Summer Fiction is the latest project of Bill Richini, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The music is rooted in 60's pop but is not at all limited to (or by) that. It is, instead, the starting point to a journey through a range of musical styles that go from folk ballads to instrumental waltzes - comprising everything in between. It evokes The Beach Boys in happy moments, The Zombies in sad memories... but the thing that it's really special about it is the fact that isn't a fulfilled, complete happiness or sadness: it has shades of a complex mix of feelings translated through beautiful melodies and lyrics that are simple, nostalgic and evocative.
The album, was created in a way that the songs should work together as one piece, with a sense of a story being told. My personal interpretation is that the album comprises the entire summer: first a certain excitement of infinite possibilities and then slowly – day by day (or song by song) – reality starts to sting. And you realize that reality had always been there but the love infatuations made you blind for it. The end of it has that feeling of the last day at the beach, when you suddenly realize that those days are not gonna last forever.
The band's Last.fm description also has a pretty good line/interpretation:
"The album loosely follows a young girl's coming of age but reads like the journal entries of the guys who fall for her".
Also, watch
Chandeliers.
Here's our interview with Bill. We talked about the creation of the project, summer memories and creating music while riding the subway...
