Steve Gatland from The Second Summer Interview

bookies new and used books is a supporter of wxav 88.3 fm and wxav.com located at 10324 southwestern avenue in chicago bookies offers a selection of new and used books with orders available for books not currently in stock for more information visit their website at bookiesbookstores.com this is a wxav 773 sounds podcast introducing you to the best local bands in the chicagoland area and we're back here at 773 sounds here on the x wxav 88.3 fm chicago your escape from ordinary radio my name is peter creighton and i am so excited because right now i'm able to sit down with this great up-and-coming alternative pop band called second summer and i have steve gatlin from second summer on with me steve how you doing today i'm doing great peter thank you for having me oh my pleasure first off uh love the name especially since as we're recording this interview we are in the midst of chicago second summer yeah it's funny there was a name for this that became politically incorrect and i noticed that i was in oregon uh for a trip a couple years ago i i heard them referring to this as the second summer the second summer and i felt it was metaphorical for a lot of what was going on in my life and the life of our band so we adopted the name and uh yes we are the second summer and appropriate for chicago i love that and i can't wait to get into that because um as i was reading up on the band and everything you really make a point of talking about like second chances starting over things like that but i think before we get there we got to go back to the beginning um can you tell us how second summer kind of came together as a band yeah so so we are a group of four the four of us are living the same kind of western cook um community and we all ended up here for various reasons and we are we haven't played music for a while and typically that had taken the form of just having some fun with cover tunes and you know getting together and i had been writing music for quite some time but i sort of lost a little bit of momentum on that you know just light happens and you know there are all sorts of things going on and we came together um really around the pandemic and or slightly thereafter and insistent to ourselves you know we've got some material here let's see if we can work on this and come up with some original music which we thought there was a lack of that certainly you know in our area we certainly wanted to express ourselves in a way that was different so we came together about three years ago and had our first um shows in december of 2023 um and uh have really been um just so excited by the reception we've gotten and uh the energy that has been given to us in terms of just some feedback that we continued the journey if you will uh but yeah we're all a group of friends and we have known each other we're all musicians and uh we got together and put it together i love that and i really love the sound of second summer like the first time i heard you guys it just reminded me of that great like 90s alternative pop sound you know i'm thinking like jim blossoms lemon heads i mean it just it has just that great vibe where i'm going driving i got the windows down i'm blasting my tunes and and i'm hanging out with my friends what are some of your musical inspirations like what helped inspire the sound uh for second summer i am an admitted um just a lover of the hook right so i love i love just the the journey to the hook uh and um and i love this euphoria that comes with a wellcraft harmony so i think that's what we we lean into that all the songs kind of build up to the hook right and i think that is that is an artifact of i certainly think the 90s pop scene brought that you know band in chicago so we're in this power pop sort of category guitar pop power pop and that is really a main component of that style of music you know very much the the hook and building to the hook and there's some great bands in chicago that example the material issue back in the day the quintessential i would argue sort of chicago 90s power pop band but even she was doing it earlier and smoking popes and i just think there's a really rich scene of rich scene in chicago and globally and there has been a bit of a sort of resurgence in that form of music i mean we've gone through our you know our travels with music but i feel like we just sort of found it at the right time and um it kind of harkens back to what we grew up listening to which was generally these songs that were authentic and had harmony and melody and drove to a hook so i think that's kind of where we come we come out we we try to go and you know i can tell you about some of the song backgrounds we we're sort of in this if there's a verb or sorry i just probably you know bittersweet is sort of the way we look at the world you know so um i think we try to the sugar or the sweetness is probably the melodies and the hooks but the words expose at times something a little bit deeper and sometimes some some things that we're working through and or have worked through um so i think this concept of bittersweet is something that we we explore quite a bit in our music there's just so much i want to unpack with you because when you anticipate what my next question is going to be with what comes when you're writing do you go with the melody or do you go with the lyrics but that hook is so almost like underrated and when you brought up cheap trick i mean it didn't dawn on me to be said but i mean you're almost like son of cheap trick with that sound where it's it's i want you to want me and and all those classic songs so for you for your approach with with making music and everything would you say that hook then is the primary thing that you're looking for or are you more looking for like the the lyrics where something's on your mind something's on your heart and you need to get it off your chest yeah it's a great question and i think all songs are a bit different