Fifteen years ago, The Summer Set became an instant fan favorite in the independent music scene thanks to honest lyrics and a feel-good pop sound. Vocalist Brian Dales — along with drummer Jess Bowen, guitarist John Gomez and bassist Stephen Gomez — released their first project Love Like This in 2009; and after creating anthems like “Chelsea,” “The Boys You Do (Get Back At You)” and “Love Like This,” the group found themselves releasing three more full-length projects to critical acclaim, on multiple worldwide tours, the Main Stage of Vans Warped Tour, the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Over the course of almost ten years, the band released three other full-length projects — Everything’s Fine, Legendary, and Stories for Monday before announcing an indefinite hiatus in 2017.
In October of the same year, Dales took to Tumblr to announce the band’s ending in a lengthy personal note, which touched on his decision to end this chapter of his musical career and focus on solo material, as he “fell out of love with music” several years back, doubted his songwriting ability and “slept all day, drank all night” during the band’s daily endeavors.
“The Summer Set will not be making any records or touring plans indefinitely,” he wrote, before thanking each of the group’s members individually, along with their fans.
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However, in early 2020, Dales headed back to his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona due to the Coronavirus pandemic, where he found himself working on personal growth that resulted in “falling back in love” with the type of music he made in the early days of his career.
“[The Summer Set’s reunion] was a silver lining of the pandemic,” Brian tells Celeb Secrets reporter Juliet Schroder in an exclusive interview. “Honestly, I don’t know if it would’ve happened without it, which is a weird thing to say for such a terrible tumultuous few years.”
Detailing the back story over Zoom, Dales tells Celeb Secrets, “I drove to where I’m from Arizona just to get out of the city and I thought I’d stay for a couple weeks. I stayed for about a year. I didn’t really know anybody in Arizona anymore, except Steven [Gomez], who had just moved back there and built a studio in his house. We just started hanging out for fun, no pressure. And then that turned into us, making some music for fun.”
“I was living in my teenage bedroom again, and I found myself reverting back to like the things I loved when I was 17, 18 years old. One day, I picked up a guitar and I was like, ‘I just wanna write a song for fun’ and I wrote ‘Street Lightning in like two hours. I sent it to Steve and we were both kind of like flirting with the idea making original music, so after I sent him the acoustic iPhone voice note of the song, he brought it to life and I was like ‘this sounds like The Summer Set again,’ so we sent it to John and Jess and they lost their minds [over it],” he added.
And in August of 2021, the band reactivated their Instagram account to share the exciting news with both new and old fans, releasing “Street Lightning” later that week.
“hi, we’re back. new song this friday,” the band captioned the post.
Nearly a year later, the Arizona natives returned to the stage to play classics along with new material at Sad Summer Fest before releasing their fifth studio album Blossom, which Brian says is about “growth and togetherness.”
“We really liked the name [Blossom] because it felt symbolic for the idea that we took five or six years apart from each other to grow up into individual people,” Brian says of the project’s name. “I think a lot of these songs are about growing up and apologizing for things my younger self did and learning how to grow from them.”
“A lot of this album was about getting to the other side of growing up, and [Blossom] really felt like it made sense in respect to where we are as people where we’ve come from since our last album.”
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Featuring previously released singles “Street Lightning,” “Back Together,” “Teenagers” (feat. Against The Current),” “Hard Candy,” and “FTS” (feat. Travie McCoy),” Blossom is entirely produced by The Summer Set’s own John and Stephen Gomez (Dabin, TWIN XL, Sophia Scott, Glitch Mob).
And after listening to the album from top to bottom, we can confirm that there’s something for everyone — not just the current (and retired) emo kids — as sounds of pop, rock and punk are blended with contemporary and honest lyrics that resemble the signature Summer Set sound you know and love.
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As for what’s next, Brian says that the band will headline The Regent Theatre in Los Angeles on November 3 to celebrate their 15-year anniversary and the release of Blossom, and you can purchase tickets to the event here. Additionally, the singer/songwriter mentioned to Celeb Secrets that more music is in the near future, with tour to follow in the new year.
“I’m probably not supposed to say this yet, but we will be on tour in the spring,” Brian says with a laugh. “We’re working on trying to put together the best and biggest tour we can do.”
For more on The Summer Set, watch our full interview below and don’t forget to let us know if you’re loving Blossom by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
You can connect with Brian and The Summer Set by giving the band a follow on Instagram at @thesummerset.
LISTEN TO “BLOSSOM” BELOW:
