Insight with Chris Van Vliet - The Dangerous Summer On Their New Album, Overcoming Adversity & blink-182 Getting Back Together

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

The Dangerous Summer (@thedangeroussummer) are a rock band from Ellicott City, Maryland comprised of AJ Perdomo, Matt Kennedy, Josh Withenshaw and Christian Zawacki. They join Chris Van Vliet inside the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about their new album called "Coming Home", how the band came together, overcoming personal hardships and breaking up, why they got back together, the process of writing songs, they reveal the name of their new album "Gravity", their take on Blink-182 reuniting with the three original members and much more! For more information about The Dangerous Summer visit: https://thedangeroussummer.us/ If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about Chris Van Vliet and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleed! Okay, welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. It's CVV, Chris Van Fleet, and I'm pumped. And if you know me, it doesn't take a lot for me to get excited. But I'm extra excited on this one to talk to one of my favorite bands of all time, the Dangerous Summer. Now, I like all kinds of different music, country,

hip-hop rock, pop punk, alternative, everything. If you looked at my Spotify playlist, you'd be like, man, that really runs the gamut of everything. But there's something about the dangerous summer that has really spoke to me. I've seen them in a concert a bunch of times. I've had a chance to hang out with A.J. Pardomo, the lead singer. But in all those years of knowing them and knowing their music, we never did an interview. Until now, right? So if you know them and you know their music, you know how awesome they are.

If you don't, go check out their latest album called Coming Home. Actually, go check out all of their albums. They're all so good. Reach for the Sun is the album that like really made me become a Dangerous Summer fan, but I think you'll like them all. Check them out on Instagram. They're at The Dangerous Summer. On Twitter, they're at Dangerous Summer.

I'm at Chris Van Fleet if you're not following me already. And take a screenshot. I'm sure there's lots of fellow dangerous summer fans that are going to be listening to this or want to be listening to this. So take a screenshot, tag us so that we can repost it and share this episode with a friend who's going to love this. So let's do this. Please welcome A.J. Perdomo, Matt Kennedy, the Dangerous Summer. We are making this happen. I'm so pumped about this.

You guys are one of my favorite bands of all time. And now we're sitting here in the flesh. Dude, my man, you're my favorite person ever. Thank you, man. Stop it. Thanks for having me. Stop it. Thank you, man. Yeah. Now, I'm stoked to be here. It means so much to me.

And also, I understand that organizing an interview at 10 a.m. in Las Vegas is really early when you're a rock band. Yeah. Thank you guys for getting up early or maybe not even going to sleep. I don't know. I know. Yeah. We went to like 6 a.m., something like that. So we went hard last night. It was pretty cool, but it was awesome. Everyone's kind of trickling out of town for when we were young. So we saw Bayside guys. Who did we see that?

We saw a lot of bands last night. People just wanted to do, like, oh, fuck, everyone's here. And now they have to come back next weekend. Yeah, exactly. And some of you actually prolonging the week, like dashboard dudes are here all week. Why not? Yeah, why not prolonging? Although a week in Vegas is too much time.

Yeah, I agree. I spend in Vegas. Unless you have a lot of money. I mean, hey, you know, like, that's the game of the way, you know. What's the game of choice? Slots, which is the worst. Oh, come on. I love blackjack.

Blackjack. And I never win. Yeah. But I love, I love the lights. I love the feeling. I think it's like dopamine or whatever. You know,

it's just like I love the, bang, bang, bang. Oh, yeah. Put this a little closer. Okay.

It's got a, you know, make sure, like it's like you're singing a song in that. Ooh, the nice arm. Oh, that sounds amazing.

This is a great arm. Yeah. These are great mics. Yeah. They are. Yeah. They are. Yeah.

They're so good. In the studio, even handheld sometimes. You will hand it. This is a big mic to do a handheld. Oh, I handhold it, yeah. That's what I think also Bono is famous for doing that. Michael Jackson, they've all, you know, swore by this mic, you know.

I'm so glad you guys are back together. I know. Man. Like I said earlier, you guys are one of my favorite bands of all time. When you broke up, I was like, no! No! Did you see all that shit good out? It was crazy.

I mean, how could you not see it, right? Yeah. You guys had to live it, though. I know, we had to live it. It was painful, man. It was like watching one of your best friends slowly die or something. You know, it was a sad time for us. And, you know, I think we needed it, though.

You know, man and I talk about all the time, it's like the steps that it takes to get there, you know, it's just that's what happens. You have to go through the shit. You have to go through the bad stuff to get, find the beauty in it all, you know. But was there a part of that that made you dislike music for a little bit? Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I completely swore off music. I didn't write a song for four years, like in the midst of all of this, you know. And I think it made coming back a lot sweeter, you know. It's like, and I see a lot of my friends going through this, too, where they're artists and they love what they do. But I think we all go through times, you know, even if you love your job, you have your off days and whatnot. Sometimes you need a time away from stuff. And it's just like at points I felt like I hated it, you know, I hated it completely. and it was sad.

It sucks that someone can make you feel that way about what you do. I don't know. It was a hard one. Does it make you respect the bands that can stay together for 20, 30, 40 years? Like, how do they do it? How do they do it? Like, original members? Yeah.

