INTERVIEW WITH: BRYCE AVARY of THE ROCKET SUMMER
APRIL 27, 2008 - CLUB INFINITY - BUFFALO, NY
BY: KRISTIE TAFT
The tour wraps up at the end of this week. How has everything going up to this point and are there any interesting road stories?
It's been really good, really good. The tour is about to be over this week and it's been fantastic. Although, it is going to be nice to go home and just relax. There's always that point when touring. As far as interesting road stories, there has been some crazy and fun ones but there also has been bad ones, just all the things that happen on tour.
Oh, he's holding out on me!
[Laughs] Well, no. We're the boring band on the tour, always. It's always been like that. I'll play a show and then after I'll go back on the bus and play my guitar or the keyboard and everyone else gets trashed and that's cool. I hang out sometimes, but I think all the other bands might have some fun and interesting stories for you, more so than I can provide for you. Mine are kind of boring. [Laughs]
You've been doing a number of in-stores/signings on this tour. You have some pretty hardcore fans. Have there been any fans who were especially crazy?
Yeah. I've seen a lot a lot of tattoos on this tour!
I was actually going to bring that up!
Yeah, it's crazy. I've seen a lot of new tattoos and we're going to update the tattoo section on the website with new photos and probably get some of those on Myspace too. As far as anything physically crazy happening, not so much but I would say going as far as getting my lyrics tattooed on their body for the rest of their lives is kind of crazy. [Laughs]
One thing you're doing on this tour is something called the one man band and play a song called'Wake Up.' Can you go into some detail behind this? We caught the Toronto show, it seemed kind of complicated.
Yeah, it's fun and it's really hard. It was funny when you asked if there were any crazy or fun road stories because I was actually going to bring that up but it was sort of negative. We've played fourty something shows and it's gone off without a hitch almost every night but there's been a few nights where it's been completely screwed up which is like a literal nightmare being up there alone on stage and having it be like nothing. Today we actually have had the biggest problem with it, ever. Some of the cables are bad, so hopefully it works out tonight. I'm crossing my fingers. It's really hard but it's fun and you have to be really accurate when you press the buttons. The performing part isn't hard it's the technical aspects of it that is, but when it works, it sure is good for the show.
It's been almost a year since the release of Do You Feel. In an earlier interview, we talked about you needing to be in a mind-set to write songs. Are you able to focus on writing while on the road?
It's a lot easier for me now actually, because we're in a bus. I think last time I talked to you, we were in an RV on the Early November tour, right?
Yep!
Yeah, before that we were in a van and I was driving myself to every show, essentially. Now we got a driver and so I sit in the back and write a lot of music. I'm kind of going through a period in my life right now where I'm trying to learn more. I feel like I'm coming up with a lot of lyrics but I'm trying to grow more as a person and spiritually. So, I'm kind of holding out a little bit. So, I don't have a lot to say at this time, you know what I'm saying?
Right, right.
I'm kind of in one of those seasons in my life right now, but musically I'm coming up with a lot of melodies and things. I am coming up with lyrics, I'll come up with like a hook or a line and be like 'Ooh.'
Let me jot that down real quick! [Laughs]
It's like okay! I have them in my iPhone, all these little one liners. As far as fully writing a song, I like to be by myself a little bit. So, when we get off this tour, that's the number one things I'm most excited about doing, is just waking up and sitting at my piano or with the guitar like all day until the sun goes down and getting in the head space and not having to do sound check or press and interviews. It's easier for me to be in writing mode as opposed to touring mode.
In what direction do you see yourself taking your music with the next record?
