We recently connected with Jordan Summers and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jordan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
I was hired at 16 to co-write the song “Skate and Destroy” and perform it for the Stacey Peralta skateboard video Bones Brigade 2. It went on to become a cult hit, then a skateboard culture staple. Now it’s emblazoned on everything Vans makes, from socks to hoodies to skateboards. I got $50 and street cred.
Jordan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Thanks for inviting me. I am one of the rare Los Angeles natives; my parents were actors, so I naturally gravitated to being out of work. I made super 8 films, wrote songs, and taught myself the piano as a kid to instinctively prepare for a lifetime in an industry where the love of creating better be enough. I started writing songs in 7th grade but didn’t play an instrument, so I took a few months of piano lessons and started a band in 9th grade. After a few years and band iterations, we were signed to a major label before I was old enough to drink, so I chose that over film school because who wouldn’t? The bipolar nature of show business suited me, and I eventually started my own production company and made some films while still keeping a foot in the music world. Over the years, the music pulled more into focus. Less cats to herd. My writing partner and singer, Morty Coyle, and I formed All Day Sucker, and we made 4 albums, write for other artists, and have songs placed in films and TV. I record and perform with various artists, including The Wallflowers and Cat Power, and hold down the keyboard section for The Wild Honey Orchestra, which annually stages tribute concerts to benefit the Think Tank for Autism. It’s comprised of an all-star cast of indie-rock and power-pop specialists from L.A. I love those shows. It’s like summer camp in February.
I got involved in the Netflix documentary film and album “Echo in the Canyon” at its nascent stage. The project explores the music scene in Laurel Canyon during the mid-sixties. This allowed me to perform and record with icons like Brian Wilson, Beck, Fiona Apple, Eric Clapton, and Neil Young along with my longtime friends and bandmates in All Day Sucker. It was a privilege to work in both music and film at such a high level. Having your peers and idols trust your taste and ability is hard to get used to, but I’m trying. Music and film are tough to sustain individually, much less at the same time, but hopefully that’s where I’m headed. I want to collect all the hyphenates.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The entertainment business forces one to pivot more than stand still. When I first started in the music business, there was a music business. Musicians and songwriters got paid for their work, and there was an industry in place to develop, exploit, and sometimes destroy them. Those were the good old days. Then with Napster and downloading, it all stopped overnight. Pivot. Putting your songs in a commercial was verboten. You were a sellout. The Nike commercial using The Beatles’ “Revolution” comes to mind. Huge uproar. Then the other shoe dropped, and now it’s one of the few ways to get paid. Pivot. The independent film revolution forced the major studios to pivot. YouTube forced independent filmmakers to pivot. The current writers’ and actors’ strike is a great example. Technology accelerates the pivot cycle so much it’s building a centrifugal force.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The surprise of creating. The surprise spark is the good stuff that gets you started. Or you can start stale and mundane, and then the surprise happens, washes the drudgery away, to keep you going. The work is the repetition of showing up, waiting for the surprise, and recognizing it. The craft is stringing the surprises together into something cohesive. The same goes for playing an instrument, writing, or problem-solving. Build the muscle up enough to make tasteful choices and not fail too miserably in between the creative surprises. Just like that last sentence. Maybe a pithy surprise is coming? Nope. Sorry.
I love hearing or seeing something fleshed out and on its feet for the first time. It exists but it’s not finished. It still has promise, and I get to play with it and revise it until I start enjoying it and hopefully abandon it in time before I ruin it. If someone else also enjoys it, that’s rewarding. Sometimes I even get paid.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alldaysucker.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/errjordan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordansummers
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/alldaysuckertube
Image Credits
Toasty Cakes, Oliver De Filippo