James: As anyone who has ever met me, and/or seen me move, will know, I despise the summer time. I inherited my father's genes as regards personal temperature, and so I sweat. Profusely. That said, I'm also a product of the American education system, where summer means no school, no homework, all my hours to myself, total freedom. This song is really my best attempts to reconcile that very all-American, Beach Boys-esque love affair with a season that mocks my attempts to enjoy it. It is a season of innocent teenage love and one of extraordinary discomfort. I tried to split the difference, but I'm not sure it worked...
My dear friend, Lee Morgan, came in to add harp in the studio, and while rehearsing in the then-unfinished third floor of Sine, he, having decided not to play over the choruses, sang along with the "ooh" that he'd heard on the rough tapes I'd sent him. Immediately, Nick and I looked at each other, and said "you should sing that on the record." So I'm not on the choruses at all on this track, and frankly, I think the track is better for it.
Dan: When this song was first brought to me, I'll admit, I wasn't jumping out of my shoes for it. It had a good melody and a fairly upbeat theme, and it sounded (to me) like a Buffalo Tom tune. It was only after playing the song about 50 times that something clicked with me, and I embraced the simplicity of the song. And it further strengthened my feeling that songs that have simple ideas and simple themes behind them are usually the best songs.
There was something about the first time we really first started nailing the vocals. Up to this point, the songs didn't have a lot of what I'd call "phrase harmonies"; instead they had a lot of backing "oohs" and "aahs". This was one of the early ones that got us all singing the same words together, and that is a powerful moment, like old spirituals or folk music. When we really started nailing those harmonies, it turned the song around for me, and I embraced it as one of the best songs we had for the album.
A bit of trivia: James did not have the the second line ("Wind through the trees breaks the calm") of the second verse written until we were in pre-production. Everything else was done and locked in, and we were just "lalalaing" that line. I was almost ready to just accept the line as "lalala", but luckily, James put in some actual words.
Dan: When this song was first brought to me, I'll admit, I wasn't jumping out of my shoes for it. It had a good melody and a fairly upbeat theme, and it sounded (to me) like a Buffalo Tom tune. It was only after playing the song about 50 times that something clicked with me, and I embraced the simplicity of the song. And it further strengthened my feeling that songs that have simple ideas and simple themes behind them are usually the best songs.
There was something about the first time we really first started nailing the vocals. Up to this point, the songs didn't have a lot of what I'd call "phrase harmonies"; instead they had a lot of backing "oohs" and "aahs". This was one of the early ones that got us all singing the same words together, and that is a powerful moment, like old spirituals or folk music. When we really started nailing those harmonies, it turned the song around for me, and I embraced it as one of the best songs we had for the album.
A bit of trivia: James did not have the the second line ("Wind through the trees breaks the calm") of the second verse written until we were in pre-production. Everything else was done and locked in, and we were just "lalalaing" that line. I was almost ready to just accept the line as "lalala", but luckily, James put in some actual words.
Nick: Those were two great perspectives on this song that I don't think I can top. I really just think "Summer" makes a great single. Oh, and this song was a challenge for me because the band decided that I should switch back and forth from double time to half time a bunch of times in the middle of a verse. I didn't like the idea, but the band finally convinced me to do it... and it's still hard to remember where it happens exactly. But this song makes a great single!!! And Lee Morgan is awesome!!!! And sometimes summer DOES feel like forever!!!!!!!
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