88.9 WERS' Lizzie Heintz talked to Sam Freund and Billy Collins of the Boston band Summer Beard about when they started playing music together, where they found inspiration for their recent EP Sympathy for Keith, and what it's like to play drums in a live show when you have a broken hand.

Lizzie Heintz: So first, why don’t you guys tell everybody where you got started as a band.

Sam Freund: So we formed back in Sudbury, early part of the 2000s. We lived up the street from each other. You [Billy] were playing guitar, and I was just like, ‘I need to get on this!' So I got a drum set, took three drum lessons, and we just hit the ground running from there.

LH: So you guys were already friends before that?

Billy Collins: Yeah, we grew up down the street from each other, so, we knew each other.

LH: So I was listening to you guys talk earlier about how you started to build up from high school. How did you guys manage that with college, since you went to different schools? How did you stick it out through all of that?

BC: We’d always play when we were at home, or when there was vacation or over the summer, we’d always try to jam.

SF: And we’d always try to do like a summer show when we’d come home, just like get one fun one in. Like we played a Nantasket Beach show one summer, just fun stuff like that. I actually think when we went off to college and were playing with other people a lot actually made us a lot better, so when we’d come back and reconvene it was always better than the last time we’d played. We just kind of kept it snowballing.

LH: And now here we are!

BC: Haha, and now here we are.

SF: Yeah, haha.

LH: What was the first show that you guys played in Boston? Tell us a little bit about how that day or night went.

BC: Just the two of us... we played Tammany Hall in Worcester like ten, fifteen years ago.

SF: Yeah, yeah! Just the two of us.

BC: We put everything in the back of a suitcase.

SF: Ugh, I don’t know!

BC: Oh, we played Precinct in Union Square which is now Brass Union, we used to play there a lot.

LH: And what was that like? Tell us about that experience onstage, just the two of you.

BC: We always played with a lot of other people...

SF: Yeah, so I think our first band was three people, so it wasn’t such a huge jump. But then we had four, then we were just the two of us for like, just a second. Then we played - when I had my broken hand - we played Lllypad.

BC: That was like our first day back.

SF: Yeah!

BC: Yeah, we just couldn’t keep everybody pointing in the same direction, and Sam and I were always just like, ‘yeah let’s keep playing.’ Doesn’t matter who’s there.

SF: The band was as big as five, but it’s just two now.

BC: We’ve got a lot of friend bands in the area though, which is just an excuse to keep going.

LH: Yeah, it sounds like you guys have a killer friendship to keep it going this long.

SF: Haha, one might say.

BC: We’ve known each other a damn long time!

LH: Definitely! You said you played with a broken hand? How did that happen?

SF: I broke my thumb playing touch football with my buddies from college, and we weren’t playing, we weren’t like in the band. This was right after Whiskey had broken up, and we were all just like, doing whatever, playing football with my buddies and I broke my thumb, and [Billy] had booked a show at Lilypad and were like, ‘dude, what do you think?’

BC: And I didn’t take no for an answer!

SF: No, no, and I was just like, ‘I’m happy to do it!’ but I literally had to like, hold the stick in the open space of the cast, and we played all soft songs. That was the key, all soft songs. But we pretty much kept playing since then - Whiskey got back together for a second, then I moved to California, then I came back.

BC: It’s been somewhat torturous.

SF: Hahaha yeah.

LH: Sounds like a hell of a ride!

SF: It’s been a ride, haha.

LH: So, how would you guys describe your sound in three words, if you could sum it up like that?

BC: I always say that we’re ‘rockabilly,’

SF: Which I always like!

BC: Like, rockabilly fusion - that’s kinda two words... Rockabilly fusion... Rock?

SF: I would use rock twice... I don’t know, I struggle with that question. I just say rock and roll, because it’s easier to just be like, ‘try it out! If you like rock and roll, see what you think,’ but we jokingly call it rockabilly all the time.

LH: I like that! And I know that your most recent EP (Sympathy for Keith) was named after Keith Richards, which is, you know, obviously - Rolling Stones. Do you think that you take any inspiration from their sound, or that era of music?

BC: I think, yeah, definitely.

SF: Definitely.

BC: We love the old stuff.

SF: We grew up on that stuff.

BC: Keith was just like the background - you know all the songs, everybody knows them all - you can’t help but know ‘em all, so.

SF: We covered some Stones songs back in the day, like with our bands when we played shows and stuff, so they definitely have an impact on us, for sure.

BC: We were big Bruce [Springsteen] fans back in the day, though, we were obsessed about Bruce.

SF: Yeah, definitely leather charged through high school.

LH: Do you guys have one song, maybe by the Stones, that you like to jam out to? Like it comes on the radio and you look at each other like, ‘Oh my God, this is our song!’?

BC: "Thunder Road!"

SF: "Thunder Roads!" But we’ve never played it just the two of us.

BC: What’s one we’ve been playing forever?

SF: See, the thing about that too, though, is like, we usually just play originals. Covers for us are tough when it’s just the two of us, so the ones that we do end up playing seem to be sort of geared up towards... us? As opposed to what it like, normally sounds like. So some of them are like, barely recognizable to a lot of people, but it’s hard to say.

LH: Do you guys have a favorite original that you like to play?

BC: The last song we played in there, "God Forgives," is one of our earlier songs that we just never stopped playing.

SF: It’s always just kind of withstood the test of time. A lot of songs have gone by the wayside, but that one continued.

LH: I think you guys sounded great - where can readers find your most current music?

BC: It’s all on Bandcamp.com pretty much.

SF: Sympathy for Keith is on Spotify, we have a Bandcamp, and summerbeard.net. It’s a little bare bones, but it looks good, haha.

LH: And where can Boston see you guys perform next?

SF: We’ve been doing a lot more, like, writing recently, just like jamming and writing, having a good time.

BC: Yeah, trying to record somewhat... Nothing set yet.

LH: But we should look forward to maybe some new music coming out?

SF: Oh yeah, always!

LH: Alright, well thank you guys so much for sitting and talking with me!