in how you get there but typically i lead and we lead with um we typically have a story that we want to tell there's something that and sometimes it's near fiction sometimes it's non-fiction right it sort of depends and we have something we want to write about and i will sort of have that in my head and i will put together the melody and the music behind that and lastly write the lyrics so the lyrics will i have the tent or i have the structure of what i'm thinking about i put melody to the music to that and then lastly write the lyrics but i know where i'm going um and sometimes the music takes takes you in a different direction like there may have been a bridge part that i was writing that i thought would be more upbeat but then um i get into the melody and the guitar because i write typically on guitar and i go to a minor um you know area there so yeah it really depends but um yeah i am and i know i've heard a lot of songwriters talk about this you know some can lead some have the the lyrics or the melody firmly in their head before the music comes along and i think on the other way music first typically and then uh and then lyrics and the storytelling i just find that so fascinating with that with that approach and everything because you know just for me and i'm not a creative with music whatsoever and everything but you always make this assumption where it's like oh no you gotta you gotta write the lyrics first and then from there comes the melody but in my interviews with talking with you know local bands and local artists and even you know more mainstream and national artists it seems like just it's that melody like once you got that melody in your head that's your map and that's going to take you where you want to go and everything so one of the tracks i love from you guys is the reason man you can feel the heartache on that song i mean it is it punches you in the face when you're listening to it and i love that i love those songs that can make you feel can you tell me a little bit about the process of like what inspired that song how did you go about writing it but also to like when you perform that live like how does the audience react to that track yeah we um that's a fun one to play and it's one of our more all of a fairly upbeat tempo things but that's one that's a real kind of a banger if you will and i um number one it really is the story of this um you know in a nutshell um you know looking out and and somebody's blaming others for whatever it is that you might be going through and that can be a multitude of things and the song takes some turns and ultimately ends up with the realization that the reason is more is you it was me right so there's this introspection um at the end of the song is kind of where the turn occurs so most of the song is about blaming others until there's a realization that actually maybe maybe the reason is me and you know that is something that i think i have a family i have kids i have friends i have a job and i think often in those three parts of our lives that is something we come across quite a bit and i think there's um at times and we see it across even our society right now there's a lot of finger pointing a lot of you know uh blaming others for things that might befall you and i think at times if we could step back and look in the mirror we may see that some of that is from ourselves so that's sort of where that song comes from but you're right it has that's a good example of a introspective song that has from a melody and energy perspective you everything that would say it's a real um high energy pop song yet there's a there's an underbelly to that song that is you know got some introspection to it and i'll tell you a funny just a funny story about the song i was in cme which is a guitar store so i should have a music change up around ridley and they're they're basically where they have a lot of you know big of arts collection and i was just trying to get a guitar for fun and actually i i was was playing a jazz master guitar which is kind of a form of guitar that i like a lot and i was just playing and i actually found the riff there there was a riff that i found that i had the back of my head i went home and i started building around that and i already had a story i knew i had a story in my head that i wanted to explore which is what i described to you so it's funny how um just something as extraneous as something in a guitar store and picking up a guitar there's a connection to that and the story i was trying to tell and i get home and i think i think we wrote that song in a day that was it was quick so um but yeah and i think we play it live i think the thing that that song gets most we see more with that song is that it's it's sing-alongable a lot of songs are there's this harmony and the reason and the reason we really bring it home so i think that's one that typically is one of our more high energy songs we we have a lot of fun playing it that's awesome i'm with steve gatlin from local band the second summer now steve if people want to go in and check out second summer online uh where can they go can they check you guys out on bandcamp or you guys on socials uh where can they where can they find you yeah uh we are on uh instagram the period second period summer on facebook the second summer also on bandcamp under the second summer on all the streamers and of course um we have a uh you know web presence as well and i would say the best place is we instagram and facebook for us and then uh bandcamp is a great place to check out our tunes as well you know as i was doing my research and you know really learning about the band that theme of second chances really pops up a lot uh not only the music but even how you you promote the music and everything i found that really fascinating because as you kind of mentioned earlier i think that's an underappreciated part of society and just community building and things like that so from your perspective how do you try and