The Rocket Summer
By Andrew Hebert
Published: May 28, 2007
Date: May 22nd, 2007
Band Member(s): Bryce Avary
Could you please start by introducing yourself to readers of For The Sound [dot] com?
My name is Bryce and I play in the band The Rocket Summer.
So how do you feel your fans will respond to your move to Island Records? Have you encountered the stigma of "selling out"?
I haven’t encountered that one bit, I don’t know if are fans aren’t like as, I dunno how to say it…[laughs] No I haven’t, but we’ll see, I don’t know I think a lot of our fans want to see this actually happen in a big way and are so supportive. A lot of them are like “Don’t go getting big on us now,” but I mean you gotta do what you gotta do and I am sure if that were to happen it would mean that I would get to make more records.
How does your new album compare similarly and differently from your last album? I guess the similar aspects are that it’s me, again and I dunno. I am reading about what people are thinking about these new songs, because the new iTunes EP came out today people are like “it’s the perfect mix of new, but it is still Rocket Summer!” So I will let them say that.
With your past albums you have done all the writing and recording on the different instruments, did you do this again on the new album? I did on the whole record, except for we have some horns in the record and I did not play those.
That actually leads me to my next question! How did you come to work with the horn section from a Stevie Wonder song? How did that come out?
The guys that played on the song “Sir Duke” [by Stevie Wonder]. Jim Wirt, the guy who co-produced the album suggested them when I said that I would really like horns on this song and I want a saxophone solo right here. And he was like “Well, I actually know the guys that played on that and it was a really quick thing that I could not believe actually happened.
What are you most excited for with the new album?
I am excited that it is actually coming out! It’s been done since January and it is not coming out since July.
What is your favorite song on the new album and why? Also, what song do you feel longtime fans of the The Rocket Summer will most enjoy?
Man, I have no idea. That is a really good question! I think they are going to like them all, I dunno, it is probably my favorite record yet. I don’t really have a favorite, I might have a least favorite? But I don’t want to be negative, I don’t want to talk about the songs I don’t like. For the most part, I like LOVE the entire CD so much! The older fans, I dunno there are some songs…I mean there is definitely like a step up, you can definitely tell a change in song writing. Well, not really a change but a growing up, but I think there are a few songs on their that are old school. There is this song called “Hold It Up” that has this really up-beat and classic Rocket Summer guitar riffs and then there is a a song called “So, Into The Hour,” that actually came out on the EP, which is just a like six minute long epic song. It is not really meant to be a radio song, not that all of them are meant to be radio songs, it is just not a conventional pop song.
Why did you decide to release The Early Years EP?
Um, it was under my contract with [The] Militia [Group] and they wanted to put it. That is pretty much the end of that. Well, actually, what is funny is that I wanted it to come out in January or February and Militia just wanted to put out a CD for their end of the year sale. So I was like, so you are telling me that I want to add four songs to it, but they said it would sell a lot more. It’s all good though.
Well now that the fans know that, they are goning to want to hear those songs! Do you think they will eventually get released somewhere else?
[Laughs] I don’t know if I am going to release them, they are old and I wrote them when I was like 14. I dunno, I guess they will probably end up coming out somewhere.
How did you become involved with the growing organization To Write Love On Her Arms and how do you further this cause on tour?
It is funny actually, Renee, the girl who it is about, just txted me a few mins ago to tell me that she is excited and is coming to the show in Orlando. I guess that is really how I got involved, I remember before it started, I remember her and her friends coming up to me at a show and telling me that my music had helped through a lot of stuff and later on I found out about a To Write Love On Her Arms. And I put 2 and 2 together and then we met them and I found out that I was one of the bands that they took her to see in the beginning it was weird to think that we had something to do with that, even though it was very little. So it was almost natural for us to get involved with them.
I know you have toured with Hellogoodbye in the past, why did you decide to tour with them again and how has this tour compared to past tours?
We decided to tour with them again, because well, it wasn’t really a decision it was kind of like a given when they offered. Because they are some of the most awesome guys on tour and some of the most un-rockstar people. Like we just sit on the Bus and have Lost parties and obviously they are freaking huge now. Every show has been sold-out the day before in pre-sale and when we played the show in Chicago there were 4,000 kids their and it was sold out before the day. It is like, who is Hellogoodbye? They are huge!
Do you have any good stories from the tour so far?
I have some good tour stories, but I don’t know if I should mention them since they are all kind of making fun of people and stuff. From this Tour the other day at the end of Hellogoodbye’s set it is always crazy with costumes and we never really run out their, but one day there was some guy in a banana suit so I gave him a whole bunch of bananas and he was like throwing them out into the audience. I jumped into the audience with Forrest and that was a lot of fun and kind was a “what is going on right now” moment. Just pure pandemonium.
Would you like to add anything for readers of For The Sound [dot] com?
Thank you so much for interviewing me!