Music

5 Questions with Summer Camp

by Anne T. Donahue

After spending fall and winter known only as an obscure duo hailing from Sweden, London’s Summer Camp finally came forth and revealed themselves to be UK artists Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey, whose earnest and heart-warming brand of sunny electro-infused folk-pop have  won over critics, audiences and listeners on both sides of the Atlantic.  Now after recently coming off their premiere tour with fellow Brits Slow Club, the two are readying themselves for the release of their debut EP in September and for another UK tour alongside current indie-pop darlings Frankie and the Heartstrings.  Recently, we had the chance to speak with Summer Camp about their prior anonymity, their existing artistic backgrounds and whether an online presence is really important.

Summer Camp: I Only Have Eyes For You
[audio:http://www.aux.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/SummerCamp-IOnlyHaveEyesForYou-11.mp3|titles=Summer Camp-I-Only-Have-Eyes-For-You]

AUX TV: Was the decision to remain anonymous at the beginning a response to the over-exposure many bands tend to receive in their early career stages?

Summer Camp: No, not at all.  We never intended to be a band, and only recorded a song for our own personal entertainment when we were bored one weekend.  Then we set up a fake MySpace – claiming we were Swedish (why? Seriously, why?) – which we thought no one would ever find, and we’d return to it in ten years time and cringe.  [But] within half an hour, we were on blogs and everyone was referencing the fake information we’d put on our MySpace when they wrote about us.  It was very surreal.  Almost as a way of dealing with the surprise of having people like it, we stayed anonymous – which ended up being pretty stressful in itself.

Eventually, we were “outtid” (so dramatic!) and suddenly everyone was like, ‘why were you anonymous? It’s just you two – boring’.   Needless to say, we’re kind of relieved that secret bit of our lives – which we never intended to start – is over.

AUX TV: Jeremy, did your background as a musician change the way you approached Summer Camp?

Jeremy Warmsley: Well, although I’d been in bands before, this was the first time I found a collaborator I really trusted.  It’s a dream being in a band with Elizabeth – she always has amazing melodies and great musical ideas.  I’d mostly worked solo before, so it was really exciting opening up to new influences and ways of working.

AUX TV: Elizabeth, do you find your experience as a music journalist has influenced the way you approach making music?  What about your background as an actress?

Elizabeth Sankey: I’d only been a music writer for about six months when we started doing Summer Camp, so I don’t think it’s really inferred our creativity as a band that much.  Luckily, I only ever wrote about bands I like, so there weren’t too many people I’d annoyed that I was likely going to meet on the gig circuit.  I guess it has made me more realistic about the whole hype thing, and also I know just how many amazing bands there are out there, and that you have to work really hard and be really good to get any attention.

To be honest, though, Jeremy has taught me far more about this game than anyone else.  He’s a wise man.  As for acting – I mainly do voiceover work which is obviously all about your voice and how to use it in different ways, so that has definitely been a help when it comes to singing.  And because I’ve been performing in plays since I was very young, I’m used to being on stage and all that jazz – although that didn’t stop me from being ridiculously nervous at our first gigs.

AUX TV: Do you find an online presence is necessary in order for a band to establish itself?

Summer Camp: Depends on what kind of a band you are, really.  It’s probably still possible for bands to do well without being blogged about, but then so many individuals have blogs now and therefore it’s kind of inevitable that if someone likes you, then you’ll have an online presence.  We love the little blogs, we love that everyone is now a critic and that a lot of the time, bigger blogs and the print press look to small blogs for new bands.  Probably if a band didn’t put any effort into the online thing and established itself the old fashioned way – with touring and stuff – the online people would pick up on it soon enough anyway.  It’s a chicken and egg scenario.

AUX TV: What did you learn from your time touring with Slow Club that you hope to apply to your tour with Frankie & the Heartstrings?

Summer Camp: Slow Club are amazing live, actually.  They’re incredible performers and have great songs.  They also really know how to get a crowd excited about being there – just through their onstage humour and good-time-having ways.  So hopefully we’ll bring a bit of that to our upcoming tour.