Summer's Brother — Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, spelling, and readability. Music excerpts are noted where they appear in the episode.

Cold open

Connor: I guess it just makes me kind of step away from myself. It doesn’t feel like I’m on stage. It’s more like this character that’s on stage. And then it just makes me feel like I can kind of do anything. If I do something, say something stupid, then it’s like, “Oh, it’s not really me. It’s the clown guy that’s doing that.” You know, and it’s kind of a free pass.

[Music excerpt from Summer’s Brother plays.]

Eric Chan: Summer’s Brother is a Vancouver band whose sound cuts across genres but still feels unmistakably their own. They bring a lot of energy on stage, but it’s the music that keeps drawing people in.

In this episode, I spoke with Summer’s Brother vocalist Connor, drummer Max, and producer Andy from Park Sound Studio. I’m Eric Chan, and you are listening to Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.

Connor: Summer’s Brother is a group that started around a few years ago. I started the band because my sister is literally named Summer. As time went on, we started adding more and more members. Andy got included in recording us. In our recordings, the lineup is a bit inconsistent, but then Max, our drummer here, joined the band. Now we’ve kind of got a bit more of a consistent lineup. So yeah, we’ve been doing it like this for the past couple years.

I guess Max, you joined almost a year ago, right?

Max: Yeah, about a year ago.

Connor: Yeah, nice. Happy anniversary.

Yeah, so we’re just a band that’s trying to do something different. I don’t know, there’s a lot of rock bands and a lot of indie bands and stuff, and we’re just trying to mix genres and do something fun and weird and unique.

Eric Chan: Summer’s Brother may not have started as a fixed idea. It grew in pieces. When producer Andy reached out, it helped spark the next stage of the project for Connor, and from there, it slowly took shape as a band.

Connor: Andy reached out to me and said, “Hey, I really like the songs that you’ve been doing.” And then we ended up recording “Misinformation.” That’s when Caleb started joining the band, and Thomas was in the band, he plays guitar.

After that, we ended up recording “Enemies” and “Sweeter Dream.” So this is over the course of five years, essentially. These five songs kind of came together with different producers, studios, and lineups of musicians until finally it was like, all right, this is the thing.

[Music excerpt from Summer’s Brother plays.]

Eric Chan: Their EP Class Clown reflects that gradual process. It’s a collection shaped over time, and it began to take a clearer shape once the band started recording at Park Sound Studio.

Connor: I feel like I got more confidence in myself as a writer and in recording sessions too. Just being able to record at Park Sound here is really nice. Andy just lets us be really creative and mess around with ideas and record weird stuff, like bags of chip sounds, and just get really experimental. That was a huge change.

Eric Chan: Producer Andy at Park Sound Studio shares what he saw as the band came together.

Andy: When we recorded “Misinformation” versus “Enemies” and “Sweeter Dream,” which we recorded together, “Misinformation” was recorded when the band was still sort of a solo project. It felt pretty new, and I think Connor was still open to where the band was going, how to have a brand, and what it was.

Whereas by the time we recorded “Enemies” and “Sweeter Dream,” the band was like, okay, this is what the project is. So the recording process became, okay, we know what the sound is and what we’re trying to get.

Eric Chan: That freedom shows up clearly when Connor talks about the recording of “Sweeter Dream.”

Connor: “Sweeter Dream” was also really fun to record because we kind of had the rough idea written out, but the individual parts weren’t written until we were actually recording them. We had the structure, but we had no idea what the keys were going to play until we were like, let’s lay down some keys. It was really fun to kind of write part by part in that way. That was probably my favorite song to record so far.

[Music excerpt from “Sweeter Dream” by Summer’s Brother plays.]

Eric Chan: It was a song Connor enjoyed recording, and part of its inspiration came from his wife, Julie.

Connor: I started writing it because she was having bad dreams, so that was the inspiration for it. If somebody is just having a really rough time and you don’t know what to do about it.

I was really not happy with the second verse, and whenever we would go out on a walk or something in our old neighborhood, we would work through it. She is French, so she’s really good at giving honest criticism. So that was kind of fun, to collaborate in that way.

Eric Chan: Songwriting is a big part of Summer’s Brother, and that approach has shifted over time.

Connor: So far it’s been like I’ve written a framework and then brought it to the band, and then everybody kind of contributes their own part. But in the past six months or so, we’ve started to jam a bit more in the room now that we’re becoming more of a band.

So that’s something that I really want to do more of, just get into the room and make something up on the spot. Max also has some really good songs that he’s written a framework for that he’s brought in and we’ve jammed out. So it’s kind of everything.

A lot of the time it is something that’s structured, where it’s like, okay, we’ve got a chord progression, we know what the verse and the chorus are, let’s try out some vocal melodies, let’s see what we can do here. And then from that, it’s like, oh, I like that. What if we did that with it? Oh, I like that. What if we did that? And then the momentum kind of builds, I guess.

Eric Chan: And that momentum didn’t stop there.

Connor: For this new song, “Solid Ground,” we did it completely differently, where we tried to imitate an 80s drum machine and layered and layered and layered parts, essentially. It’s definitely the synthiest one. We got very electro. It’s kind of like our disco-punk song.

It’s about having thoughts about your own thoughts and doubts about your own doubts, and being tired of all the same old sounds. The main words in it are like, “Tell me how to be myself,” I guess. That was the main sentiment. There’s this idea of authenticity. It’s like, how do I be the most authentic version of myself while I’m wearing clown makeup on stage?

It feels so contrived to be a musician and to be an artist and trying to present yourself in this way. You’re always trying to be cool. The whole act of it all just seems a bit strange. I think that’s where a lot of the inspiration comes from.

[Music excerpt from Summer’s Brother plays.]

Eric Chan: Hearing Connor talk about “Solid Ground” offers a glimpse into how the band is thinking about what comes next: staying authentic and staying true to themselves. So what’s next for Summer’s Brother? I’ll let them sum it up.

Connor: Just a single for now, and then we’ll see if we win the lottery or not. If there are ways that we can afford to get this recording done, then yeah, depending on how it goes, it would be nice to do some more this year. At least another EP.

Eric Chan: And that was Summer’s Brother. I’m Eric Chan, and you were listening to Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.

[Music fades out]