John Summit’s second album, CTRL ESCAPE, charts his journey from cubicle to fundamental stage, whereas paying homage to his Chicago roots.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In lower than 5 years, John Summit went from making beats in his dad and mom’ basement to being one of the well-known DJs in dance music right this moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHERE YOU ARE”)
HAYLA: (Singing) I get this feelin’ I wanna be the place you’re.
CHANG: However earlier than his meteoric rise, he was an accountant in Chicago.
JOHN SUMMIT: Oh, no, I type of noticed my flash – life flash earlier than my eyes after I was doing accounting after the associate I used to be working with informed me – he is like, yeah, I bear in mind after I was you simply yesterday. Then I blinked, and right here I’m now, and I am like, you are in your 60s, man. Like, you do not even bear in mind the final 40 years of your life?
CHANG: John Summit’s newest album, “CTRL ESCAPE,” tells the story of his journey. NPR’s Kai McNamee reviews.
SUMMIT: I am all the time on the highway. I imply, it is nonstop, however that is how I prefer it.
KAI MCNAMEE, BYLINE: Authorized title John Schuster, his whirlwind ascent was the inspiration for his first album, “Consolation In Chaos.” His new album goes past the sound he is change into greatest recognized for – a subgenre of dance music referred to as tech home.
SUMMIT: This current album is known as “CTRL ESCAPE,” and, , its type of general theme is, like, after I broke out of the 9-to-5 world. It is multi-genre. I am not, , pigeonholed into a particular sound.
MCNAMEE: The album options components of home, entice, rock, drum and bass – tracks, he says, that push his inventive boundaries.
SUMMIT: I imply, an excellent instance is “WITH ME” with Julia Wolf.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN SUMMIT AND JULIA WOLF SONG, “WITH ME”)
SUMMIT: You possibly can’t actually say what style it’s. Like, I don’t know what to name it. It is like 144 BPM, home observe. It is – like, has trance components. After which you could have her vocal coming from this, like, indie rock type of emo world, the place her – she’s by no means been on a dance file earlier than, too. So it is like, all these completely different components that should not be collectively, however then it one way or the other works.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WITH ME”)
JULIA WOLF: (Singing) You keep up all evening.
And it was simply tremendous collaborative and, I do not know, type of got here collectively fairly simply.
MCNAMEE: Singer and songwriter Julia Wolf.
WOLF: John was, like, actually adamant about bringing each of our worlds collectively. Like, he very a lot wished our enter on it and, like, our, , course, I suppose.
MCNAMEE: To know Summit’s world, you need to return to his hometown. Summit grew up in Naperville, a suburb west of Chicago, and Chicago is the birthplace of home music. His sound owes rather a lot to the town’s legends. Syncopated piano chords drive the observe “DON’T BELIEVE IT,” that includes Abby Eager.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DON’T BELIEVE IT”)
ABBY KEEN: (Singing) Do not consider it. Do not consider it. Day and evening, do not consider it (ph).
MCNAMEE: And people chords evoke data produced by pioneers of the style, like Marshall Jefferson and Paul Johnson.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DON’T BELIEVE IT”)
KEEN: (Vocalizing).
MCNAMEE: Summit first began making music in school. And when he graduated and received that job as an accountant, he spent his nights DJing.
JOHN CURLEY: What I really like about him is he got here from the identical place a whole lot of us did. He was only a child who actually, actually wished to be part of it.
MCNAMEE: John Curley has been a DJ in Chicago because the late ’80s. He runs a number of venues there and booked Summit early in his profession.
CURLEY: , he would come as much as the DJ sales space and share his tracks and say, hey, take heed to this.
MCNAMEE: Curley hears the town’s influences all through Summit’s music. He factors to the 2022 music referred to as “In Chicago.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IN CHICAGO”)
SUMMIT: And I am in Chicago. Focus.
MCNAMEE: Marguerite Harrold chronicled the historical past of the style in her e-book “Chicago Home Music: Tradition And Neighborhood.”
MARGUERITE HARROLD: Once I hear this music, I hear old-school home influences. I hear Jesse Saunders and Vince Lawrence. I hear Marshall Jefferson. I hear J.M. Silk. I hear…
MCNAMEE: Harrold grew up going to the town’s golf equipment and underground events within the ’80s and ’90s.
HARROLD: Many of the locations had been bare-bones, proper? So you will be in a room that is type of like a black field, and there is a strobe gentle, and it is simply bass. Like, the place the place is since you hear the bass two blocks away, and also you simply really feel that (imitating bass thumping) – , that thump.
(SOUNDBITE OF JESSE SAUNDERS SONG, “ON AND ON”)
HARROLD: It began with Black homosexual folks discovering and making areas of their very own in order that they might collect and never be harassed or discriminated in opposition to. So that you stroll within the door, regardless of who you’re, folks settle for you.
MCNAMEE: That generosity is one thing Summit is grateful for. And at the same time as his sound evolves, he nonetheless thinks about the place it began.
SUMMIT: You guys all the time respect your origins, and I might not be right here with out that. I feel, like something, , it is like once you graduate highschool, then you definitely go off to varsity and also you go off this, you all the time know the place your roots are, and also you all the time received to remain true to it in a way.
MCNAMEE: With “CTRL ESCAPE,” Summit nods to the previous whereas making his personal mark in dance music historical past. Kai McNamee, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SHADES OF BLUE”)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Hear my voice torn in two.
JULIA CHURCH: (Singing) Torn in two.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Looks like ceaselessly.
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