My interview with Duncan Osgood, lead guitarist and vocalist of local band, Summergirl.
K: Duncan, thanks for agreeing to this interview, I’m really excited to get your input on the local music scene here in southern Oregon.
D: Hey no problem man, happy to be here.
K: So, lets talk about Summergirl, when did you start up this band?
D: Well it’s really been a work in progress ever since I came to college, I knew I wanted to be in a band, I’m just really fortunate that all the pieces came together at the right time, we officially started up this last September and we have 3 completed songs, one of which, “Ashes to anchors” is receiving a lot of great feedback on youtube and soundcloud, which is just fantastic man, me and my other bandmate have been through a lot and it’s nice to see everything come together so smoothly.
K: That’s awesome man, any upcoming album we can expect soon?
D: Well like I said, as of now we have three completed songs, about to finish our fourth, and we’re really just finding our sound at this point, ya know, ideally we would like to have about 10–13 songs, with 5 or 6 classic rock songs, 2 or 3 psychedelic songs and 2 or 3 acoustic songs spread out over the album. We’re shooting for an April release, and looking to tour in portland over the summer, it’s a really exciting time for us man, just looking forward, we’ve been in touch with a few people up in portland and sacramento, just excited to get our name out there.
K: That’s so exciting to hear man, who has influenced your music so far?
D: Well, Ashland has a great local music scene that often gets overlooked, just last year I can remember we were all listening to Slow Corpse and Juniper berries on repeat, we’ve been lucky enough to see them at a few shows whether it be at a house show or at the brickroom, they’ve been great as far as showing us how to do local music, and what people connect to here in Ashland.They have definitely paved the way for us, and speaking of, I think slow corpse just got signed to a nice little record deal with Tender Loving Empire, so that’s awesome man, that’s obviously the goal for us, eventually get signed and promoted. Eventually we would love to open for one of those two bands, but for now, the goal is to make music that makes people think, and question their own surroundings and what’s going on around them.
K: let’s talk a little about “Ashes to Anchors” shall we?
D: Of course man, it’s a sad song, despite the wavy guitar licks that I threw in there, it’s about one of my best friends from freshman year who overdid it a little with drugs and alcohol, and how most of it wasn’t his fault to be perfectly honest, it was a situation where he was a victim of his own surroundings, surrounding himself with people who didn’t love him for the bright kid that he actually is, and he just fell into this depression that no one could get him out of. He’s doing a lot better now, and wherever he is I hope he’s surrounded himself with people who love him, cuz’ he is a great kid man, really great friend.
K:My god dude, what a story, absolutely crazy, how do you go about writing your songs?
D: Usually I wake up, go to class, come back and just think about what’s affecting me today, whether it be anxiousness or loneliness, I try to pinpoint what it is and just start writing man, I’ve been writing some great stuff lately actually, and we may try to squeeze a cover in on the album, whether it be a Bob Dylan song or a Guns n Roses song, we’re shopping around a few ideas.
K: That’s great to hear Duncan, thanks so much for sitting down with me today, I really appreciate it.
D: Of course man, like I said, happy to help, hope this helped you get an insight to local music in Ashland.