Who's on the list? Like, what, like Rolling Stones, are they original? I think so. Like all those. Yeah, like, how the fuck. The kiss and you too as well. I mean, there's very few bands that are like actually like original members. I'm low in RC, I mean, there's still those people, you know, like, it's crazy. But yeah,

how do you, how do you keep it together and I think, you know, especially with artists, we're all fucking insane, you know, like, like, we all have our quirks and our weirdness because, you know, like, we have that side of ourselves, you know. But it's a lot of egos. Yeah, it is a lot of egos. It's a lot of egos coming together. And I don't know, like, actually, I want to ask you this as a songwriter, when you've written a song and you think it should sound a certain way and then you bring it to the other members of the band, how did you, you know, have that conversation with everybody else in the band of like, oh, actually, I saw it going this way and you want to go this way.

Oh, my God, it's nonstop. I mean, yeah, yeah, we're in the studio having that conversation every day. It's like, even that one we just made, we're like, okay, like, oh, did we produce it right? Do we do it the right way? Like, oh, I thought of it more is this type of song, this type of song. So it is a lot of, you know, it's a marriage. show you you're uh we're all kind of sharing sharing our love you know it's not about one person it's

not about you know like again yeah me as a lyric writer there is a lot of like i need some kind of stake in it just so that i can get that piece done but you know we all try to have all of our use fit together you know like and sometimes there's things that maybe i don't even like as much but i respect and love these guys so much and we say hey like this is awesome let's let's go forward as a band and if I can make it happen. It's pushing pool. It's pushing pool, you know. So as the original, the only original member of the band now, when you guys got back together in 2017,

was there a part of you that went, man, I don't know if this is the dangerous summer. Maybe this is a different project. Maybe this is a different band. Yeah. It's funny because I was at the man, I was like, we should just drop summer. Let's call it the dangerous.

You know, like, but I wasn't a fan of that part. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's kind of like, you know, you almost want that way, but I mean, the Danish summer is a dangerous summer. And yeah, it's a hard one. We have this machine that kind of is well-o-willed and especially, you know, it's something, it's a story that just kind of keeps going.

And despite falling apart a million, million different times, it always comes back together. So it's a wild thing, man. But yeah, starting over is never, never a good thing. But you're starting from experience, right? Like that's a quote. It's like you're not starting from scratch. you're starting from experience. Yeah.

Fans like me are going, oh my God, the band is back together. I know. It means there's going to be new music. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's what we wanted to lead with.

Like, you know, we were getting offers to play. Oh, we guys play this festival. Money kept getting better and better. And we said, you know,

like, because we're such like bleeding hard artists, we're like, we're going to lead with music. You know, we don't want to just fucking play a show. Like,

if we're going to come, we're not going to be like, oh, nostalgia man, we're going to play the permanent rain a hundred times. it's like fucking we're going to come in with new music because this is our hearts like you know

we want to show ourselves out there you know so where does the permanent rain sit in a playlist right now um so on our set list uh we've been doing it actually is the final the encore every night so it's it's kind of actually really interesting because we're getting this new wave of fans yeah a lot of fans especially like songs like fuck tomorrow it's almost like our new permanent rain like it did so well

it's doing so well on streaming where a lot of people are coming into our bin like that. So we played fuck them all like last and then we kind of encore with the permanent rain. And it's like the energy is almost like, you know, pretty matched right there. This is such an interesting era for this style of music because just like you guys, you know, I grew up listening to it, the late 90s, early 2000s when it was blank and yellow card and starting line, census fail, Hawthorne Heights, All American Reject, go on and on it. Oh, you go on and on. I like that list.

Keep going. When we were young. Were you when we were young? No. Thankfully, because most of it got canceled. Fuck, man. That sucks. And then you guys came around in the era right after that when it was like, with great

respect, kind of losing its popularity, but you guys were making such incredible music. And now it's had this resurgence. Yeah. Yeah, we kind of came at a very odd part of the wave. And what was weird about coming back, too, it's like, you know, with the emo revival, And yeah, email night. Everyone's going out doing all this stuff. It's like, we barely caught that emo.

You know, like, we were in it. They, like, they allowed us to be part of that, you know, like, because we came at the very tail end. And I think we also came at, like, the death of CDs, you know, like this was there where CDs were not being sold anymore. You know, it's like, so like, and streaming wasn't figured out. The music industry almost went to fucking ruins. They didn't know how to make money off the shit anymore.

You know, it's like people weren't buying CDs. Pure volume. Remember pure volume? You streamer for free. No bands made money off pure volume. It's just we came to a weird renaissance, you know. And so I think also with that renaissance, I mean, things like Spotify,

the new machine that just takes your taste and it amplifies it. People who are finding us who like those bands, like All American Rejects and stuff, but never heard of us. You know, like the taste makers out there are really pushing the new wave of music. It's kind of beautiful to be here. while all this is happening.

This whole thing right now of emo is not dead. Yeah. I mean, it's so true. Yeah. And I think that the most powerful drug in the world is nostalgia. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

And I think that that's what, I mean, as we sit here right now, Blink 102, just got back together with three original members. I know. I love Tom. Have you ever interviewed Tom Long? No, I'd love you.

You need the interview time. He is like, how can I make this happen? Yeah. I actually met Tomlin once. I had a very awkward exchange with him. What do you mean? So we played a festival with Angels and Airways in Australia.

And so we actually flew on the plane there. And I don't play back. And I like took Ambien on the way to Australia. So like I was on the instant message. You get like instant message on Virgin Airlines like to the seats. And I was like, just Tom Blonde, just time. But and then that's not the actual story. So when I, when we go to fly back to L.A.,

Tom Long sitting there, you know, next to like all the Angels and Airways guys. Oh my God. I got to talk to him. If I don't talk to him now, I'm never going to talk to him. So I go up to him, I'm like, hey, man, in the dangerous summer, we played Soundwave. Like, I love everything you do. Like, you mean the world to me. And he goes, how was it?

