When you and your bandmates decide to call it a day, there are two ways to go. You either split for good or become a stronger, tighter union. Luckily for The Summer Set fans, their rocky period resulted in the lean self-produced fourth album Stories For Monday and a string of successful shows. As the pop-rock band is about to embark on Warped Tour, we chatted with vocalist Brian Logan Dales about meeting his future bandmates on Myspace, the latest record and Warped Tour.

How did you all meet and how did you pick the name? What were the other options?

We started the band in 2007. John and Stephen are brothers and Jess, our drummer, played in different bands since middle school. And then I met them in 2007 ironically on Myspace.

Nice!

Yeah. I saw on Myspace that they were looking to start a new band. I reached out and we got together, connected and totally clicked. Me and Stephen realized that we’ve been to a lot of the same shows. So we started a band and the rest has kinda been history. As far as getting the name, our name was sort of out of desperation. We were very young. When you start a band in high school you don’t really think you’re gonna be in that band forever. I remember we already booked some studio time and were about to have a show without a name. And then Stephen and his dad were looking at the atlas and saw Somerset County in New Jersey. And we decided to rearrange it and spell "summer" like the season. I thought, Yeah, sounds great, how long is this gonna last anyway? And now here we are, nine years later, with not that great of a band name, but it works.

Well it makes sense now, in the middle of the summer. You’re playing Warped Tour and everything. So summer is probably your season, right?

I used to think that way but I don’t anymore. Now most of the summer we actually have off.

So I’ve heard you almost broke up before making this new album. I bet you’re happy you didn’t, right?

We took a little bit of a break when we were making this album. And this is our fourth album, which is kinda crazy for how young we are. We got to this point of frustration when we were making this album because we weren’t sure where to go. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself as a songwriter, and it didn’t really seem like it was working. We got a little lost and thought that maybe we had run our course. But it turned into a silver lining to this whole thing, because almost breaking up allowed us to let our guard down and make an album without any pressure. We were gonna make an album and release it for our fans and call it a day. We took it back to the basics. John and Stephen actually produced the album, which I don’t know if we would’ve done if we didn’t think we were gonna break up.

As you’ve produced the record yourself for the first time, was it a big challenge?

Yes and no. It was a challenge but it ended up being easy. We weren’t overthinking anything ‘cause we had no expectations. We did the whole thing in John and Stephen’s house. I recorded vocals in the closet in their bedroom. We were really back to the basics. While we took that break, the guys got very good at their craft. I’m really proud of how that record came out.

Considering you were recording in the closet, where did you put all of the clothes?

It was a pretty big closet! We didn’t really move anything.

In “Figure Me Out” you’re saying that you’re too punk to be a popstar and too pop to be a rockstar. Is it something you’re really concerned about? Because you’ve played around with a lot of genres in your band…

I am not anymore but I used to be and that’s where the lyrics came from. I used to be concerned with not fitting in as a band. But now it doesn’t really matter to me. I love that we can play Warped Tour and hold our own with the punk bands and then we do iHeart festival and play with Katy Perry. We’ve done shows with Sheryl Crow and Carly Rae Jepsen and we really hold our own everywhere we go. There’s no crowd we can’t figure out how to play to. That’s the point.

Considering the new album is called Stories for Monday, what’s the best story that happened to you on Monday?

It was actually the first Monday since the album came out. We got to play Bernie Sanders' political rally. We got to meet and talk to him for a bit, too. That was the most surreal moment as it was so much bigger than us. We were very honored.

What’s the most personal song on the album?

Probably “Figure Me Out,” and it’s the most on the nose. It was very cathartic to write. It helps making the rest of the album make sense. It’s anything anyone could ever say about myself before they actually got the chance — I just say it myself. I love that.

Your music makes the perfect soundtrack for teen movies and TV shows. Which coming-of-age movies are your favorites?

My favorite one is the '90s Can’t Hardly Wait. In fact we actually reference it on the song “When The Party Ends” on the album.

Are you excited for the Warped Tour? What should we expect from your gigs during the tour?

I’m excited that we’re only doing a handful of shows and not the whole thing. On our normal tours we play for 90 minutes. On Warped Tour we only get 30 minutes, which is a little difficult for me but it’s also great because we try to cram in as much high-energy as possible. I love the sense of camaraderie. Everyone’s there for each other. It’s like summer camp.

What secret talents do The Summer Set band members posses?

Josh’s always doing laundry and we never see him backstage. He’s obviously up to something very secret. We only see him on stage.