BIOGRAPHY

An awarded songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, piano, voice), Summer creates music that is candid, expressive, unpretentious... but most of all, genuine. Surprisingly tall in stature, – over six feet– with an unmistakable head of curly, dirty blond hair, and angular, striking facial features, she is visually intriguing before she even opens her mouth. And when she does, folks snap to attention. She's one of those natural-born performers – instantly comfortable on stage, energetic, bravely forging an audience connection through story, jokes, and of course, song.

When watching Summer perform, one thing becomes instantly clear: she may be pouring her heart out to a packed room full of strangers, but she doesn't take herself too seriously. This serves as an important juxtaposition as the subject matter of her songs often touches on themes usually avoided by run-of-the-mill performers. Listeners will hear unabashedly, autobiographical stories recounting the childhood pain of coping with her mother's mental illness, fate's impersonal nature, and of all things, the properties of blood. (You'll just have to listen to understand that one.)

She often displays her unique, poster-size pastel paintings (known, by Summer, as “my girls”) next to her on stage. Without exception, the subject matter of these paintings consists of colorful, abstract, female faces, transfixed with an unmistakably clear emotion. “The Girls” hail from a series of over 500 paintings that she created to go along with the release of her Timing and Lighting album.

At performances, she often relays why she felt compelled to bring just those specific paintings on that particular night. This gives her shows, not only a personal feel, but that feeling that you're witnessing an event that won't be repeated. Her unique stage show has received recognition by the likes of WXPN/World Cafe Live's “Philly Rising Contest” and earned her a title as one of “Portland's Top Ten Songwriters” by the Portland Songwriting Association.

No slave to genre when it comes to style, Summer explains, “My music is a little more dynamic than just “guitar chick” or “girl piano pop,” because at my core, I'm really a songwriter more than anything else.” Her pop songwriting has earned her recognition by the Billboard World Songwriting Contest, the Song of the Year Contest, among others. Timing and Lighting, her first full-length recording, keeps true to its pop nature, but makes forays into electro, emo, rock, and more than a little movie-soundtrack along the way.

Though dynamic, Summer’s new album is clearly held together by one, unmistakable constant... that voice. It's a voice that couldn't lie to you if it wanted to. Clear, young, confident-- it's not trying to sound “cutesy,” it is cute. It's also teeming with the emotion behind the songs. In her songs, as in life-- there's a lot of bittersweet mixed with bits of silliness, the full gamut from joy to pain and back again.

She's currently performing as a duo with the exceptionally talented drummer, “Q” Danskine. Well-known throughout the Portland music community, Q had hung up his drum sticks for nearly two years until the enticement of being involved in Summer's project inspired him to set up his kit again. His chops, energy, wit, and adorable charm add even more energy to Summer's live shows.

When asked the seemingly harmless interview question of where she comes from, she's tough to pin down. It seems that this girl has lived a little bit of everywhere, embodying the nomadic lifestyle that one of her most popular songs, “Have To Leave,” suggests. After spending her formative years in a small West Virginia town, she's since taken up residence in Florida, southern France, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and currently, Portland, Oregon, where she's been living for two years - if you can call it that. “Since I've had a place in Portland, I've spent about 60% of my time here. I've been on the road a lot!” she admits. And that road is looking brighter all the time.

MUSIC

Q. What's that funky demon-horned guitar you play?
A. I play Wechter guitars. I LOVE them—I have three. They play like a jazz guitar (small neck, low action), sound absolutely amazing, and the design makes it so you can reach further up the neck than most guitars. The ones I play are the handmade Elite Series. I've spoken with Abe Wechter and he's a true artist. If you're going to get one, don't get one of his been mass manufactured-- they suck! You have to get the handmade ones, even if you get one second-hand. It's the only way to go.

Q. Are you a trained musician?
A. Not really on guitar or piano. I managed to go a long time without lessons. I just played a lot and learned from books. In early 2006, I took 10 classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago to try to catch up on everything I missed and to begin learning piano.
In mid- 2006, I began studying voice with opera singer/voice instructor Claire Rupard in Portland, OR.  That had a huge impact on my music.  It took my songs to a whole new level.

Q. How long have you been playing guitar?
A. I won my first guitar in a radio auction at age 14 and have been playing since then.

Q. How long have you been playing piano?
A. Since Jan. 2006. I took lessons for 6 weeks with the fabulous Lexie Bloor in Chicago. Then, I studied some piano with the most fabulous voice instructor in the world, Claire Rupard in Portland for about 3 months.

Q. You seem so comfortable on stage. Have you ever had stage fright?
A. Uhhhh… yeah. I had nearly debilitating stage fright. I used to shake so bad, I could barely play my guitar. I just kept doing it and it eventually went away. I guess I had to realize that the world wasn't going to end if I made a mistake. Oh yeah, and I also had to learn not to take myself so seriously. Now, my pants could fall down onstage and I would be able to make a joke out of it... actually my shows ended up being much better attended once my pants started falling down onstage... go figure...

VISUAL ART

Q. What medium are the paintings in?
A. I work in hard and soft pastel crayon on bristol vellum paper. Then I spray them with clear acrylic so that the pastel doesn't dust off or smear.

Q. How can you ship a painting? Aren't they fragile?
A. I spray the paintings with acrylic for the sole purpose of making the paintings portable. Then cover them with a piece of tracing paper and roll them up in a mailing tube. A pastel painting is usually framed under glass before it is transported. Because spraying them alters the colors in a way that is not desirable for every painting, I set some paintings aside to be framed. I sell these select few at live shows.

