The Summer Obsession (Lucien Walker on vocals/piano, Fin on guitar, Christ on bass & Chris on drums) hail from the sun and fun of Jacksonville, Fl. So how did they end up in California to land their record deal with Virgin? Well, chalk it up to determination and a mere two thousand mile road trip after a canceled gig on the Warped tour, perhaps the best thing that ever happened to them. While on that trip the band penned a few songs, two years later here they are with their first album on a major label under their belt.
Their debut, This Is Where You Belong, has hit the ground running with the first single “Do You Remember” eating up fans up like candy from coast to coast. Passionate about bringing positive music that people can relate to to the table, the album boasts of beautiful piano laden tracks and catchy verses. Infectious songs like “Melt the Sugar”, just begging to be the next single.
They’ve succeeded in bringing something positive and powerful to the people and in the midst of all of this lead singer Lucien Walker took some time to talk to TWRY about it all.
Interviewed by: Ellen Leonard / Introduction by: Mary Ouellette | September 2006
The inspiration for the band name was basically we are from Jacksonville, Florida, which is really close to the beach, and we spent a long time at the beach. We had a really good summer, and we wrote a lot of songs. It was kind of the inspiration behind a lot of the topics of the songs.
That is absolutely true. Me and Fin, right when MySpace started and they didn’t even have a music section up, we heard about it. We got on it and, of course, Tom was our first friend. We kind of got obsessed with who he was and if he was real or not. If he was, we wanted to meet him, so the first MySpace party ever in Miami was advertised. Miami is, like, six hours away from us. We heard about the party about three hours before it was starting, and we spontaneously just got in the car and hauled-ass down to Miami. We made it in three hours. We ended up looking for this guy, Tom, in this club. There were only a few people that were on MySpace then, so there were only a few people in the club. We found him! He’s actually a really really cool guy and we ended up talking and going out after that and just kinda throwing down. We kept in touch with him, and we gave him our music and he liked it. It was the first music that he had really heard, since he spent 7 years in Thailand. So, as soon as he came back to America, we were pretty much the first music that he really heard and they helped us out by putting us on the front of MySpace for two weeks. From that, we got [record] label attention, so we went out to California and showcased for some labels that had e-mailed us, and Virgin was the one that we signed with.
It feels so good. It actually feels like a big accomplishment, because from the first time we were sitting in Jacksonville, Florida writing these songs, we never thought it would basically come to this. There’s been a lot of people helping along the way, and a lot of cool things happening, spontaneous things, and it’s really exciting to actually have the album out in stores and we’re touring. It’s pretty much a dream come true.
It was amazing. The engineer was Ryan Williams, and he made everything go really smooth, he was really helpful. Josh Abraham had great ideas. It was just an amazing process. It took us about two and a half months, and we recorded in Silver Lake, which is in Los Angeles, and we stayed in Glendale. It was just a lot of fun, hanging out in LA and recording. It was really cool.
We actually wanted “Melt The Sugar” to be the first single, but the label wanted “Do You Remember” to be the first single. We were like “that’s cool, you guys are the label, you know what you’re doing” so we said go for it. It turned out to be a good single because it’s got us out there a little bit, and I think they’re planning to go with “Melt The Sugar” next, which will be good just because our name’s already a little out there, and people know who we are a little bit more. I think it was a good plan, so we’ll see.
We went through kind of a downcast time right before we were writing the songs, so it just kind of came out that way. It feels good because there’s actually a lot of negative stuff in the songs that I’m talking about, like you know, drugs and depression and all that kinds of stuff. But I’m kind of making light of it, saying that it’s not the end, and things happen for a reason. It’s good in that way because fans can relate to the negative sides, and then see that there’s a positive side, too.
Fin and I started the band. We went through a series of drummers through the process of getting signed, and we played a bunch of shows before we actually got signed, so we went through a few drummers. Ultimately the band that materialized now is me, Fin, and we met Chris, who used to be in Good Charlotte, in Salt Lake City. We met him through a mutual friend, on MySpace again.
Exactly! It’s crazy. So, after going through the series of drummers, meeting Chris was the best thing ever. It was the perfect combination because we both had been through similar things, and had similar goals. It just worked out. We vibed, and it was great! I used to play bass in the band, actually. I played keyboard on the record, but we didn’t have keyboards live. I wanted to incorporate the keyboards live, so we got one of our really good friends, Christ, who grew up in our same old town, who used to be in a band with Fin. We called him up one day after a show when we were out on tour with The Click Five, and asked him if he wanted to play bass. He was like ‘dude, course!”. So we got him a plane ticket, he flew out, and he’s been a part of the band ever since. It was cool because at first, it was weird switching from bass to keyboard. But, I’m used to it now. So, it’s all good.
