St. Petersburg guitarist and songwriter Billy Summer shares his favorite, most influential sounds

Billy Summer loves Ratt's "Wanted Man," and he has a tale to go along with the '80s metal hit.

"[Ratt bassist] Juan Croucier and his manager decided to fire [late guitarist] Robbin Crosby in the back of my car when I worked at the Rock-it Club as a teen as I drove them to their hotel on Harbor Island," Summer said about his time at the since-shuttered Tampa rock club.

Stories litter Summer's discography as frontman for The Semis and, now, Luxury Mane. There's the loneliness from The Semis' 2002 compilation of unreleased songs (Upper Middle Trash), pop sugar on "Fun In The Sun" from 2011's Decapitator Blues, and even an instance where Summer plagiarized himself ("High On Pop").

SUMMER'S HERE
Luxury Mane’s sunny new album is also its heaviest.

In our June 7 issue, CL highlights Luxury Mane's new album, The Secret Empire of Florida UK, which the band will share with fans at two Bay area release shows on June 8 and 9.

As a supplement to the interview, Summer provided a little insight into some of his favorite Luxury Mane and The Semis songs plus others that influenced his own songwriting.

Read his notes and our full Q&A below. Follow CL's "This Is Billy Summer" playlist on Spotify and listen to the playlist at the bottom of this post.

The Semis

JCT 666 — "The Sheriff"  was recorded in Oregon, alone. The song summed up my arrogance of the time, and displays some mean axe work!

White Powder, Black Power — "Ivan" was recorded during hurricane Ivan in South Tampa.

Upper Middle Trash — "Somewhere Else" is a pretty creepy song. It captures the lonely and peculiar life I was living at the time. "My Name is John," is the same thing.

Back To The Beach — "Popov" is my favorite song. [My wife] Zoe made me say that.

Decapitator Blues — "Fun in the Sun" because it's pure sugar!

High On Pop — "High on Pop," It was so good that I wrote it again on Luxury Mane's last album, Lux Runnin Out, and renamed it "Got A Need." Learned those chords from the mighty [Black Honkeys guitarist] Greg Czinke! Thanks buddy.

Luxury Mane

Natural Beauty — "University Dropout Blues" has some expert level and psychotic guitar work.

Bad Lux —"Double Life" for its lyrics and epic solo, too.

Gold Standard —"2:1," because it's a song that we still play. That one still stands up.

Isn't This Great? — "Solid State" came out just as I had hoped thanks to an Echoplex that was on its way to the tape echo afterlife also known as eBay.

Lux Runnin Out — "Julian" has a riff that had been haunting us for years. We were glad to have it out.

The Secret Empire of Florida UK — "Rushed," because I dig the stereo pan and the warmth of those vocals. Hooks you from the get.

I think you started playing guitar when you realized that you didn’t fit in with your car-loving buddies. Do you remember when the actual sound of a guitar first grabbed a hold of you?

Yep. My parents, who are both classical musicians, took me to their friends house on Bayshore Blvd., probably board members of the Master Chorale, and I was upstairs with their kids who played me "Crazy Train" by Ozzy. Life-changing for an 11-year-old in 1982. Around the same time my friend, Rick, played me "Iron Man" from Black Sabbath. That guitar in the beginning totally slayed me! The same dude, his dad had a guitar and an amp, must’ve been a Fender Twin, and I can still remember the intoxicating smell of that furry guitar case. He hit a note on the guitar through the amp in his garage. It was shockingly loud! And I was instantly hooked. So I got a guitar. But instead of learning to play, I bought mirrored squares from the 1982 equivalent of Home Depot, and put them up opposite my bed so I could practice my stance while listening to the Scorpions at full blast. That was my main pasttime for years 12 and 13. And my stance remains top-notch.

Where do the dreams or visions about the tone start these days? Like what records or ideas start to make you want to grab a guitar and find new sounds? What does it feel like when you finally find a tone you want to record in?

I haven’t been hooked on much lately. I waste a lot of money on new LPs just to see what’s what, but once I realize the futility of catching up with what’s hip, the melodies of my youth are still what haunt me the most. King Tubby, The Byrds, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Cheap Trick, those are some of my favorite records, but Influences seep in from anywhere. It’s a wide array of sonic delights at the Summer house. We’ll listen to Mahmoud Ahmed and then put on Loverboy’s Get Lucky right after. I’ve got a killer record collection, but I’m no DJ.

In 2013 you mentioned mentoring some bands — which bands were those?