And I was like, good. And then I just didn't know what to say. And I just slowly just disappeared. I walked backwards. That was it? That was it. I was like, oh, I ruined my moment. I was like, you know, like, what do you say to someone that you?

you grew up listening to you. You care about the music so much. Like, what do you say? You know, like, and I get it. You know, like, it's like, you know, people come to me sometimes. Like, I don't know how to say it. And I'm like, I get it. Like, that's how I feel too.

I don't know how to say to my musical idols what they really mean. And what could you do to ever change anything? It's like, hey, like, I love your shit, you know. Like, when you're talking to someone at that level, they've heard it all. They've heard it all. I interviewed Billy Corgan recently. And it's like, what do you say to Bill? Corrigan about the Smashing Pumpkins that he hasn't heard a thousand times.

Exactly. He also owns a wrestling company and a big wrestling thing. I know, yeah. I bet that was a good company. So that was a lot of fun. Yeah. So he's very nice. But like when you read that status,

you can't just walk up to Mark Hoppice and be like, hey man, all the small things are great songs. I know. Yeah, I know. Anyway. How do you like many of something?

Like the music? I don't like it. Really? Oh, man. Do you? I don't think I actually really heard it, but I heard clips of it. It doesn't sound like a link.

Yeah, it doesn't. And Tom, I think was Tom put something out that they had recorded the best album of Blink's career. And I'm like, amazing. I can't wait until I just comes out. And then I heard the single and I'm like, if this is the best song on their best album, I'm not so excited anymore. Yeah, but I kind of always say like, you know, like the thing about Eminem, like, you know, it's always high my name is first. You know, like, you release kind of the fun one. And then the next one is probably going to be really crazy.

So maybe he has some. I did see that where he was like, hey, you like this song, but there's like deep interest. He kind of like said some on Twitter about how there's so much more to this album than that. We'll see. We'll see. Self title, I mean, is the album of a lifetime for me. I think. Yeah.

You know, they did in, what was it, the year 2000 or whatever, no one's been able to continue that sound. You know, like no one's gotten that far. Like maybe Green Day? Yeah. That's about the only one I can think of. Dude, I like the new Green Day stuff too. Me too. I love it.

Great shit, man. But when it's so funny, a lot of people say self-titled is the best blank album. Yeah. For me, like, take off your pants and jacket is, like, start to finish. Yeah. And almost every song leads into one another. Like, it's basically one giant experience.

I know. I love that. I also remember driving to Walmart and buying, like, that album, and then putting it in my disc men that was connected to the tape thing. with a chord coming off of it? Yes. Dude, and they all have different bonus songs.

You remember that? There was like different versions. Like, man, it was so cool. They were like, oh my God, they were everything back in the day, dude. And now it's, nobody knows better than you guys.

It's such a different animal now where it's not really album focused anymore. I know. It's single focused. And that's actually, man, we were hanging out with our label in Europe and that's what they're telling us.

Look at us, dinosaurs being like, fuck. Like, yeah, they're like, they're like, album like you just just start

single single single single like 10 singles in a row it's like fuck like that we journey you know like we we as you just got out of this dude we just spent six weeks in there we're journey band we live that album we do not leave the studio we live

in that fucking machine until it's over and it sucks you know like it's pain it's it's everything so it's all a piece you know it's it's all one piece together I just it's funny because I feel like the TikTokism of music has changed everything. Yeah, man.

You can be an artist that nobody's heard of and one song goes viral on TikTok and it's over. I know. It is literally insane. But it's a weird fan too because it's like, you know, these TikTok stars, a lot of them are seen. It's like, can they draw people? You know, like, again, people like us, we have to be on the road just so we get our cult fan base and our cult following so that, you know, we have that.

It's like, yeah, you could probably sell them. million singles or whatever from a TikTok song. But will there be people there? Do you have a story that people have followed? You know, like, we're a band. We're like, you know, any one of them, we have a whole, whole packet, the whole thing going on, you know. Yeah, I think a lot of people it's like, I heard that song when this person was lip syncing it on TikTok. You're probably not going to go see that band play. I know. Yeah. I do think TikTok is like a weird reactionary thing. People just want real now. I think we're talking to some TikTokers about how, you know,

when they start to even overproduce a song and put on TikTok, people get disinterested. They want you with an acoustic guitar. They want the human, like, the shittier it is. Like, wear shittier clothes. You know, like the shittier it looks. These clothes aren't shitty. None of these clothes are shitty.

Come on, guys. Exactly. But that's the thing is, like, they want the humanness. That's what the algorithm loves. They want this little kid in a house and some random. city just on his acoustic and he's talented as fuck you know they don't want some like band like us being like check out our album you know like it's a wild world it's a different world out there speaking of clothes this hat is your trademark now oh yeah when did this happen man uh so in san antonia

texas oh your your guitar has arrived oh this is great oh yeah the door's uh this way yeah someone i'm sure but um kind enough to let you in yeah san antonia i mean i i took molly the night before and whatnot and we just wandered in you kind of have these weird days the next day wandered a hat shop and i was like hey it was like built in the 1900s like this old school hat shop and they custom make your hat i mean this like originally was like a big like bucket hat and they like steam it they make it it's fucking crazy and uh i don't know i just been kind of developing developing in a cowboy or something.

