PropertyOfZack interviewed Aj Perdomo when The Dangerous Summer came into town on their Reach For The Sun headlining tour. Aj has been extremely nice in terms of working with the site over the past nine months, so it’s always a pleasure to sit down with him, especially on the streets of New York. Be sure to read up on the interview to find out how the tour has been going, when the band will be hitting the studio, and another fall tour.

For the record, could you state your name and roll in The Dangerous Summer?
I’m Aj and I sing and play bass in the band.

Shortly you guys will be playing in New York City and then will be finishing up the Reach For The Sun Tour in Virginia tomorrow. Can you tell us about your time on the tour?
It’s been crazy. It’s out first headlining tour ever and the response has been out of this world. So many people have been coming out to the shows. We’ve had a few sold out shows on the tour and it’s just crazy to see so many people coming out to the shows finally, I guess since we’re playing the whole album. It’s something special for the kids to see. It’s just been awesome. I’m really happy we chose to do this tour.

Is headlining something that you guys look forward to doing a lot more in the future?
Yeah, it’s awesome. At first it was going to be like one of the most stressful things we’ve ever done because everything’s on you. Once we did it it was like fun. It was one of the funnest tours just because we got to headline and get out there to all the kids. Playing a huge set every night is one of the benefits. We get to play every song that we love.

Has it been a great experience for you to play the album all the way through? It’s obviously very important to a lot of fans, which of course is the reason why you’re doing it.
Yeah, it’s crazy the response we’ve gotten. People have come to the shows with tattoos and stuff and they’re so pumped that we got to play the whole album. I think it’s really something just for the fans.

The band has been playing “The Good Things” live after the album set finishes up. How have fans been reacting to the new material?
They’ve been reacting well. It’s crazy because towards the end of the tour people know more words for the song as they’re watching the YouTube video over and over again, which is funny. It’s been awesome. I hope people like it, I really do.

A vinyl release of Reach For The Sun was supposed to happen this summer. What’s the status on that?
It’s looking like October. We’re gonna release a definite date, but you can sense it around October time, like mid-fall.

You guys released a live EP not too long ago. How has the reaction on that been?
It’s been awesome. It’s been selling too. Lots of people have been picking it up and I’m real happy about it. I actually heard it for the first time like a week ago, so I was real stoked about the final product. It’s awesome man. I’m glad we finally got a recording out because everyone says that you have to see the live show. I think it’s totally different than the CD.

The new song that was planned to be released on that wasn’t finished in time. Was it a conscious effort not to rush to complete it?
We really wanted to have the song out to people, but we couldn’t finish it in time. We took our time and now we’re happy we waited.

Last time we spoke you said about half of the music was written for the album, but not so much the lyrics.
Yeah, on tour I’m going to start recording vocals on the road and stuff like that so we can get things going. I think we’re going to be touring most of this fall before we go to record this album. We’re gonna record really late in the year, like probably towards the end of the year. What was the question again? I totally strayed off on that.
POZ: [Laughs] How are the lyrics?
Aj: They’re going awesome. I have all the demos and I’ve been working and working on ideas while I’m on tour. I think while we’re on the Sherwood tour I’m going to bang out a lot of the lyrics. We’re gonna set up a studio in the back of the van so I can work on that stuff.
POZ: Is the music mostly done for the album too?
Aj: Yeah, the music’s getting there. I’d say the music is over half done. It’s really pushing and we actually chose who our producer is, but we’re going to keep it under wraps for a little while. It’s exciting though. I think we’re going down to Florida to record for a good month and a half.

In June you guys were recording a new song with producer Paul Leavitt. Will you guys just be using one producer for the album?
Yeah, just one producer definitely.

And the band will definitely be hitting the studio late in the year?
Yeah, really late in the year.
POZ: Does that make an early to mid-summer release look plausible?
Aj: Yeah, probably like spring, hopefully. Then maybe early summer if not spring. Something like that.

The Dangerous Summer will be heading out on a west coast tour with Sherwood starting on September. That’s a pretty big tour, how did that come together for you guys?
It’s awesome. We got in contact with them through Facebook. The lead singer added me on Facebook and I was like, “Hey, what’s up man?” And he was like, “I like your band” and I said, “I love your band too” and we’ve been talking for a while just as really good friends over the Internet. Finally they said they’re doing a headliner, and maybe their last headliner. It may be their last one. So it may be their last tour ever and they wanted to bring us out on it, so we’re real stoked on that.

Will it be a little different getting back into the gears of opening for a band?
Yeah, I think after this tour it’s going to be a big relief. We only have like ten days off and then down to playing only like seven or eight songs, it’s gonna be sick. There’s going to be a lot less stress and we don’t have to worry as much, so I’m happy about that.

I think that tour ends at the end of September, so will there be more dates announced for after?
Yeah, we will be. We have a whole tour lined up. It’s gonna be announced real soon.
POZ: Is that headline or support?
Aj: We’re supporting. It’s gonna be a cool tour.

In the last six months you guys have had a lot of different experiences. Should the next year be equally opportunity setting in your mind?
Yeah, I think the next six months are going to be crazy and then getting ready for the album. We’re going to just keep trying to do stuff. While we’re writing we’re going to keep fans updates and then once when we finish the album we’re gonna try to get right back on tour like early next year. We got to keep our momentum going because I think this headliner really put us up at a little bit higher lever.

Is the album still having a lot of Metric and MGMT-type influences?
Yeah, they’re tons of influences. Just listening to tons and tons of more music just kind of inspires us more. I’ve been getting into this band The National, they’re awesome. Just kind of growing musically. I look for different things in music now. I really focus on the melodies and of course the lyrics. I think there will be a lot for people to take it. I think it’ll be good.

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
No, that’s good my man. Thank you so much.