I can tell... it's weird, it's like I'm at this weird place because every bit of me is wanting to go into a different direction but it's like walking a tight rope you know? It's like it could be the biggest achievement of your career and it makes everything really click or it could make it go away if we steer too far. Like I said, I'm in this weird place right now trying to discern where I?m going with the new record, I can't tell if I should go left or right. It's like I know what I want to do and I just want to make sure that I make the best record possible. So far, I've written a couple songs and I wrote this one song that everyone around me has said it's the best one I've ever written and it's a lot more emotionally driven, not like 'Brat Pack.' That's sort of what I'm talking about. Everything I'm writing now is a lot more powerful I guess, and emotionally driven where it's like 'Ughh!' and I just want to make sure that I'm not screwing myself. [Laughs] I want to be true to myself at the same time. It's not easy being an artist sometimes. [Laughs]
I know. Can we expect any new music between now and the time you record the follow up to Do you Feel?
I don't know. Maybe, old new music. I recorded a song that didn?t make it onto 'Do You Feel,' and it's being talked about being released as sort of like a B-side. It's called 'Good For You,' and it's like a rock song and it didn't make the record because we ran out of time. I recorded the guitars, the drums and the bass and some of the vocals. I have to go in and record it so it should be fun.
More recently, bands and artists have been releasing music digitally, especially now with the popularity of iTunes. What are your feelings on the state of the industry?
It's weird, it's definitely going be a little curve at least for me. I'm so used to buying albums and I like the packaging. It's a big thing to me. You can?t say it?s not happening so, it's different. That too. [Laughs] That too, I'm still trying to figure out. There?s a lot of trying to figure things out right now.
Although you did release an EP this way last year, those songs could essentially be found on Do You Feel with the exception of one. Do you expect to utilize this tool in the future?
Maybe, maybe. I don't know what to expect. I don't know if in five years if CDs are even going to exist and it's just going to be iTunes. That would be really sad. It would be even more sad to not do what I do so if that means I have to roll with the punches then so be it.
I've seen some discussions asking for you to release more acoustic songs. How do you feel about that? Does releasing an acoustic EP or what have you, interest you?
We talked about it. We talked about maybe doing that in the Fall to promote the headlining tour that we're going to do. It's just a matter of time. Like, do I have time to do that, and write and do this and that. It's definitely changed a lot and it's so different that it used to be like ten years ago, even though I wasn't doing this ten years ago. I mean, I was doing this ten years ago but as artists go ten years ago you didn't have to write a blog every five minutes to stay current or have a reality blog show tv thing on youtube or have two versions of your record, one acoustic one not, just to have people listen to you. It's becoming harder and some see it as a challenge and exciting. I see it as hard and potentially exciting so we'll how much one human can do.
'Save' was or is the next TRS single right? Can we expect a video?
Maybe. We're actually going to shoot a video for 'Do You Feel,' first I think.
Really? Cool. That's exciting! When can we expect it?
Hopefully by this summer!
You think. Hopefully, we'll see. [Laughs]
Yeah. [Laughs] Things are so weird right now.
It seems for the last year, you have been touring non-stop, touring with The Early November, Hellogoodbye, Daphne Loves Derby, Warped Tour, The Academy Is, the UK tour and now the AP tour. That's so hectic. How are you taking it all in?
We're doing what we've been doing for a really long time. This past year we've definitely toured a lot. We went on tour almost all year. One tour ran for five months without stopping. Warped Tour to the Academy Is there were five days in between. Before that we had two weeks off and we shot a video. We're just trying to make it happen and it's definitely getting to that point a little bit that it'd be nice to hit the reset button. For me, that is going home and just writing. Playing these songs every night is exciting but you just kind of take a step back and say, 'Okay, what's the next step?' And so, honestly a new record probably won't be seen until the summer of next year. We're taking some of this summer off and also touring this summer overseas and then a headlining tour so I probably won't start recording the new CD until about February and then it probably won't come out until June. I told some people that's so soon and really by the time the record comes out you're going to be like, 'That was way long!' [Laughs]
You recently toured the UK. How did that go? You're already set to go back at the end of June. What would you like to see happen or want to accomplish on this round that you didn't get the chance too on your last visit?
