“After so many years of being in the industry, you can’t help but hate the way it’s run, hate how it treats artists… I’m seeing these artists being pushed further and further down into the ground,” says The Dangerous Summer’s frontman and bassist AJ Perdomo. “This is our freedom song. Now that we’re label-less, we can do whatever we want and feel unchained for the first time.”
The freedom song Perdomo is referring to is “Fuck Them All,” streaming below, and the first music to be released on their newly formed label, Molly Water Music. Brash and bleeding, “Fuck Them All” is an empowering anthem about the singer-songwriter’s cynical feelings towards the music industry and embracing this newfound freedom to do what he wants as an artist. Over the past few months, Perdomo found unexpected inspiration, spending his time in quarantine writing new music. The result of that inspiration is a new sonic direction for the band with six new songs that will make up an EP that he hopes will be released later this year – they will drop a new song about month and half.
“[Fuck Them All] gave us a new fire for the new sound,” he explains. “When you get those moments of inspiration, you need to keep the fire going while it’s still hot. So we just ran with it and ran with it.”
Initially, their plans were to release a full-length debut on their new label, but eventually decided on an EP format, a surprising move for an accomplished band who has released six successful full lengths.
“We decided to do our first release on our new label as an EP… almost like we were starting over and this is the next chapter in our band,” he says. “Not many bands do it after they’re established, but this just felt right, you know? Although, Death Cab [for Cutie] recently released an EP and it gave me faith in that format.”
Not only is it a new creative beginning for the band, but it is also a new era in which Perdomo and his bandmates will have full control of their music for the first time with the new label. He says that it felt like an opportune time to make such a gutsy decision after the band had found themselves at a crossroads when their contract ended with Hopeless Records last year.
“We’re at a place where have a very strong fan base, almost a cult fan base, and they’re always there for us and they care about us – they’ve always shown us such strong love,” he says. “We just felt like it was time to cut the middlemen and do everything ourselves… for us, for our music, and for our fans. It feels really good.”
This is not the only crossroads the band has come to during their storied and sometimes tumultuous history. In 2013, the band essentially broke up when guitarist Cody Payne went to jail for burglary. The band then reunited in 2017 with their self-titled record and with an unstoppable energy that has been glowing ever since. More recently as well as amicably, the band parted ways with long-time drummer Ben Cato and is now working with Underoath drummer and vocalist Aaron Gillespie, who also sings on the new record. Perdomo says their chemistry was pretty instant and intense.
“Me and him just think so alike musically and we just fire off ideas between each other,” Perdomo says. “He’s like a brother I didn’t know I had all of these years.”
While this EP and label is the of start of a new chapter for The Dangerous Summer, for some fans, their last album, the discography-defining Mother Nature, felt like an artistic rebirth of sorts for the band. While Perdomo acknowledges his love and respect for their last album, he says that the direction they chose with the new songs is going to surprise their audience even more.
“If I was tired of this band, I would have ended it at Mother Nature, called it a day and do a mic drop – it would be a great album to end things on,” he states. “But I care too much about this band and I love it. This EP is like a restart and we want to push further into the future.”
“With the new record, the way we’re making music now is so different and so crazy,” he adds with a quiet laugh. “I got into a lot of songwriting in LA, working with pop people and hip-hop people and making different types of music. We’re kind of making music like rappers using drum and guitar loops and playing it with real instruments. People are going to hear a different sound from us and see us grow as artists.”
