Summer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
"As a musician and visual artist, my goal is for people hear to my music and see my paintings and have it inspire them to get in touch with their own inner creative person." -- Summer
With music and painting as her primary creative outlets, Portland-based singer/songwriter Summer believes that everyone has the potential to be artistic.
"I really do think all people are creative," she says, with a voice that exudes both hard-won confidence and childlike joy. "It bums me out when I see people discouraged from being creative. They need to know it's ok to express themselves creatively. It can be a lot of fun to fearlessly express yourself and talk about things."
If fearless expression and talking about things is as fun as Summer proclaims, then she's obviously having the time of her life. Summer -- along with her producer, Los Angeles' Henry Strange -- are set to release a unique, double-faceted project called Timing & Lighting, Summer's first full-length recording that features a series of poster-sized paintings-- over 500 in all-- she created as promotional giveaways to go along with the album's release.
The 11 songs on Timing & Lighting reveal Summer's grown-up efforts to release her heart and head of childhood pain while also singing of her relationship ups and downs, her world travels, and how good it feels to go home. Timing & Lighting, in the end, stands as a finely crafted, yet haunting story. Free-spirited, delicately candid lyrics and her innocent voice propel the album forward with themes of acceptance, forgiveness, and artistic and spiritual redemption, letting the listener know, in the end, that everything will be all right.
Summer says the realization of her first album and the paintings that go along with it have fused her musical and painter alter egos together into one creative force inside her in a way that has "brought me to a very genuine place. I feel like an artistic spirit who didn't know I was for a long time- even though to others it was probably completely obvious-- so there is this vein of authenticity that runs through my work as a result. There is little calculation behind it. It was developed from that very universal, human place of simply feeling and then expressing.”
Whether it is the music or the art from Timing & Lighting that moves you in some soulful, creative way, you will be moved. Every note in the songs and every expression in Summer's painted female figures were born deep within Summer's heart and mind. She is an authentic, stylistically diverse creative being that truly didn't know her path in life. Summer made it up as she went along, making the worlds of music and art so much richer for the experience.
"Discovering my creative talents, whether it's music, art, performance-- inspired me to keep on my life's path and to make my own way," Summer says. "I developed in a relative absence of external influence. What I do with music and my art is just a pure representation of everything that is me." - Carl Cunningham
Discography
Timing and Lighting, Full-Length CD
Photos
Bio
An awarded songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, piano, voice), Summer creates music that is candid, expressive, unpretentious... but most of all, genuine. Surprisingly tall in stature, – over six feet– with an unmistakable head of curly, dirty blond hair, and angular, striking facial features, she is visually intriguing before she even opens her mouth. And when she does, folks snap to attention. She's one of those natural-born performers – instantly comfortable on stage, energetic, bravely forging an audience connection through story, jokes, and of course, song.
When watching Summer perform, one thing becomes instantly clear: she may be pouring her heart out to a packed room full of strangers, but she doesn't take herself too seriously. This serves as an important juxtaposition as the subject matter of her songs often touches on themes usually avoided by run-of-the-mill performers. Listeners will hear unabashedly, autobiographical stories recounting the childhood pain of coping with her mother's mental illness, fate's impersonal nature, and of all things, the properties of blood. (You'll just have to listen to understand that one.)
She often displays her unique, poster-size pastel paintings (known, by Summer, as “my girls”) next to her on stage. Without exception, the subject matter of these paintings consists of colorful, abstract, female faces, transfixed with an unmistakably clear emotion. “The Girls” hail from a series of over 300 paintings that she created to go along with the release of her Timing and Lighting album.
At performances, she often relays why she felt compelled to bring just those specific paintings on that particular night. This gives her shows, not only a personal feel, but that feeling that you're witnessing an event that won't be repeated. Her unique stage show has received recognition by the likes of WXPN/World Cafe Live's “Philly Rising Contest” and earned her a title as one of “Portland's Top Ten Songwriters” by the Portland Songwriting Association.
No slave to genre when it comes to style, Summer explains, “My music is a little more dynamic than just “guitar chick” or “girl piano pop,” because at my core, I'm really a songwriter more than anything else.” Her pop songwriting has earned her recognition by the Billboard World Songwriting Contest, the Song of the Year Contest, among others. Timing and Lighting, her first full-length recording, keeps true to its pop nature, but makes forays into electro, emo, rock, and more than a little movie-soundtrack along the way.
Though dynamic, Summer’s new album is clearly held together by one, unmistakable constant... that voice. It's a voice that couldn't lie to you if it wanted to. Clear, young, confident-- it's not trying to sound “cutesy,” it is cute. It's also teeming with the emotion behind the songs. In her songs, as in life-- there's a lot of bittersweet mixed with bits of silliness, the full gamut from joy to pain and back again.
She's currently performing as a duo with the exceptionally talented drummer, “Q” Danskine. Well-known throughout the Portland music community, Q had hung up his drum sticks for nearly two years until the enticement of being involved in Summer's project inspired him to set up his kit again. His chops, energy, wit, and adorable charm add even more energy to Summer's live shows.
When asked the seemingly harmless interview question of where she comes from, she's tough to pin down. It seems that this girl has lived a little bit of everywhere, embodying the nomadic lifestyle that one of her most popular songs, “Have To Leave,” suggests. After spending her formative years in a small West Virginia town, she's since taken up residence Tampa, southern France, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland (OR), Miami and currently, Philadelphia, where she's recently relocated to get closer to the Northeast music scene.
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