The first incarnation of Boston-based Summoner was Riff Canyon, the guys played under this moniker till 2011 then they changed their mind and took a decision to rename the band. Drummer Scott Smith, two guitarists Joe Richner and AJ Peters along with singing bass-player Chris Johnson certainly have serious intention.
The sound is absolutely intensive and tight in every moment on every song, the vocals performed by Chris Johnson are rich and violent, he creates constant sonic pressure shouting his words out as if it was the last time he climbed the scene.
Summoner recorded crushing material fitting six new songs in a half an hour. How did they gain this result? Let’s ask AJ Peters!
Man
Summoner’s new album is excellent evidence of the band’s
professional approach - well balanced, well produced, with bunch of
really good songs. Was it easy to record this material?
Thanks!
We are really happy with how it all turned out. The whole process
had easy and hard parts. Writing the tunes went fairly quickly when
we got down to it. We work pretty well together when writing and are
usually on the same page when it comes to the musical direction of
the band. The recording process did get a little drawn out at the
end, but that was only due to our conflicting schedules. We tracked
the meat and potatoes over the course of a weekend in the studio, but
getting us all in the same place for leads/vocals/sweetening etc..
got a bit tough, overall it was a fairly stress free process.
Thanks!
Yes, the energy of the album was very purposeful. We set out to
make our highest energy album yet. Even with a slower, doomy-er song
like Beyond the Realm of Light we wanted a defined energy to be
there. Basically we gauged the songs by how well they would
translate in a live setting. If it felt like it would get things
moving during a set it was good to go.
How
would you sum up the general mood of the album?
Going
back to the previous answer I’d say the mood is an energetic
intensity. The lyrics and the story have dire quality, but the music
is all energy.
Did
you try something new technically wise on “Beyond the Realm of
Light”? Is it important to work with new equipment over each new
record?
Our
rigs are always growing and evolving. Each one of us has an
unhealthy obsession with gear, some of us worse than others. We are
always in search of something sonically. Joe and I take time
building our setups and go back a forth on amps, pedals and guitars.
Although the one piece of equipment that has been consistent
throughout the entire life of Summoner is Joe’s Les Paul. Scott is
constantly building new kits and experimenting with his setup. Chris
is the same as Joe and I. He has a very particular sound he wants to
achieve and knows what he needs in order to achieve it. Same goes
for his vocal effects when we play live. You can pretty much bet on
the fact that every time we practice, one of us says “hey, check
out this new thing I got”
Summoner’s
debut “Phoenix” was released in 2012, then “Atlantian” had
appeared in 2013. So it took almost 4 years to finish the third
record. Where have you been all this time?
We’ve
always been there, playing shows and writing. The spacing of the
releases of Phoenix and Atlantian are a bit deceiving to people
outside of the band. From a writing standpoint all 3 albums were
pretty evenly spaced. Phoenix had been written for quite sometime
before we went into the studio with it. We had playing the songs
from Phoenix live for over a year before we even went into the
studio. Atlantian was in the writing process when we recorded
Phoenix so it was ready to go right after the release in 2012. While
the space between Atlantian and BTROL is longer, the timeline for us
was pretty similar. We’ve always been fairly active, with short
bouts of downtime here and there.
How
did you get that it is right time to go in the studio? Do you wait
till you have enough worthy ideas or do you make it through jamming
right there? How much of improvisation in these songs?
We
have a pretty good idea of what we are going to do going into the
studio but things do change once we get in there. We might play with
the riffs and structure a bit if we feel something while tracking.
All the guitar leads are improvised and created in the studio. Scott
and Chris both improvise quite a bit of the rhythm section in the
studio also. They are both great at what they do and some of their
best stuff comes out when they just go for things they are feeling at
the time.
Well,
when you started the band… did you have some general idea how this
music, these lyrics should sound? How this vision changed through
years?
I
wouldn’t describe it as “changed”. I’d say our tastes have
become more “focused” (I feel like I am using that work WAY too
much in reference to this record). A perfect example is that I’ve
always loved Judas Priest, but lately I’ve been more drawn to their
early 80’s stuff rather than their 70’s or late 80’s stuff. I
think the same goes for all of us. I feel like we were collectively
listening to a lot of late 70’s/early 80’s heavy rock. Mostly
from bands that have spanned decades, but really focusing in on that
era of their work i.e. Scorpions, UFO, Accept, Judas Priest, Thin
Lizzy etc… Of course our influences are not limited just to that
sliver of the pie, but they did seem to resonate from there quite a
bit. Sometimes our tastes jump around a bit...like for me, the past
few days have been spent going back and forth between the new Mutoid
Man album and Night Moves by Bob Seger…….it literally makes no
sense….
What's
the story with Summoner-branded beer? Did you take part in its
creation?
Summoner
coherently develops from album to album, how do you see this
evolution from inside? Do you see some point which you'd like to
reach with the next record?
I
think we’ve found our sound now, but that doesn’t mean that we
won’t still try to push it. We have a general direction with the
music but we also are keeping the door open to try new things.
Musically we all mesh really well. Everyone is into mostly the same
stuff, but we all bring a different emphasis to the table. We are
actually in the very beginning stages of writing the next album.
Lyrical themes and ideas have been floated around, and I know that
Joe and I have been sharing some riffs and discussing what we want to
do with the next record. Hopefully we can get another album out
soon!
How
you are active consider tours and gigs? What are highlights of 2016?
We’ve
been less active with playing lately mainly because all of our
schedules are hard to line up. We do the occasional weekend warrior
tour, but other than that we like to space out our local shows and
jump on some good out of town stuff here and there. We’ve been
fortunate enough to support some amazing bands. We all try to fit
Summoner into our lives where we can, and we are all of the mindset
that writing and recording is what we really love to do so as long as
we can still do that, and a handful of people out there like it, then
we are right where we want to be.
And
let's resume - what are your plans for 2017? How far do you plan to
bring your music?
2017
is looking pretty quiet as of now. We have Psychofest in Las Vegas
coming up in mid-August, and then are playing Forgefest in RI in
early September. We’ll probably do a few more shows on the east
coast to round out the year, but other than that we are going to
focus on writing another record and getting out there quickly.
Words
by Aleks Evdokimov and AJ Peters