Q. What if I don't like the painting I receive or win?
A. Regretfully, I understand that every painting can't be perfectly matched with every owner. This makes me sad, because I want all my girls to have a happy home. Please understand that it is not currently possible to allow people to choose which painting they'll receive, but this is also the fun part! I suggest that you visit the Forum to see if someone might be offering one up for trade that you would like. You might make some friends.

Q. How do I care for my painting?
A. First, be very careful with the front of the painting. Much as they may look like one, these are NOT posters. While I've done my best to seal in the pastel paint by spraying them with clear acrylic spray, your painting will have a bit of pastel dust that may smear or come off if you do not take care with the front of the painting. Second, it is recommended that you frame the painting or keep it rolled up in the tube in which you received it. I recommend that it be framed under glass (or plastic) and you may want to put a nice matte around it.

Q. The edges of my painting look kind of unfinished.
A. These paintings are made to be framed, which would cover the outer edges (about a half inch) of the paintings, so I may have left the very outer edges a bit discolored. Please keep in mind that you can specify that your painting be framed any way you like. If your painting seems a bit off-center to you, then be creative and only show the parts that you want to show.

Q. Are you a trained visual artist?
A. Nope. They call me an Outsider Artist, because I have no formal training. Isn't that funny?  I never wanted to be on the inside, anyway;)

LICENSING

Q. If your license says you maintain full ownership, can you take the art away from me?
A. The short answer is that technically, yes, I have the legal right to do so. First of all, I have no intention of doing that, but secondly, it would be virtually impossible. Keep in mind that major labels technically have similar licenses on music cd's, but, of course, they don't try to call them in. (No matter how much you wish they would sometimes!)

Q. Why license the art, if you're not going to do anything with the license?
A. My license does contain some stipulations that I find necessary and would enforce if a situation called for it. For instance, I do not want my art to be used for commercial purposes unless I approve them. But I will defer to you that the action of licensing the art is more important to me than what the license says. This is because I'm introducing a new concept that has never been done to date and that is the most exciting part for me.

Q. Music licensing is a hot topic. Tell the truth, do you download music?
A. I assume you mean illegally? Well, yes, I do have some illegally obtained music files on my hard drive. I also have a lot of legally obtained ones as well. The best term I can think of for the music industry, as it stands right now, is clusterf&%k. We are in the midst of a restructuring of the way we obtain, access, and consume music. Unfortunately, we're not there yet. The files that I get from itunes are as expensive as a cd, but lower quality with no liner notes/insert. Isn't it messed up that I can go on a file-sharing program and get a higher quality file than the one that I can pay for?? This irritates the heck out of me. I have tried the subscription services like Rhapsody, but the files are still low quality, the programs are glitchy and difficult to use, and the files expire unless I keep paying. (This was true as of 2005, when I last tried them.)  Again, we are not there yet. I can foresee a future where we pay for our entertainment as you would a utility bill for unlimited quantities of high quality content. By the way, compressed lossless file types exist (flac, ogg) right now, but big players like Mac refuse to use them.  You can use them though... hint, hint.

GENERAL

Q. Is this whole painting/cd thing just a marketing gimmick? Do you plan to do another run when you reprint cd's or put out a new one?
A. The painting/cd thing is EVERYTHING. It's the best and most progressive idea I've ever had. It's a statement. It's a gimmick. It's a signature. Combined with the licensing component, it's a revolution. As with every experiment, I don't quite know where it will take me. I plan to continue painting and I plan to continue making, recording, and performing music. Depending upon the public reception, I will decide whether to offer it in this manner again or tweak it and try something different. I welcome your feedback.

Q. How did you get the money to survive while you were developing this whole project?
A. I had a private investor-- someone I met at one of my shows while I was touring the country. He's always believed in my art, but when my current vision began to come into focus, he made an incredible offer to support me so that I could focus solely on this project. This culture tends to be confusing for artists, as we're usually only rewarded once we have some success. Prior to that, we're just seen as flaky dreamers. If I could just take a moment to encourage you to adopt an artist in any way you can (this doesn't have to be financial-- could be encouragement, a meal, a place to stay while in town, etc). You would not believe the good it will do and the capacity to blossom that lies within all of us. Much gratitude.
As far as the financial support to put out and promote the new album, I signed to LossLess Records in early 2006 and they support all of the music business activities.

Q. What can we look forward to seeing/hearing from you in the future?
A. Great question! The first thing that I want to work on is integrating the visual and the musical art in a big way for live performance. Right now, I do bring "The Girls" (i.e. the paintings) out to performances, but I look forward to using some of my graphic design/film-making skills to create multimedia pieces. Of course, this is still in development, but definitely look forward to the live show when I come to town!

Q. Which do you identify with more-- being a musician or a painter?
A. They go hand in hand. I will often work on each of them intermittently, often using the painting time as a chance to reflect on the songwriting or listen back to what I've recorded. I can definitely say that music is more of a craft for me and painting is more of an art. I say this because I had to work harder at music. It doesn't come to me very naturally or easily and I have shed blood (mostly my own) over my songs. The paintings on the other hand, flow out of me quite easily. I do not fret, analyze, and worry over them the way I do my songs.

One more discipline I enjoy that you didn't mention is performing. I feel that performing is an art. I've honed it by taking improv classes and practicing it. I'm a social creature, and it's so rewarding to take what I've been working on out into public and use it to make a connection.