focus that notion of second chances in your music is it conscience or does it just kind of come out naturally i do think that is that is conceptually something that we think a lot about and i think this this concept too of never being past the opportunity to have a second summer is also i think something that is important so for instance you're you've gone through a tough patch you've gone through whatever it might be but there's always a summer you can even have i think there's also this so again a hopeful um you know we're hopeful yet again we're talking about introspective things that at times are about the triumphs and tragedies that we've all we've all lived you know and i think i'm using just the seasons as kind of the narrative here i think there are there are winners in our lives and there are you know that we struggle through at times but i think we always know that there's a second that's not available to us i think that's kind of what we try to talk about overall so i think that pervades most of what we do overall and even in our own lives this is very true in our own lives we each of the guys in the band have um had our share of of you know triumphs and tragedies right some really tough stuff we work through some wonderful things that we celebrate and we we think back finally and i think that is that is life right i also think that you know we are we have experienced you know a bit of life and i think that also has informed our writing i don't think we could or would have written the songs that we're writing now if we were 20 something for instance i think we we have just had to go through some of this stuff and learn and experience it and i think the music in my opinion anyway is much richer and deeper because of the lived experiences we've had um as opposed to theoretical or you know things of that nature so again i i um it's a great question and that is certainly central to a lot of what we do for sure i love that and i love the fact too that it's that experience because i think that's what makes the music so relatable is someone out there's gone through similar experience and then they hear one of your tracks and it's like oh yeah they know that path i'm on right now and they can appreciate that now some exciting news you guys are you're working on a new album and it sounds like it's gonna be coming out sometime in 2026 right that's right yeah we're gonna try to get it out um jan's that march of 2026 we just released a single um a song called try that is going to be on that on that release so that's something folks to check out now yeah we're hoping to get the new album out in 2026 and we are an indie uh diy band self self um you know it'll be self-release so again it's uh it's a labor of love but it's something we love to do that's fantastic now uh does um second summer do you have any shows coming up in the chicagoland area where people can go and check you guys out yeah we're playing at um we're gonna be a gallery cabaret on the uh the 18th of october and we're playing with a bunch of bands on big glass records we're doing a all songs will be from 1975 so we're gonna play um some bad company we're gonna play some eagles so we're gonna have some fun with that and uh it's all to celebrate a good cause and then we are at uh back gallery i think on the 11th sorry the 22nd of november with uh go time and a few other power bands in chicago so um that's what we have lined up we're excited about all three of those shows for someone out there who's listening to this interview and they're a little leary they're a little nervous about going to that local show they've never been you know they're it's the unknown it's the question mark what would you say to get them to go in and check not only you guys about any local band in the chicagoland area my first thing i would say is that i hope folks will give original music the attention it deserves i think you know there is just an awful lot of tribute band stuff going on and cover bands and that's fun those are wonderful but i think there's so much original music happening in the city and i think that is where you will experience and i've experienced this myself some of the great surprises of your musical life you will see bands that you know you might not love all of them but but you will i bet not be uh leading with a uh it was not a monday evening i think you will nine times out of ten find something there that is interesting and new to you um and i think i think in an era where we hear so much repetition and again that just again the tribute bands and cover bands i i think it's a breath of fresh air so i would say the open-minded um uh again you might not love every band you hear but i would kind of at my bottom dollar that you will hear some things in these these sorts of bills where you have a couple original bands playing together that i bet you'll like and i think you can also get a vibe of the bill if you just do a little bit of research on the bands i think you'll get a sense of what that show experience would be like and of course um we are just delighted to see folks that show so of course there's a lot of interaction with the bands and the folks that show up so again that's always a lot of fun for us and uh we hope to come out steve gatlin from the second summer again if people want to check you out they can find you on your socials can you give them out real quick yeah facebook at the second summer band uh instagram the period second period summer and you can also find us on the streamers and also band camp under the second summer just a tip is that you always have to put the so the second summer um to find if some folks go by second summer and you might visit us for the second summer and that's the conference awesome steve thank you so much for joining us on 773 sounds thank you delighted to be here thank you for listening to this wxav 773 sounds podcast for more information on 773 sounds please 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