No clue. Doesn’t sound like something I’d do! Hope they’re awesome.

What’s the difference between a song that is cosmic and one that is trash? How long does it take to know which bin the song belongs in?

This resonates with me. I waste a ton of time on crap songs. The universe doesn’t edit its ideas before passing them along. Sometimes they have to be recorded just to get them out of my head. I can hold about 10 songs in until they have to be dumped on some type of format. Clears me right up! I usually know right away which ones are better than the rest. Sometimes songs get rehashed subconsciously, and I constantly plagiarize myself on songs that haven’t reached their potential.

And I am assuming that everything on FL UK was recorded analog and minimally tweaked in post-production?

Half and half. Some of this recording was really uncharacteristic of our past methods. With Aaron and I both on guitar, we ran direct from our pedal boards into direct boxes, into these CAPI V28 preamps into the interface, skipped the tape. Some of the thickest, cleanest guitar sounds we’ve ever had! But a portion of the album — "Isn’t That The Way," "Phonograph" — those were done straight to tape and done.

MUSIC ISSUE 2015
Have foam, will rumble at Billy Summer's home studio

The Ward in St. Pete — is that the same place as “Hey We Put Up Some Foam”?

It is. We have no loyalty to a name.

How old are the songs on The Secret Empire of Florida UK? Is it safe to say that this is an album that is at least a year in the making?

We started it right after we put out last year’s album, Lux Runnin Out. I’m not one for sitting around stagnant, I’m constantly writing and moving forward.

On 2010’s Back To The Beach you kind of shed some light on some heavy themes (recovery, addiction) — what do you feel like The Secret Empire of Florida UK is about?

Back to the Beach! Yeah, that was a really fun record to make and a pivotal time in my personal life, for sure. Although this year has been a  super-heavy one so far, The Secret Empire of Florida UK is a pretty positive and upbeat collection of jams. I’m not sure if it has a unifying theme. I write what I know which is not all that much.

And the last year saw you battling cancer. Could you kind of walk us through the headspace that kind of news puts you in from diagnosis to now as the chemo wraps up? Do you start to move away from music and think of family, survival?

Total shock and disbelief was my response to the Doctor. But with the loving kindness and total support of my wife, my parents and my bands (Lux Mane and the wonderful Black Honkeys family) I faced it without too much fear. No doubt, my main concern was making better music. Life’s a fragile gift. Don’t suck. Be authentic. Do your best. Those type of things became mantras, corny as it sounds.

How much did it affect your tendency to work your ass off finishing albums?

So we had most of the music done, and I just had to do vocals. After every treatment I would be totally sick and just completely wiped for a week. Of course, as soon as I could lift my head I’d be in the studio working on it. It’s nice and dark in there. I didn’t feel much like singing but because of the side effects of the chemo I couldn’t play the guitar, so it worked out pretty well.

What is the treatment plan and when do you find out more?

I had surgery in January, and chemo up until last week. I just finished treatment and now they’ll just do surveillance and keep a good eye on me.  

Are we gonna get the rest of FL UK before the shows?

The Secret Empire of Florida UK. This record came out prematurely mainly due to my impulsive nature, but also because the psychosomatic effects of the drugs made me nauseated whenever I even thought about things I did, or ate, or places I went, during the treatment. I was so ready to kick that portion of my life out and move on that I just couldn’t wait any longer. Unfortunately, the music that’s been left undone is gonna have to wait a little longer. So, no.

You also touched on the band evolving to a four-piece — how much are you gonna get to practice before he release shows and what is most exciting for you on this tour?

We famously travel nowhere, I mean we can hardly get to 7-11 much less to the midwest, or California or something, so we’re excited to play two shows. Aaron moved from bass to guitar and plays the bulk of the lead on a lot of these tunes. Having him playing has been fantastic! He’s got brilliant ideas for texture and melody that I would never think of. Also exciting is having Jay fly in to play bass. We all miss Jay, and it’s nice to have a bass player, so that’s two birds. We will hopefully get a permanent bass player soon, but if not, we sound lovingly ferocious even as a three-piece.

Fun fact: Our whole plan was to change our name to Florida. But some jerk from Manilla has been recording electronic music under that name, so we took the route of the UK Subs or the Charlatans UK, hence Florida UK. However, when we booked the shows, Jack [Spatafora, promoter] thought nobody would come out if we changed the name from Luxury Mane, and he’s probably right, so we didn’t! Cracks me up.

This article appears in May 31 – Jun 7, 2018.