The Dangerous Summer have always been fantastic to us over here at PropertyOfZack and AJ Perdomo was kind enough to take part in our Behind The Booth feature to discuss the band’s sophomore record. AJ and I discussed the status of the record, differences from Reach For The Sun, the leaving of Tyler, thoughts on how the band will move forward, and more. Enjoy the read! 

The Dangerous Summer has been in the studio for a few weeks now with Paul Leavitt. How far along is the process? I believe you’re doing some vocals today.
Most of the album is done. All the drums are done and all the guitars are done. I’m writing the lyrics and we’re just taking our time and not rushing things. We’re slowly reforming songs when we need to reform them. We wanted to actually have this record done by the time we leave for the UK on Thursday, but that actually couldn’t happen. We’re going to actually have to go to the UK and come back and work on it some more. It’s going to be a long process.
 
When we’ve spoken over the past you’ve made it clear that lyrics are incredibly important for you and that you often struggle to get down exactly what’s in your head. Has that been the case for this as well?
Yeah, definitely. Working out the melodies, I just want it to be perfect. I keep drawing influences from different bands like Kings Of Leon and The National, but then I keep having to come back to like blink-182 to go back to the roots. All of this different music. It’s kind of a like a growing and growing thing. I think that we just can’t rush this album.
POZ: Would you say that you’re blending in a lot of different influences, but that it’ll still have that Dangerous Summer sound?
AJ: Yeah, we actually have two songs already recorded and everyone says it’s like us, but there’s something so different, like a farther out there sound. I think people are going to be surprised by it. I think it doesn’t really sound like anything else right now, which is cool.
 
How would you compare this album lyrically compared to Reach For The Sun?
Lyrically, I don’t know. Vocally, in general, I think the melodies are going to be a lot more mature and a lot more thought out. I think lyrically that I am definitely at a different point in my life. It gets really dark at sometimes and at sometimes it just gets really light and really happy. I think in that matter it’s going to get a lot darker than Reach For The Sun does. It’s also going to get a lot brighter than Reach For The Sun does.  
 
Are there any overall themes for this record?
No, not really. Just like the next chapter of our lives, here we are at a turning point. We’ve got lots of stuff coming up in the New Year and we’re talking about moving to Nashville or down to Los Angeles and this is kind of like a hectic point in our lives like a turning point. I think the album’s going to reflect that. 
 
Will there be a similar sound to that on “Good Things?” How was the reaction for that track when it was released?
I think the reaction was really good. People really liked it. Today we actually rehearsed for the set that we’re going to be playing in the UK and we played it and I thought, “Wow, I haven’t heard this in a while.” I think our new stuff is even different from that. That was kind of like a steppingstone just to kind of like experiment on this side of the fence or whatever. I think we get a lot more comfortable when we actually dive in. 
 
Has the band felt pressure in terms of writing for this record? Reach For The Sun was a big deal for a good many people. 
Yeah, I’d say that’s why it’s taken us so long. We’ve always been our worst critics and every single melody we have to be completely happy with. It’s hard to finally say, “This is the best thing I can do for this.” I think sometimes we have to take a step back and say, “Listen, there will be more albums to be made. Don’t over think because then it’s less organic.” It’s going to be different.
 
The band has worked with Paul for the last few releases. What makes you guys keep going back to him?
We’ve known and have been recording with him for probably seven years since we were in like the 10^th grade of high school. I just think we’re down the earth with him. We’re very good friends with him. We know his wife and everything. He really treats us well. It’s cool that we didn’t finish the album yet and he’s not freaking out too hard about it. He’s like, “You guys can come in at night.” He has another band right now that’s recording and I come in at night and stay up all night writing and writing and I just do it day after day. I think that this album is going to start rushing in and everything’s going to start finishing up all of a sudden.
 
You’ll obviously be heading to the UK in just a few days and are following that up with a US tour in March, but when would you guys like to wrap up the recording process?
Definitely in between the two tours. We’re probably going to get home on the 27^th this month and then we have two and a half weeks till the Sparks tour starts and we’re just going to bust it out.
 
Is a middle summer release date looking good?
We’re really hoping for early summer. Hopefully sometime in June would be ideal because we really want to be pushing it on Warped Tour and honestly just start playing two or three new songs to get kids stoked on it.
 
Could we hear a single in May sometime?
Yeah, definitely. We’re going to do a video for probably two songs at once and then save one of the singles and release one of them and go from there.
 
It was announced in early January that Tyler left the band. When exactly did he make that decision and notify you guys?
It just kind of happened one day. I think it was very, very mutual and I think he at one point got tired of touring. It’s hard. Everyone kind of gets tired of it at some point. I know right now that he’s going to school and we’re on good terms with him. We talk to him and go get drinks. It happens. We were rehearsing with the drummer that’s coming out to the UK today and he’s incredible. We don’t really need a permanent drummer right now. When we click with someone we’ll click with someone, and until then we’re just going to go out with whoever can play Tyler’s part as best as they can. We actually had Spencer Peterson from Hidden In Plain View and Black Cards do the album with us.
POZ: How did that come together?
AJ: Our manager just kind of pointed us in his direction. He does studio drums. He actually did the new Saves The Day record. He tracked that. He’s a really solid drummer. I think people will see the whole Tyler style in the new album, but it’s also a lot more refined and sometimes the simpler things make it better. 
 
Will the same drummer for the UK tour be filling in on the US run as well?
I’m not sure. We’re still trying to figure that out. We may have someone else, but he may be booked. We’re not too concerned. We have a few very solid drummers who can play the parts perfectly and add their own little flair to it. It’s going to be awesome. 
 
The Dangerous Summer also has an acoustic release of Reach For The Sun coming in the future. When was that recorded?
We finished that up probably two months ago. We just kind of did it. Cody and I recorded it in his room and we went to our friend Andy who actually tour manages us and we got into the studio and we worked on different sounds a bit and made it sound really cool. I think people are going to be real stoked on it.
POZ: When might that be released?
AJ: I’m pretty sure sometime during the Sparks tour. Mid-March or something like that.
 
Might we see another tour in between Sparks and Warped Tour?
No, I think we’re going to do an international tour in Australia. We’re still trying to confirm that. Just because the radius clause for Warped is so crazy. We’re doing mostly b-markets even on this Sparks tour just because we can’t go to the major cities that Warped Tour is hitting.
 
I spoke to Louis from Hopeless not too long ago and he stated that he will support the band without a doubt regardless of all of the hardships you guys have gone through, but that there will inevitably be consequences regarding bands wanting to tour with you and other opportunities in the future. Will we see a new Dangerous Summer in 2011?
I think lots of talk about bands not taking us out or whatever, I think it’s a lot of hype. One of the reasons why we came out and wanted to do a headliner was because we wanted to play a bunch of songs. I think it’s hard for us to find a band that we even fit into musically. It’s hard to find a tour that’s really hard for us to make sense to support. I think we’re going to be doing a lot of headlining stuff and just build our fan base slowly. We’re good guys. I think a lot of people hear stuff and they repeat it and it sounds different the second time. It’s all that stuff. We really don’t have any concern. We keep our friends close to us and we love everyone who supports us.