Interview with Lead Singer Cody Payne
By: Ellen Leonard
Where did the band name come from?
The name actually came from a book by Ernest Hemmingway, it was one of his less well known works… but we thought it sounded cool and worked well for the time.
How did the band form?
We had all been friends and had been involved with each other in music before and wanted to do something that we thought would get us somewhere, we knew exactly what we wanted to do and went for it.
How long has the band been together?
We have been together for a little over a year… and have been playing shows since January.
Any influences?
There are so many influences that I look to, recently I have been listening to this girl Stacy Clark, she is so amazing, but Jimmy Eat World definitely influences me more then any other band.
You self produced your first EP, There Is No Such Thing As Science, which eventually got you a record deal with the Indie label Hopeless Records. But once you went in to record, you made a complete turn around and recorded all new material with a new title (If You Could Only Keep Me Alive). Do you feel that it benefited you in the long run to make that decision?
It definitely benefited us in multiple ways, the older stuff is a lot more poppy where the new stuff is more mature, I like that with the two different EP’s we were able to show two different sides to our music and show people what we might be doing on our next release.
Where can people buy this new EP?
You should be able to buy the CD anywhere, on iTunes, in Best Buy, at our shows, FYE, Sam Goody, all that good stuff… any major place that sells music should have our EP!
The Dangerous Summer - If You Could Only Keep Me Alive
Who writes the lyrics for the band, and can you walk me through the process?
Well AJ writes the lyrics for the band where I write the music, I usually get the music down and we all practice it together and work on it a little more, once that is done AJ sits down and figures out vocal melodies and writes lyrics and fits them till we are all satisfied, but that is definitely the most time consuming part of our writing process.
I really love your song “The Permanent Rain”. Could you walk me through it, musically and lyrically?
“The Permanent Rain” lyrically is a song about two people very close to AJ that passed away a few years ago, the two people have nothing to do with each other but the song sort of ties them together and what influence they had on his life. The music was written when I lived in Florida and was just writing new music for my next musical project, which became The Dangerous Summer.
What sets The Dangerous Summer apart from other bands?
Well, I think the main thing is that we don’t aim to be anything that’s really different from the rest of music, we just try to expand on mainstream and catchy music.
You’ve been on tour with some great bands, such as Cartel, All Time Low, and The Ataris. Who would be your dream band to play with?
We really are dying to play with a ton of bands, like Jimmy Eat World, Jacks Mannequin, Millencolin. Those bands are so big in our lives and it would be our dreams coming true if we were able to tour with them.
What is your ultimate goal as a band?
We just want to be able to do this for as long as possible and to keep people listening, the more people listening the better, we love what we do and it would be awesome for this to be a life long career.
Describe your latest EP in one word?
Different.
What would you tell people who dream to play music in a band just like yourselves?
Be professional, be out going, meet anyone and everyone, keep in contact and don’t ever slow down.
Any last words?
Spread the word! There is so much more to come, so keep listening!
Check them out online:
http://www.myspace.com/dangeroussummer
http://www.hopelessrecords.com
