Can you please introduce yourself and your role in The Dangerous Summer?
My name is A.J. and I sing and play bass.
What is the history behind the band?
We all kind of went to the same high school in a way and it just all came together. We played in previous bands together and our senior year of high school we started a band like in August and we signed to Hopeless [Records] later that year in like April or so. We started touring right after we graduated and have been doing it ever since.
You guys are currently on tour with The Audition, how has the tour been so far?
It’s awesome. It’s fun. It’s kind of getting to the point where we are getting more recognition as a band and we will always remember this tour. It’s like one of the more transitional tours for us. We probably have about 10 or 12 more shows all across to the east coast.
Do you guys have any touring plans after this tour is done?
Yeah we are going to be definitely going to be touring all year and and we are also going to be writing a bunch in between the short breaks we have because we want to do an album probably winter of this year and early next year. We have been working on some demos and stuff so far.
Your full length album Reach For The Sun was released in May of 2009. Overall, how do you feel about this album?
We are really happy with the way it turned out and it has been received very well. We have just been very grateful for that. We are just really happy with Reach For The Sun. It’s awesome.
Reach For The Sun seems to be an album about growing up and the struggles that we all face as we grow up..can you describe some of the inspiration behind some of the songs on the album?
Oh yeah yeah. It’s pretty much just…I’ve gone through a bunch of rough stuff in the past like the past 3 years of my life after high school. Just moving out of my parents house, sleeping in my car for a while, and just really learning to grow up. When we wrote Reach For The Sun, I kind of was at a low point and writing it brought me up to a point and kind of about that struggle I had.
How is Reach For The Sun different than the earlier EP’s you put out?
I just think that the EP is kind of less mature. I think Reach For The Sun is more developed. We wrote all of the EP when we were in high school so it’s like I can’t even imagine my mindset back then. I was so young. The thing is we were never a local band. Our second show ever was out of state. No need to be a local band. You can be a local band every where. We just started touring. Writing in high school we kind of did it by ourselves. No one really had that much faith in it and we just kind of left and did our own thing.
How did you get started playing music?
When I was in middle school I started playing bass and for some reason I became the default song writer. I was the one who started writing lyrics. Back then I was really bad at singing but over the years I feel I’ve improved. I took vocal lessons senior year in high school like a short run just to preserve my voice and learned some methods to help me out.
Who would you say is your biggest inspiration and why?
A.J.: Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World and wow, um, that’s hard. What do you think Brian? Let’s bring Brian into this. Who is your biggest inspiration?
Brian: I’d say Tom Delonge [of Blink 182]. Definitely my biggest inspiration.
What are some of your goals for The Dangerous Summer?
I think we all just really want to make a living out of it. Like eventually get a house together and chill, you know? Drive around the country, keep writing songs. We just got into song writing yesterday. We went into the studio and wrote some pop songs for TV. We just want to make a career out of music in the long run.
Any last words?
Definitely check out our album Reach For The Sun and much love.
Thank you to A.J. Perdomo for taking the time to answer these questions and to Gary Stack for setting up the interview. Interview conducted at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California.