Yeah, it became a different thing live. As a three piece, we were kinda like, I don’t know, I really liked it. But I like this sound too, so its all good.
Yeah, it totally is.
They called our label, and they needed a musical act, and the label thought The Summer Obsession would be good for it, and they were like awesome. We love Cartoon Network! We got to go and chill in Cartoon Network. They gave us these little goodie bags that had all these cool shows that we actually watch like “Ed, Ed, and Eddie” and “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends”. We were stoked man. It was cool.
I did learn that Cartoon Network is in Atlanta. It’s very secure. They got that place on lock down!
Yeah, it’s crazy. To get in, we went on this big sound stage all dressed up. There was this huge crew and I learned that there’s a lot that goes into it. That was the first time we had ever played on TV, so it was pretty interesting.
He started that a few years ago. We crossed it in with The Summer Obsession, and we’ve been sponsoring kids that skate. We give them free skate boards, shirts, merchandise. We’re going to be doing a DVD soon, with our music plus electronic stuff that I do. We’re going to play some of our songs over up and coming snowboarders, skaters, and surfers. It’s going to be cool. His website is http://www.ciskateboards.com.
Aw lets see, in one word?
Let me see. Um. Orgasmic!
Yeah. You said one word, right?
Correct.
I like to write, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I sit at my little computer that I take around with me, and I have drum sounds and guitars and stuff so I’ll demo the song. I’ll write the song, then put the drum machine down, then do the bass, guitar and all the harmonies. Then as a band, we’ll re-work some of the parts. Fin will have better guitar ideas then I do, Christ will have better bass ideas then I do, and of course, Chris comes up with crazy stuff on the drums. We’ll take the demo into the studio and we’ll just re-work the parts. Sometimes I’ll keep the original vocal take, but then sometimes I’ll re-do it.
Some of them do, and some of them come from things that I imagine. A lot of the stuff on The Summer Obsession record is from personal experience.
We just played two mall shows in Washington. One in Seattle, then one in Tacoma. They were actually really really cool. Basically, they have it all roped off in the mall. It’s really good exposure, because you have all these people walking by, and then you have the people that are your fans that are there. It was really fun. We had a good turn-out. Its cool. We get to sell Cds, and we hang out in the mall and sign. It’s kinda cool because it’s just like hanging out in the mall talking to people, that’s how we look at it. It’s really just chill. It’s a good place to play, actually. The sound is crazy, it’s sounds like you’re in some huge tube!
I think we all have our bands. Me, personally, I would love to play with Blink 182 if they ever got back together or Taking Back Sunday. That would be an awesome tour. Third Eye Blind, that would be cool. I like them. The other guys, they’d like to tour with Muse, or The Killers. Just throwing some stuff out there.
We’ve had a bunch of songs on Laguna Beach. We’re going to be the featured band, coming up in a week on Laguna Beach. We’ve been working hard with that because we met the guy who puts all the music on the shows like that out at South by Southwest, which is a big music conference in Texas, we kept in touch, and now we’re the featured band. We’re excited about that. We’re doing a tour with Hedley, who are from Canada. They have a few videos out, and some singles out. We’re excited about that. Hopefully we’re going to tour with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus next year. We just talked to them last night and we are trying to figure out some tour plans and we want to get over to France. There’s a two week tour we could do over there. We’re trying to just do whatever we can, really, to stay on the road.
We love our fans. Come out to the shows. Hang out with us. Thanks for buying our CD!
Upcoming Shows:
Sep 29 University of California Riverside w/ Saosin - STUDENTS Riverside, CA
Oct 1 2006 Brea Mall Orange County, CA
Oct 4 2006 Flamingo Cantina Austin, TX
Oct 5 2006 The Door Dallas, TX
Oct 13 2006 Town Center at Cobb Atlanta, GA
Oct 28 2006 Utah State’s Halloween Howl Salt Lake City, UT
Nov 17 2006 UNF Arena w/ Sugarcult & Cartel Jacksonville, FL
::stay tuned for their Fall tour with HEDLEY::