I don't know what I am in that. It's a nice era. It's a nice era. We were saying one day I'm able to do a suit era. It'd be nice to a suit. Suit era. You like the killers. Of course, yeah.

All the the bands, I feel like had a suit era. Yeah, the main even. They do that. See? I like that. Didn't the hives do something? I don't know. The hives.

The Sums? Remember when Sum 41 did their joke video? Yeah. Dude, I do remember that. Or I still am I? So am I still waiting? See, that's an underrated band. They have fucking hits.

Oh, they're the best. Hits after, hits, after. We want to bring the guitar in at some point here? Sure, we can. Yeah, sure. Why not? Hey, what's up? Okay.

Who's this? Jesse. This is our guitar tech. Jesse, thank you for making this happen. Wow. Bad ass asses to. Why don't you step around here? Yeah.

And you're about to be on camera and three, two. Yeah, come on. It's great. Come on in. Yeah, what's up, baby? I don't know. Yeah. Sure.

Yeah, right there. Forever. Mom, man. Yeah, I do good. The shot is from the top here, so that works out great. Dude, oh, my gosh. It's so exciting. It was like 5 a.m.

And he's, like, re-stringing this thing last. Yeah, yeah, that's nice. I was waking up at 5 a.m. I'd just take a flight to come see you guys. Oh, man. Thank you. No, thank you. And we don't need to play a song right now, but it's, uh, yeah, okay.

How could you have a band, one of the best bands in here and not have a guitar? Fuck, yeah, man. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, right. Yeah, perfect. So many of your songs have meant so much to me in my life.

Thank you. That means the world. Well, it means so much to me to be able to even talk to you guys about this. Because, like, what does it mean, especially when you're writing a song, and then you know that it's touching the lives of so many people in so many different ways. A song that's so intimate and personal to you is then now intimate and personal to other people. It's crazy, man. And, you know, like, I think my coping mechanism with dealing with the kind of magnitude that it's like, you know, we always say it's like, I'm just like a good antenna, you know.

It all comes from the universe, the words, whatever it is. It comes from somewhere else, you know, and I'm just kind of a good antenna. And it's kind of like, I feel like the words are almost a message for the world, the universe. People interpret it in the ways they need to interpret. Even for me, it's like a healing. So, like, I take my own piece from it. And then other people get their peace from it. And it's unreal, man, just to hear the stories.

And, you know, I got a DM like a couple nights ago that was like, hey, like, I almost killed myself. You know, like, lots of messages where it's like, hey, like, you literally saved my life. And how do you cope with that feeling that you can actually have something of that magnitude? It's unreal. It's like, and I think, yeah, just to deal with it, I mean, it's not really me. It's the magic of this world, the magic of this universe. And we're just happy to be a part of the grand symphony, you know. I like that.

Fuck, yeah. The permanent rain seems like a really personal one. Yeah. Is that the most personal song? I mean, they're all so, like, painfully personal where it's like, and I always say when I make an album, like, you know, I got to hurt myself and I got to hurt the people around me sometimes. Like, sometimes I have to say things that really throw myself into the bus. And sometimes I have to say things that, you know,

You know, like really, I don't know, like I have a repercussion on the relationships around me because I'm just being honest. I have to tell the story the way it needs to be told. And it's all so deeply personal where it's painful, it's joyful, it's every emotion rolled into one dream. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking.

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So many of your songs got me through a lot. Like, I had a long-distance relationship, miles apart, like really spoke to me. Wow, man, yeah. Miscommunications. How did it work? You stay together now. How do long-distance relationships work? Well, the thing about long-distance relationships is if you don't have an end goal in mind,

it's never going to work. Never. So unless you go into it and you go, all right, in six months a year, whatever, I'm moving in with you, you're moving it with me, or moving somewhere like neutral. Exactly. It will never work. How long distance was it? Let's get into your first.

I'm from Canada. She still lived in Canada, and I had moved to the U.S. It wasn't that far. It was probably only 300 miles apart. Yeah. See what I did there? I like that, man. I was in Cleveland.

She was in Toronto. Okay. But it's just, you know, it was I was taking the next step in my career, and she was still doing the same thing she was doing in Canada. Yeah. And you're a good-looking guy. Oh, what are you going to do? It's like, it gets rough.

You're out of a bar. It's like, damn, the ladies probably fly to you. I don't know. No, you'll see the show tonight. I'll just stand there by myself. Oh, my God. We're going to party in there. You don't party?

I will have several tricks. Well, some, yeah. You'll appreciate this because you lived in L.A. Yeah. I had a girl I'm engaged to now, Rachel. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much.

She came to the show. You met her. when we were in Anahawk. Oh, no way, though. House of Blues. That is awesome. Fuck, yeah. That was in L.A.

long-distance relationship because I lived in L.A. and she lived in Orange County. Oh, my God. So it's only 40 miles, but. It can be like hours. It was a day. It took two hours and 10 minutes. And there was another day.

It took 50 minutes or 45. But you live together now. We live together now. We just bought a house together. Nice. We're in the city of Orange. Oh, so you went out there. Yeah.

What's like on the other side up there? Oh, it's normal. I've always wondered that. Oh, Oh, you come at any time. When you're in Anaheim. Is it cheaper out there? Is it like?

Of course not. Yeah. It's just as bad, isn't it? It's California. It's a terrible decision to live there. I know, man. But there's beaches. I know.

