This June, trop-pop outfit Summer Salt—formed around the duo of singer/guitarist Matthew Terry and drummer, multi-instrumentalist Eugene Chung—will release their fifth LP, Electrolytes, via their new record label AWAL. Produced by Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Ziggy Marley, The Linda Lindas), Electrolytes’ first single “Poolside,” drops March 29th.
“‘Poolside’ is a song about being there for your significant other, and not forgetting the romance as time goes on,” Terry and Chung explain. “It is a song about love and being emotionally available and reliable in a relationship. Reassurance that you’re there for each other at the end of each day. This song was inspired by sunny days spent by the pool, date nights on rooftops under the stars, and the drive to always win together in any situation regardless of what others think.”
Electrolytes follows 2023’s Campanita, the band’s breezy, blissful, and intimate monument to love, family, and everything in between. Electrolytes is another bold step forward in Summer Salt’s skyward career arc, marking the band’s first LP created with touring members Winston Triolo and Anthony Barnett. This all began a decade ago, when Chung and Terry moved to Austin to start on this journey, and years of hard work and an increasingly dedicated cult fan community have combined to bring Summer Salt to this moment.
The new record is packed with short, to-the-point pop goodness. Crackling with presence and confidence, the 7 tracks sway and stroll through different moods and expressions. While so much of our time and energy is spent wondering how to achieve happiness and find our perfect place, Electrolytes suggests that maybe we’re already living in it. “Electrolytes is an admiration of our lives, as-is,” say Terry and Chung. “Each song is a theme in our adult lives and how we navigate the realness of it these days, just trying to be our best.”
All of the tracks connect with both the deep-breath feeling of being outdoors, and the eternal importance of partnership, though sharp, contrasting experiences of these things streak through the record. A walk in the woods on “Deja Vu” brings back the wonderment of childhood, and “Bottleneck” weighs the experience of being depended on by a family even as you feel vulnerable yourself. And while “Ribbons” and lead single “Poolside” evoke a real picture of love at home, “Hand in Hand” tugs at the struggle for both the band members and their partners of maintaining that love life from afar.
After 10 years of making music, Summer Salt plan to make 2024 their biggest year yet. In addition to the new LP, later this year they’ll celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut release, Driving to Hawaii, with a US headline tour beginning in the fall.
A band that began in bedrooms, playing for family and friends, has grown into what is now a welcoming and blossoming culture of devoted and widespread fans, a symbiotic community that gives life back and forth to one another. Summer Salt can’t wait to continue building this community with a year of celebration and plenty of new music.