I'd like to see more people come out. Like, recruit more people to The Rocket Summer abode. We're playing a lot of different cities this time. We're essentially doing the same thing but different show and different productions but we're hitting different markets. We're only hitting two or three of the same markets that we went to on our last run, like London and there's other bigger places. We're going back to capitalize on what we're finally accomplishing over there and try to solidify having a real fan base there.
Last time we spoke, you were gearing up for the release of Do You Feel and Warped Tour, which you had mixed emotions about. I didn't actually get the chance to ask how everything went on Warped Tour. Seeing it's all said and done, what are your feelings on your experience playing it?
Dude, Warped Tour was amazing. I was iffy about it and I got there and I realized I was completely wrong. I was just iffy because I went to Warped Tour when I was a kid and it was like mohawk city so I was thinking why are kids going to like us? Then I got there and it was totally different. It's almost like there are way more bands like us, even though there are bands like Anti Flag on the bill and they draw some pretty huge crowds so that freaked us out. For some reason it's just fused into this one big thing. We?d do it again.
Good, I was just going to ask if you would do it again if given the opportunity.
Oh yeah. We're not doing it this year only because we're going overseas but maybe next year. It all depends.
What's the biggest misconception about The Rocket Summer people have that you want to clear up?
Hmm. You know, I've been asked this before in like AP and stuff and I kind of explained it. Biggest misconception. It's weird. I guess, I would say that sometimes the way people view me. I just got a book from this girl and it's amazing. She got all these people to write in from all around the world and it's extremely flattering but sometimes I don't want to take credit for the hope and things like that music brings to people. I really just want people to have faith and hope in God and not my music. It's going to sound weird but I hear this a lot... 'You are just the happiest!' and 'You're just a great person.' I hear that a lot and it's a wonderful thing to be told all the time but when you know the truth it makes you feel a little rotten. I have my days where I yell and I swear, you know what I mean? Then I get off the bus and people come over and it's just like, 'Dude, if you even knew me...' I think it would be really weird for me to believe that about myself. There would be something terribly wrong with me.
You never want to be high strung.
Exactly. People tell me, 'You're so great!' and it's just like, what do you want me to say to that? [Laughs] I don't believe that at all. I mean, I appreciate it and it makes me feel good...
Oh, but little do you know...
No. [Laughs] I definitely try to live a certain way, I try very hard to do that so if it comes out that way to people then that's great but I just know who I am and I wish I could be the person people want me to be.
You're set to play the Bamboozle festival this coming weekend. You played last the festival last year and it went extremely well. What are you most looking forward too about playing this year? Any bands you're eager to check out?
Bamboozle is always really awesome, it's really amazing to go and play in front of so many people. It's like this transector where people from all these different states show up, like 60,000 people and there are all these different bands. Whether they're extremely popular or up and coming and it's just cool. I'm excited to see Jimmy Eat World and Paramore, a band who we took on tour a couple years ago and they're all over the place now. Snoop Dogg is playing. [Laughs] I don't know. That's the last show of tour for me so I'm all about the rock, hopefully having a good show and then just be like, 'Yes!'
I think I may have asked you this in an earlier interview however, I'm going to give you another go around. If you were to create an infomercial about buying your album, what would you tell your listeners?
You did ask me that. Man, I'm so bad at explaining why someone should like me, because I have such a hard time with that myself, liking myself. [Laughs] I don?t know, I'm bad at this. Just go get the CD? [Laughs]
We say, hire Billy Maze, you know the Kaboom guy!
Yeah, he'll help sell some records. He'll tell everybody, 'You should listen to his music because it'll make you feel like a million bucks!' [Does the #1 finger motion./Laughs] We used to have a shirt that was borrowed off of Waffle House. It had a coffee mug and it said 'The Rocket Summer, start your day right.' So, maybe it's like coffee.
For more information on The Rocket Summer please visit TRS on Myspace. Photo credit: Jared Scott.