It's beautiful. But when, like, songs like Blind Ambition came out, I was like, you miss L.A. like a fever and you want to, you know, want a house where the Malibu lines on ends, I'm like, I've been there. Yeah, dude. I just moved to L. when that album came out. Oh, no way.

So that really spoke to me. And you were just leaving L.A. when that album came out, right? Yeah. Yeah, I was just, yeah, kind of. I forget this time frame. But yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah.

Where are you guys even based now? Like 2017, 28. We're kind of everywhere. So he's in Denver. I'm in Richmond, Josh is Nashville and Christians in Virginia Beach. So he's like pretty close to me. But everything comes together when you're on tour.

Yeah, we all fly in. And it makes you work harder. If we all live down the street from each other, it's like, you know, maybe we'd get together every once in a while and write songs, but it's like, hey, let's go make an album. And for weeks, we go hard as fuck. And then we just, you know, we're on vacate when we're home. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, we're off, you know, and that's going to happen at the end of this. We have probably a few months off until the next thing and just chilling, you know. We already have an album in the bag bag. What's it called? I don't know, yeah. Maybe gravity, I don't know. Yeah, we were talking about gravity. Yeah, gravity.

Yeah. You heard it here first. I like it. The thing about gravity, remember when the movie Gravity came out? Oh, yeah. Wait, what's the movie Gravity? George Clooney and they were in space.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The gravity has a double meaning, right? It's the gravity of something weighing down and you, the gravity of us, like, on Earth here, and it's also something has grave importance. Exactly, yeah. Like that. Yeah, I like the feeling of it.

There's lots of, like, kind of, yeah, there's always kind of theme-type vibes, you know, like, there's stuff about the stratosphere. for you. You know, like, it almost feels like there's a theme in it when I'm going to send you them. I'm going to send you in. What? Yeah. Yeah, I'll send you. At least what it's the best. It's not mixed it, but I'll give you like what we have now and see what you think. See what you think. I will let you know immediately. What song should I start with? Should I start with the start? Well, so they're not even ordered yet. That's the thing. Oh, we get to that point eventually where it's

like if you know how do we order it. The walls outside are like Pacific Ocean. Yeah. And they all have fake names right now. Like, you know, like, it's like I, at someone, I write down all the lyrics and, okay, here's, this is what this should be the title. And then, yeah, we'll finalize an album name, but, uh, yes, seeing towards gravity. It's a process, man. I think there's so much of your story in particular age. And I'm sure all of you guys have experienced this, but you were doing the thing. Like, I feel like you were put on this earth to be a musician. You were doing the thing.

And then there came a point where you're like, I don't want to be doing this anymore. because of, you know, circumstances outside of your control. Yeah. Then you went and did a 9 to 5. Yeah. And I actually love that, you know, like, and I think maybe it is like someone within me is an artist. Like, you know, when people want me to do something and sometimes I say, fuck you, you know, like, I need that power as well to do whatever I need to do. And I saw the grass of screener on the other side.

And it was nice to have a 9 to 5th. It was nice to have a normal life for a while. Man, I was working at this film rental house in L.A. in Burbank. I bike two miles to work, two miles back. I was living a peaceful life. And it got the point where I was like, this is too peaceful. Like, I need to throw a wrench in it. And then I got a divorce.

And if I got the band back together, it was awesome. That is so juxtaposed to being like a touring band. Are you guys a van right now, boss? Yeah, like a sprinting. Yes. This is so juxtapose. I know, yeah, man. It's crazy. But I loved it. It was like, you know, and you know how it isn't working in L.A. No one actually works. I mean, you show. Funny thing. You show up at like 10, 11 a.m. They're like, cool. Like, what's up? You know, like, people don't really care. It's chill. It's chill to work in L.A. It's, it was fun. Like, I had a really good time doing it.

There's also like this vibe in L.A. where you could ask someone like, hey, do you want to go, like, grab lunch at out? Like, one o'clock. Yeah, I know. Yeah, man, free like every day this week. What do you mean you're free every day? week. Dude, I know, there's just like a lax attitude. Everyone's just chilling. Everyone's high as fuck. My boss is high every day, you know. It was like, it was just like, I was like, cool, I'm going to get high too.

Like, let's do this. But it was really cool. It was really peaceful. You know, we travel so much. So much. So much. So as you dream of not traveling. And then you get home and you're like, ah, fuck.

Yeah, actually, I do like travel. You know, it's like, you always want the other side. Life is like that. It pushes in a pool. Well, life's all about balance. It really is. The balance of the staying home and the traveling. Yeah.

I don't know. Like when you're in a band, you're doing it all at once, and then it just kind of stops. Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, to deal with those feelings, like we get like on such a high from playing these shows.

And then, yeah, it just stops. And you sit at home some days and you don't know how to get up in the morning. You don't know what to do with your life. You're like, fuck, you know. So I think like you just got to stay busy, you know, take some add around, take some out of it.

Keep working, baby. What's a city that you guys have been to where you were like, I didn't even know we had this many fans here? I mean, recently Paris. Yeah, Paris was crazy. Yeah, it was like, I mean, like Josh and I was our first time playing there. And like I, yeah, thanks.

We also have a cough button if you ever want to. Oh, nice. That's awesome. That's like we're at a radio stage. It's literally so cough. That's so sorry about that. That is, but yeah, I just, we had no clue that. Like, people actually liked our band in that city.

Yeah. You kind of see it online a little bit. And it was a fucking awesome show. One of the guys from Rood Records are a label that we're working with, they came out to Eulik owner. Yeah. And it was awesome. Yeah.

