That Summer spent some time telling us about his songwriting process and his music. Let’s see what he has to say!
First off, What’s up with your name? Is there a story behind it?
That Summer came to me when I was drinking at a bar room in Ft Lauderdale, FL on a Tuesday afternoon around 1:30pm. It was the Village Well Pub, and I was doing what I did best in those days… drinking to oblivion and haunting the juke box, playing loud punk rock songs no-one else in the bar understood or cared to hear. I over heard the bartender talking to one of her patrons about “THAT summer… It was THAT summer…”. She kept repeating herself as to emphasize the importance of “THAT Summer!” As she discussed a memory that was clearly very meaningful to her. I thought, in my drunken stupor, “THAT’S the name of my band”.
Tell us about your musical past, would you tell us about your early years?
The first instrument I remember playing is the recorder flute at Long Lots Elementary School in Westport, CT. We had a music teacher I connected with, and I seem to remember her taking all of us children to City Hall to sing Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World”. And we (The Children) all got up on bleachers in front of city hall and sang and played it on our recorders. It is a very warm memory I have, and I am grateful for that teacher for the lesson she taught us, and the politicians in city hall.
I started playing Viola at Coleytown Middle School in the school orchestra, because there was a cute girl I had a crush on and she played viola too. Soon after this I was turned on to Nirvana, and I decided then and there that I would learn to play guitar. After that, my mom got me some lessons and rented a red guitar and a peavey amp at Uncle Bob’s in Norwalk, CT . Unfortunately, after some lessons and trying to put some chords together, I gave up. My fingers wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do. So my mom told me I should play the drums, and got me a crappy drum set. Me and my friends were so inspired by Nirvana and their destruction jams at the end of their sets, that the drums didn’t make it more than a few weeks in my mom’s basement. After the drums met their demise, I went back to the guitar and started learning how to put chords together. By the time I was 18 I started going on tours in vans, the first being the Warped Tour in 2002, and the rest is history.
How would you describe your sound?
That Summer is the sound of my soul and all of my influences. Sometimes it’s sad, other times it can be wondering and whistful. It is alternative rock mixed with indie rock and held down by singer/songwriter, Americana roots.
Which artists have the biggest influence on your sound?
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Nirvana, The Beatles
What’s the last song you listened to?
Michael Jackson “Heal The World”
What’s your source for hearing new music?
Friends
Who is your dream producer?
Joey Cape, Rick Rubin, Mike Campbell
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
Tom Petty’s band, The Heartbreakers
What led you to music, and what motivates you to keep making it?
Some kind of supernatural force led me to music, and some kind of supernatural force motivates me to keep making it, against all odds or reason.
Tell us about the songwriting process. How does it all come together?
It’s really hard to explain or understand. Sometimes they just show up. For example, “A Place Called Home” came to me in a dream and I woke up with tears in my eyes and ran to my studio room and quickly recorded it and sang it. I worked on the lyrics for 20 minutes and the song was done. It originally had a bridge that was quickly removed because it seemed to be put in for structure purpose, but wasn’t part of the original vision. That doesn’t happen often. Other songs like “Home For Two” or “Wild Free” came to me as I was strumming guitar, and they just kind of showed up and wrote themselves. Other songs come in fragments. A verse and/or chorus will come, and then nothing, sometimes for months or years. Then all of a sudden a lyric will appear, or a melody, and the song is finished after years of dormancy. It’s very much an alive and amorphous art form. Then when the songs are out there, they become so many different things to so many different people. It’s pretty wild.
How do you connect with your audience? What is the easiest way for them to connect with you?
I’m not sure I have an audience yet, but I hope to connect to an audience through the emotions in the songs, and by performing them live in a space where we can share the experience of hearing the songs and the emotions within them. The easiest way for an audience to connect with me, I suppose, is to just listen. If it speaks to you, share it with your friends and let’s hang out at a show and play some songs together.
What’s next for you?
A Place Called Home EP was released last week. Next are some more shows, and then a full length album this summer. I hope to hit the road and be on tour through next year. We will have to see what develops. I have really enjoyed playing and singing/writing with Yotam Ben Horin in Southern California.
Anything else you’d like to add or let us know about?
Keep in touch with the band and what we have going on at our Instagram page @thatsummermusic and the Ring Records Label @ringrecordsofficial as well as www.ringrecords.org
Thanks for checking out That Summer. It means a lot!
About That Summer:
Charles Rocha presents an autobiographical collection of songs about loss, time, travel, and struggles with addiction and alcoholism. The band hopes to reach anyone who feels misunderstood, or like they just don’t fit in.
Rocha has toured with some of his favorite bands including NOFX, Lagwagon, No Use For A Name and Bad Religion. Born in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Charles Rocha has lived and created music all over the world. After a brief spell in Nashville, Rocha moved to Florida to work for his grandfather and finish his Bachelor’s degree in English. At this time Rocha began recording his own songs from his bedroom.
This evolved into That Summer. The Hearth EP Vol. 1 was finished with Roger Lima (Less Than Jake, Rehasher) at The Moathouse Recording Studio in Gainesville, Florida
in 2013.
2022 finds Rocha feeling “right at home”; living in Los Angeles and working with Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks, Bad Religion) at Hetson Sound in Encino. Most recently, That Summer celebrated its first major radio airplay, when Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Eric Clapton, George Harrison) added their lush, lap-steel-laden cover of “Wildflowers” to his playlist on Tom Petty Radio. Currently, the 4-piece band are working with Ian Cross (Janet Jackson, Anthrax, Gwen Stefani, Dishwalla), Ryan Greene (Fat Wreck Chords) and Matt Pinfield (MTV’s 120 Minutes) to combine their patchwork of styles for what will be a highly anticipated full length album on LA indie label, Ring Records.
