put out a new record by next summer. So we’re writing and touring.
CC: Let’s end with something random.
JM: I like turtles.
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