London was sick too. Yeah. They're pointing at you. You're in trouble. Oh. No, I'm just kidding. I'm so sorry. I like it.

I like these guys. This is great. Yeah. Everybody behind this, the glass here, so talented. The other side of the glass is like, everybody walking by is hearing our conversation too. I know.

They're like, who the fuck are this, we don't know. Like this guy. It's a dangerous summer. You waved back to you. That's great. Perfect.

Love it. That's how we'll take up ladies. What's up, ladies? She's on the phone. She doesn't want to talk to it. I'm really, I'm really curious to know what you guys think of MGK. Because you guys have been doing this for 15 years and

MGK was, for the most part, a rapper. Yeah. And I love that. the two albums he's put out in the pop punk space. But he kind of just came out and like, oh, waving to everybody, man.

There we are. And he came, he kind of came into your space and was kind of like, I'm now going to own this thing. Yeah. I think, I think he's cool, man. And I liked a lot of the music that he's put out. Actually, I just saw him on tour on that big tour with the helicopters.

Did you go to that at all? It was fucking wild, man. He, like, production was insane. He had a helicopter. He's a rock star. He's a fucking rock star. And that's the thing is like, man, like, I is, I see him.

He's carving his own way. I mean, he's an artist just like us. And he, yeah, it is funny. I like, I mean,

all these people coming up, even like a lot of the sound cloud stuff too, where it's like, oh, we want to be a rock band now, but they're kind of like rappers too. It's, it's almost like the Lil Wayne thing.

Remember, little Wayne wanted to be a rock star? They always want to be fucking rock stars or whatever. But yeah, the revival pop punk, it helped us. I mean, I think all of it's like,

people are saying this is kind of, kind of the return of rock because of people like that. And, you know, you're starting to see guitars show up again. Everything comes in ways, and I think rock is starting to make its way back in the radio. I think it was calling for a little bit. Don't you think? Like, it kind of. Yeah, well, less people are listening to the radio.

That's an interesting thing. I know, yeah. It's like, yeah, who needs the radio? Seriously. And I worked in radio for so much my career. Wow. It's like nobody's tuning on 99.1 or whatever is. Yeah.

Yeah. Because now you're going to have, like, curated playlist. And no commercials. No commercials, exactly. Yeah. It's funny, though, that, like, the rock purists, I'll put that in quotes, when, like, they put a pop punk band, like, when someone says, oh, I like this band, they're my favorite rock band.

They're like, oh, they're not rock. They're, like, pop punk or, they're emo or, like, I feel like they're all part of the same category. Yeah. Well, we talk about this a lot. You know what it's Americans. There's such dickheads about music. You know what I'm saying? Like, we go to the UK.

And man, we have people of all ages that are shows, like, people love a rock gig and they're dancing, they're moshing, they're having a good time, like, they're happy to be a show. In America, it's, you know, arms crossed, you're sitting. You know, like, everyone's just like cool music. You know, it's such like a cool guy thing. Like, we grew up in the 90s where it's like, they like, you know, people would make fun of you for like, oh, you like this band. Like, you like third eye blind, like, oh, it's so lame. Like red hot chili peppers is the best. It's like the older brother 90s thing punching you in the face.

You know, it's like, we all grew up with like angry shit. And now, people are so pretentious about music. People hoard music. This is mine. Oh, you've never heard of this man. It's like, dude, like music's love, music's art. Like, let it be free to share it. Like, don't hate on it.

Like, if you like something, love it. If you don't, just walk on past. It's like an art gallery. Stare at the paintings you like and just keep walking. You're not going to say, Yeah. What the fuck is that, you know, like this piece of shit. Yeah.

And people are on Twitter gone, this is, like, people literally like will tweet us as to be like, dangerous summer suck now. Like, what the fuck? And it's just like, you took that much energy. Just fucking turns out. Listen to the whole shit. Like, that's there forever. That's the best thing about music.

You listen wherever the fuck you want forever. Like, keep going, keep going. And it's just like the pretentious attitude. It doesn't really exist in, I mean, it exists less in Europe. UK, even like Asia. I mean, people love me. They're just happy that you were there. Yeah.

And it's like, man, we're human. We're just artists. We're just trying to express ourselves, you know. I always say we're not trying to make good music. We're trying to make accurate music. We're telling the stories of our hearts. Yeah. If we want to make, yeah, like some radio hit,

we'd make a fallout boy, like catchy ass, whatever song. Like, we're just trying to tell the true tale of what we really feel. Yeah. There's a weird thing that happens when someone finds a band as they're starting out, and then two, three albums into it. There's people that are like, oh, my God, I used to like them, but they sold out, or they get went to mainstream. And I'm just like, but they're still the same band.

Exactly, yeah. And I do think, so music is such a personal thing. And I think, well, people don't take note and realize, I mean, we've been doing this so long. So you start to see where it's like, you love a song because it's anchored to something in your personal life. Yes. Yeah, you're going through a relationship or you're driving one day. Man, you have this good drive. You have that cup of coffee.

And the sun was coming out. It's linked to a place in your life. And when a new album comes out and it's not anchored by something in your life, you didn't have that moment where, oh, I got the new CD. Or you know, like you just casually heard it. You're not anchored to it. You don't know that personal connection with it. So I think people need to kind of think about that when they, you know, listen to music. Like, try to find the angers in your life.

