Bryce Avary, the heart, soul and general uplifting spirit behind the super-popular band The Rocket Summer found some time before his show in Atlanta on Tuesday night do a phone interview.
That is after he was chased by fans that found their way to him, forcing him to seek a semi-quiet refuge in a kitchen at the Atlanta club, The Masquerade.
The band is currently on tour with Phantom Planet, Secret Handshake and Morning Lights.
The Rocket Summer’s latest release, Do You Feel in 2007, debuted at number 44 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In its first week, it sold around 15,000 copies.
Avary, who writes all the music, and plays all of the instruments, except the saxophone he admitted, on the studio albums, says his biggest inspiration for writing the music comes from the man upstairs.
“I’m a really spiritual person. I’m really inspired by God and what He can do through music. That’s something that’s a huge part of my life and tends to come out of my music a lot,” Avary said.
Avary is one of those guys that could be handed the world and would look for a way to make it better, not sit back and think, “OK, I’m done.” After ten years in the business, that he would call “cut throat,” he is a genuinely nice guy who wants people to enjoy what they are listening to and walk away with more then with what they came.
“I would definitely much rather be a content person and fully understand what I have, than have a lot and not get it,” Avary said. “I don’t want this to be over one day be kind of like we tried so hard to get to a place and realize, holy crap, we were there.”
To watch a Rocket Summer music video or stand in the crowd of a Rocket Summer live show is like getting a burst of sunlight in your face. The energy Avary throws at you with his performance is almost electrifying. He says the energy for those kinds of shows is owed to the fans, allows him to feed off of their excitement.
Avary is what some might call a renaissance man, not only does he headway one of the most fun bands to listen to, play every instrument (minus the sax), but he also is the founder of a charity-supporting clothing line, Call it Captivate.
Call it Captivate was started by Avary in an effort to “express relevant art through fashion, to inspire, to educate, and most importantly, be used as an outlet to encourage people to give to those in need.” What is amazing about this line is a part of the proceeds, at least 25 percent of everything sold goes to a charity of the buyer’s choice from a list that it partners.
“It’s really exciting, it’s kind of in it’s infant stages right now so we are hoping to get some other people involved,” Avary said. “It’ll be interesting to see if it takes off or not.”
With their current tour to reaching it’s end in Dallas on Oct. 18 at The House of Blues, Avary says that he is going to dive back into writing for The Rocket Summer’s fourth album. He predicts that work on the album should begin in January or February of next year.
“I’m excited about where the music is going, I think it’s going to be a far more epic record,” Avary said. “With it being the fourth full-length album, you don’t want to keep doing the same thing, but you also don’t want to abandon something and hurt yourself in the process.”
He is being referred to as a pop icon veteran with a track record including helping introduce hugely popular Paramore to the music scene by having them on tour. With all that Avary has accomplished with The Rocket Summer and its 10-year anniversary nearing, he is still as humble and self less as when it all started.
“At the end of the day, as a human, as a really spiritual person I want people to experience God, and its that something that can happen through this music, that’s the bottom line,” Avary said. “Sure I have like personal goals and stuff too, but I want people to know that it’s God working through the music.”
Although the band has reached a status that has them playing over-seas, Avary still doesn’t believe there has been a moment where he could sit back and “smoke a cigar” and say “yea I made it.” And he is ok with that.