Summer Camp were a British

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

duo, formed in October 2009 by married couple multi-instrumentalist

Jeremy Warmsley Jeremy Warmsley is a London-based musician, composer and film producer. Biography From 2005 to 2009, he worked as a solo artist, recording two albums for Transgressive Records and touring with Regina Spektor and The Shins. Since 2009 he has wor ...

and vocalist

Elizabeth Sankey Elizabeth Sankey is a British filmmaker and musician, best known for her film ''Romantic Comedy''. and for playing in the indie-pop band Summer Camp. Music career As part of Summer Camp she has released four albums and the soundtrack to the fi ...

. They are signed to the Moshi Moshi label on which they have released all four of their full-length albums, as well as three EPs and a film soundtrack. Summer Camp's musical style has been described as "21st-century alt.pop", but also is influenced by 1960s

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

s and 1980s

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

. The lyrics, written by Sankey, are often quite dark and deal with failed relationships, conflicts, treasure and teenage obsessions. Along with the band's artwork and music videos they also draw heavily from American culture from the 1960s–1980s. They started after recording a cover version of

I Only Have Eyes for You "I Only Have Eyes for You" is a song by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin. The song was written for the 1934 film ''Dames (film), Dames'', in which it was performed by Dick Powell. Several other successful recordings of the song were m ...

, a song which Elizabeth had included on a mixtape given to Jeremy. They uploaded their version to Myspace, and claimed to be a seven-piece from Sweden. Their first EP, Young, was released in 2010. In 2011, they released their debut LP, Welcome To Condale, produced by

Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

member

Steve Mackey Stephen Patrick Mackey (10 November 1966 – 2 March 2023) was an English musician and record producer best known as the bass guitarist for the Britpop band Pulp, which he joined in 1989. As a record producer, he produced songs and albums by ...

, a concept album set in the fictional town of Condale. In 2013, they worked with

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...

producer

Stephen Street Stephen Brian Street (born 29 March 1960 in Hackney, London) is an English record producer best known for his work with the Smiths, the Cranberries and Blur. Street collaborated with Morrissey on his debut album '' Viva Hate'' following the ...

on their self-titled second album. In 2014, they released their soundtrack to ''

Beyond Clueless ''Beyond Clueless'' is a 2014 British documentary film about teen movies, directed by Charlie Shackleton, narrated by Fairuza Balk and with an original soundtrack by Summer Camp. Summary The film features extracts from over 200 teen movies, wi ...

'', a teen movie documentary directed by critic

Charlie Lyne Charlie Shackleton (formerly Charlie Lyne; born 15 August 1991) is a British filmmaker, multimedia artist, and film critic. He has made several films, including ''Beyond Clueless,'' '' Fear Itself'', and the 2023 protest film '' Paint Drying'', ...

. This was followed in 2015 by their third studio album, Bad Love. In 2019, band member Elizabeth Sankey released a film, ''

Romantic Comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

'', a documentary about the genre. In 2020, the band released an album of the same name made up of songs "from and inspired by" Sankey's film. In 2022, Summer Camp announced their decision to disband.

Discography

Albums

* ''Welcome to Condale'', 31 October 2011, Moshi Moshi, 2011 (digital, CD, 12") * ''Summer Camp'', 9 September 2013, Moshi Moshi, 2013 (digital, CD, 12") * ''Beyond Clueless'' (original soundtrack), 4 August 2014, Moshi Moshi, 2014 (digital, 12") * ''Bad Love'', 25 May 2015, Moshi Moshi, 2015 (digital, CD, 12") * ''Romantic Comedy'', 14 February 2020, Moshi Moshi, 2020 (digital, 12")

EPs

* ''Young'', September 6, 2010, Moshi Moshi (digital, CD) * ''Always'', June 29, 2012, Apricot (digital, 10") * ''Christmas'', December 1, 2015, Moshi Moshi (digital)

Singles

* "Ghost Train" – 12 April 2010, Moshi Moshi (digital, 1000 run 7") * "Round The Moon" – 6 September 2010, Moshi Moshi (digital, 1000 run 7") * "Better Off Without You" - 2011, Moshi Moshi (digital) * "Down" - October 2011, Moshi Moshi (digital)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Summer Camp British pop music duos Musical groups established in 2009 Musical groups disestablished in 2022 Pop music groups from London Moshi Moshi Records artists 2009 establishments in England 2022 disestablishments in England