And if it isn't there, then, hey, maybe it's not there. Sometimes you don't feel the way even like, you know, like someone actually said the other day on Twitter. They're like, Dana's Summer's happy now. Like, it's crazy. You know, it's like, I don't know if you heard the same out of my did. It's very depressing. But I get it. I get what you're saying here.

You know, it's like. I think you guys are uniquely qualified to answer this question. what do you think is the most emo lyric of all time in all emo music? Oh, my gosh. Do you remember the air of like, oh, Haldon Heights? Like, cut my wrist and black my eyes. I mean, that's like, if you're going to put one, you know, it's like. That's a pretty good one.

Cut my wrist and black my eyes. Or I won't fall asleep tonight or die. Oh, my God. That's the way. I know. It's like fucking. That's a, yeah. I think Hall of Haldon Heights was like, they have like a good.

picture of what emo kind of became is like the popular email of like the mid 2000s screamo yeah and there's the era was like you know like butterfly kisses you know like all these words like mascara you know like remember when it was like all those little buzzwords of like the 2007 2008 era or whatever do you have a do you have a choice matt um um the song has become what the songs become the anthem of my underground right of my dying day oh it was so it was Saves a day, right? Story of the year. Story of the year.

No, so I was saying, saves a day, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know, that's a pretty, that's a pretty email. You like saves a day, you like, love saves a day. Love Saves a day. They got to cancel. Damn. Yeah.

They are still. I didn't be a good person. Yeah, apparently. Oh, that sucks. Didn't they get canceled? Save the day. I don't know. They got it.

I don't know. I don't know. I still like their music. I love that. Stay what you are. Oh. I'm on my chest. I've got another.

I've got another option for this. You could slip my throat and with my one last gasping breath, I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt. Oh my God. I was actually like, man, like... Taking back Sunday. That's a killer layer.

I actually like just kind of went through a break or whatever. And I was just like, I sort of subconscious that I started like singing lyrics in my head and it was like, these take my second lyrics like, what is that song in this thing? But that's cute without the year, right? Yeah, it is. And it's like, man, his lyrics are so... Good. Like, it's like, it's like revisiting them, like, thinking about them.

I was like, wow, these lyrics are like insanely creative and crazy good. He is a fucking talented motherfucker. Oh, yeah. And he, man, when, when Take Emacs Sunday came out, it was like, holy shit. Like, I've never heard anything like this in my whole entire. That changed everything, man. I love that email. Yeah, like that.

Taking Back Sunday was the best. It's funny how a song or a. album can like number one have a like picture a moment in your life it can like time stamp that moment in your life yeah and it's funny how like even to this day you can hear that now and like picture a time or a place or for me it's um it's dashboard confessional playing MTV unplugged dude i told Chris that like when i interviewed him he's like oh yeah we didn't even realize how big that would be for us i'm like that changed everything it changed i remember like i yeah like the little DVD event. I played in my

dad's trailblazer. Like, yeah, and the back to you, I was like a kid, like listening to this. And it's crazy because actually Chris Caraba reached out to us recently. He loves our music. That's awesome. And like way down, they were playing way down before they played. And actually our friend, do you remember there for

tomorrow, a band from Valley Day? But Chris Camrata, their drummer now plays for Dashport Convention. And he actually played a European tour with us before as a drummer. And yeah, we were We were partying with them, lesson. We were getting up.

The last night. He's awesome. He's the best dude. You got, I mean, you're rock stars. I mean, what else do you expect? Yeah. This is what we do, man. Do you do this in every city?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Adderall, baby. I don't know. Hell of a drug. Yeah, I know. So, you know, there's going to be kids listening to us, be like, oh, Adderall. It sounds great.

Try it, try it. See if you like it. They're probably already. I'd say try it down with vodka. Try everything in one. Yeah. Whiskey. Yeah, we're big whiskey guys, but I like the clear.

Clear is so much better for me. Yeah. Big Beam guy. I like Jim Beam. Yeah. Maybe we'll mix it up one of these days. Let's just some clear. I'm down.

I like mix it together. I've always wanted to get into gin. Like, wouldn't gin be cool? That's like, yeah. The gin hangovers. Yeah, they're brutal. Good. Yeah.

I like that. This is a whole different podcast, but that's. Yeah. It's go deep into liquor. Let's go. The history of liquor. Tequila's mine, like tequila. Yeah, if I go to the bar and we're doing shot, I usually say tequila, tequila.

And it's like the lime. It's a social shot. Yeah. We'll do one tonight. Yeah. We'll do one. I'm in. Only one?

Come on. Well, 10. Yeah. 10 to 20. 10 to 20. I'm from Canada, like I mentioned. So when I heard in symmetry, remember Winnipeg. Oh, yeah.

I was like, nobody remembers Winnipeg. I know. Yeah. So what is the significance of that lyric? So I dated this girl from... You fell simpler back then? Yeah, I know. So it was like this girl from high school, but she was from Winnipeg.

And so I went on vacation with her family to... It was like Victoria Beach. It's out there, like on Lake Winnipeg. It's called Lake, yeah, Lake Winnipeg. And I also, man... There's not much to do in Winnipeg, by the way. I know. Yeah, heroin.

They were like, they're like, heroin is like, that's where it is. I mean, it's... It's a tough city, isn't it? Like, like, also the home. like the slushy, the 7-Eleven, isn't it? Like, it's big there. It's like apparently the top place where they sell. I didn't meet a girl that's from Winnipeg.

So she went to my high school, but she was from there. So yeah, I want on vacation. But also I love, you listen to the weaker then, it's the weaker then? Yeah. Yeah, man. So they talk, I think there's like a sub-kind. I just love that band. So yeah, I wanted to reference to Winnipeg as well.

