One quick question: Summer Camp
The sun is appropriately shining on SUMMER CAMP today. Tonight they play The Lexington to celebrate the launch of debut single Ghost Train (listen on the right) on Moshi Moshi Singles Club this Monday. A hyper romantic, silver screen dream of a Pop song, it bottles the still-shimmery magic of long-gone summers. SUMMER CAMP are Elizabeth Sankey, the owner of that beguilingly clean-cut 50s Pop voice, and Jeremy Warmsley, electronic Folk solo artist on Trangressive. Fresh from SXSW and a spell in California, I asked them one quick question over email.
Summer Camp, have you ever been to summer camp?
Elizabeth: I went once when I was about 6, but it only lasted a day. The entirety of which I spent hiding behind this wooden Wendy house, getting sunburnt and being rigid with fear that I’d be discovered by one of the evil adults wearing a yellow t-shirt saying “fun summer times!” and an deceptively innocent smile. I used to get really homesick when I was a kid. I went to brownie camp for a week when I was about 10, and spent the whole time writing these desperate letters home to my Mum, heartfelt pleas scribed on pink notepaper, the ink running from my snot and tears. She never received any of them because Brown Owl, or whatever the lady in charge was called, decided that perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to forward the homesick whining of a chubby brownie. At the time I thought that was really harsh, but looking back it was probably for the best. I do have a lot of happy memories of where I grew up though. We had this quiet back road behind our house, and we spent every summer playing there from dusk till dawn – making bike ramps, spying on the man we’d decided was crazy, “he’s got a gun on his desk, I swear. Go on, look. Oh no he’s coming, RUN”, and just generally getting covered in dirt and having water fights with the boys who lived a few doors down. The day my sister and I got Supersoakers remains one of the best days of our lives. I could never climb up to the treehouse though, that was a real bummer.
Jeremy: There was this one time when I went to the beach and found a dead bird and saw these two guys making out. That was pretty weird… Actually I did see a dead seal at the beach once. That was gross. I think every happy childhood memory should have something gross or dangerous (apparent danger, not real danger) associated with it.
Summer Camp release Ghost Train on Moshi Moshi Singles Club this Monday 12 April. They play The Lexington tonight with Spectrals and Babe Shadow.
