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"It's not normal that I kick it in such swanky places", Bryce Avary says as he smiles and looks around the W lobby bar in Dallas. On the surface, one would think the 27-year-old brainchild/frontman of The Rocket Summer would be joking. Being that Avary is celebrating his second major label release for Island/Def Jam, Of Men And Angels, a tour with OneRepublic and an army of adoring fans that have waited around for what seems like an eternity - two years is a long time in his genre in the music business, Avary prefers a different kind of celebration than many of his contemporaries. "I live in the ‘burbs so I like to hang out with my dog a lot, hang out with my parents - sometimes I like to go to Fort Worth and Dallas to see my friends play at House of Blues or Granada Theater when they come through.", Avary explains modestly.
He's also a little too anxious to rest on his laurels and celebrate, anyway. The album has been done for a year now and due to circumstances out of his control, he's had to sit around and wait. "It's wild that it's taken this long", he says in amazement. After offering some horror stories about some of the factors at his label leading to now - including a former A&R rep that asked if someone could write a hit song for Avary, he says what sounds like a personal mantra: "It is coming out and that's all that matters."
Despite all of this, Avary seems to have retained his shiny happy persona. Looking on the bright side, he says, "Having a little unplanned time off made me realize how awesome everything is, even though it can be difficult. I feel so fortunate to have the fans we have. They are 50% of why this continues. I want to do this as long as possible. I'll always write music but I want to keep doing it for real."
While the album was recorded in LA - with the exception of two songs in Austin at Willie Nelson's studio during the "waiting period", where he lived for a while, he since decided to move home and buy a house right near where his parents live. He laughs, "It's crazy - I don't think many people buy a house five minutes from their parents, but in the slivers of time that I'm off, I'd rather not be in Hollywood, but closer to my family and friends". He continues, "I enjoyed it [in LA], I went out there to make a record and just stayed out there for a little while. We - my wife and I - were homeless for years meaning we didn't really live anywhere. We would crash with my parents, [smirking] which was so romantic - sometimes we would hotel hop, but we wouldn't be home for more than a week. I was on tour in the UK and decided I was sick of living nowhere so we came home and bought a house and moved in the next week."
Of Men and Angels, which is named after a Bible verse [1 Corinthians 13:1], seemed like the most appropriate title given Avary's current mindset. He explains, "It says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only...a clanging cymbal." It goes on to basically say that nothing matters unless we're genuinely giving people. Something about that just weighed heavy on my heart. I'm a workaholic and the lyrics are about me putting my work above people in my life." Avary realizes the perception of being open about his spirituality in his songs, but he doesn't care. He explains, "There's a lot of very personal songs on this album and there's a very spiritually-charged theme to the record. I'm a very spiritual person and that's the biggest thing in my entire life. I want to write music for everyone and want them to get that hope out of it."
Having just returned from rehearsals for the tour, Avary is as restless as ever. "Now I've been off most of the year so I'm itching to get back on the road", he says. "I'm super excited about the album. I think it's probably my best work to date." But the workaholic in his is already thinking about the next album. He says, "I've been writing and I'm already in this new headspace. Hopefully the good part about this is that it won't take long to put out the next record. It would be rad to put out another record in 2011." In the meantime, Avary has made the first two videos and has hit the Internet to build the hype back up. "It's every much still a grassroots thing, even though we're on Island. We gotta do a lot to get things done. That's just how it is, but I'm a hands-on person.", he explains, but laments the openness of all of the social networking at the same time. "It kind of sucks that the mystery is dead and gone, though. I love keeping in touch with my fans, but I don't want to know that my favorite artist is doing his taxes right now just to stay connected. It's all a fine line I guess." And now it's time to brave the world outside, crazy Rocket Summer-tattooed fans and all. Speaking of the most devoted, he laughs, "I see it as God working through music. I try not to think about that too much - it keeps me up at night."
As he leaves the hotel, Avary gets a few double-takes on the way, which could be attributed to the local or national attention he now receives. With a modest smile, he explains, "I get both sides of that. I'll run into people around here and they're either like, "Oh, that's amazing!" or "So, you still doing the music thing?" With that, he races back home to enjoy the last bit of quiet time he'll get for a few months while he does "the music thing".