They talked about Winnipeg and their sons. Sometimes I'm very influenced. I get some ideas like, you know, sometimes I come very close to ripping people off and I don't even realize it. You know, like bright eyes, street light manifest. Like some of my favorite vocalists, it's like they make these lines and little pieces of it end up in songs, yeah. We, when I first found out about you guys, it was 2009, my buddy, Aaron, who's one of my best friends, he met his now wife that summer. And we had just had a crazy summer. We called it the dangerous summer.

Oh, nice. Because of you guys. Wow. What happened? I want to hear about this dangerous stuff. We were 25. Yeah. So all of the things you would expect to happen during a dangerous summer.

I like that. I like that. And then I moved to Cleveland not long after that. We had a dangerous weekend where there's the last photo I texted you. We took a random road trip to New York City because my buddy had just moved there. And I was like, it wouldn't be so cool. I just introduced my friends to you guys. I'm like, wouldn't it be crazy if the dangerous summer was playing in New York?

Pull up the website and I'm like, guys, you'll never believe this. Dude, that is crazy. That is wild, man. Yeah, I think,

I'm wondering who we're on tour with. We'll have to look it up later. We'll look it up and it'll come to me. Yeah. Yeah, because I mean, like, yeah,

those Webster Halls. Those are the best, man. Like, I miss those days. New York City, man, what a city.

I might move there. Really? I was thinking about moving there. Wow. Yeah, because I got to move out of my house soon. Why not back to L.A.? My daughter is actually, she lives 30 minutes outside of New York. So I just, I just want to move closer to her.

Luna, right? Luna, yeah. My dog is named Luna. No way. I think my dog's probably older than your daughter. What kind of dog? A chihueney. A chihuahua on a wiener dog.

So you love chihuahua. Pick the dog out. It's very small. Nice. Like eight pounds. Why you bring the dog? It's my, so it's my fiance's dog. Okay.

Now I'm the, I'm now the dog dad. Yeah. I love that, man. Dogs are the best, aren't they? It makes sense, though, if your daughter's there to move closer to the city. Yeah. There's an energy about New York City. I know.

The other thing is, I want to conquer that city. Like, I think there's something about the big cities in the world, you know, I kind of want to live in a few of them before the end of my life. I think Andrew McMahon wrote his best album when he was in New York City. Wait, what album did he write in New York City? Oh, oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. Like, that was a, oh, no way. Was something corporate or?

I know, and it was Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. Okay. Yeah. Wow. He was living in the year. The whole album is all like New York inspired. Wow. Yeah.

So that would be the case. Yeah. There's something we always talk about like frequencies. I mean, when you have that many people concentrated in an area. I mean, like, yeah, there's an energy. There's a tangible. The humanness, whatever humans do when they're packed in tight like that. Yeah.

You can feel it. I bet it would make the coolest fucking music. So we'll see. And albums are very time and place. I feel like wherever we make an album, it influences it completely. I look forward to that album. And the next album.

I can't wait to hear it. Hell yeah. We have to wrap this up. I'm so sorry. No worries. But I can't wait to go to the show tonight. What's going to be song number one? Blind Ambition.

Incredible. We've all gone with, you know, the voicemail. We play the voicemail. We all get up there. Do you actually play the voicemail? Yeah, that's how we started. Oh man. The way that that song hits. Dude, my man. Thank you.

It means a lot to me. It means so much to me that all you guys came in here. Thank you, man. Dude, it means so much like, man, like you saw me. I hear you up on Instagram. I was like, hey, please interviews, please. I see all the shit you do. Like, I love your shit. I love the questions you guys. You are an amazing interviewer.

It's an honor to be here, truly. The honor is mine. Seriously. Thank you guys. And I mean, if you don't mind, we now have the guys. we now have the guitar here. Would you, would you play us out?

Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What song we want to play? Do you want to play sideways or we can play, we do that coming home? And then we do that. Just a little bit and then we'll wrap this up.

They might need to wrap it. Let's do one. Yeah, you want to come in home? Oh, gosh. It's so exciting. Cool. Wow. So we just rip it.

What's the best way to do? You could just play in the background, really. Okay, cool. I would just kind of like, yeah. Put the mic on it, put the mic on it. Sure, and then you'll just sing a little bit. Okay, cool, cool, cool.

Can you, could you play symmetry? Or is that too hard to play live? I don't know. That's been a while. Okay, come in. I don't want to fuck it up. That's cool. Just maybe a verse and a chorus?

Yeah. Okay. Oh, thank you. We beg to be our shoes to understand my. at home like I taste it slapped off myself I'm going to my man,

thanks for having to find me first. One fall in a tie. Believe with that. That's very good. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, my man, thanks for having us.

There we go. So glad we could finally do that interview and a little live in studio performance there at the end. Right. after this interview. They're like, well, what are you doing now? I'm like, I don't know, what are you guys doing? They're like, we're going out for lunch. Want to join us? So we spent the whole rest of the day together. We got lunch, had a few drinks, and then I saw them rock the

stage in Las Vegas. I love those guys. Check them out on Spotify. Check them out on Instagram. The Dangerous Summer. On Twitter, they're just at Dangerous Summer. And I'll leave you with a quote that I think is pretty applicable to everything that we talked about here. This is from Tim David. Your dreams should be your dreams. They shouldn't be based on what anyone else says or does. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea. We you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up

in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.