Summer Salt drop their new album Campanita on May 19th via Wax Bodega. The full-length takes its title from a nickname given to Terry’s late sister, Madeleine, by their grandmother. When Maddie and Terry’s cousin, Angelina, passed away in January 2021, Terry was shaken to his core; it was the first time he’d experienced this kind of loss. He became determined to create something that would live on and celebrate the life of both his sister and cousin forever.

Campanita is an intimate monument to love, family, and everything in between. Its 12 tracks meander through sun-soaked and rose-tinted memories, deep rooted relationships and loss. Today they share the lead single and music video for the title-track “Campanita. Along with the news, the band comprised of singer/guitarist Matthew Terry and drummer Eugene Chung, have announced North American tour dates, beginning in May.

“”Campanita” is a song about missing someone and having to feel them or find them in things that aren’t tangible or physical,” shares Terry. “I wanted to write a dynamic pop song with a happy overtone, but one that also felt sad and confusing at the same time. I kept singing a melody with the word Campanita in it until it just clicked. In a weird way the line “you are so smart, and gorgeous, but you’re good” just fell right into place with the melody, which is a mantra my sister and I always used with one another. I think when we miss and grieve for someone, we often wonder if they knew the impact in which they had on our lives. We want to make sure that they know, after everything is said and done, that they were good. A place of comfort and goodness for you. We imagine all the things that we would say to them given the chance. And because you can’t ever have that last conversation this song was written and is sung as my way to scream that into the infinite.”

The process of creating Campanita, the band’s fourth full-length release, allowed Terry to stay close to his sister and cousin, and the end result is a work that will not die: it will live on forever, drifting through the heavy, warm southwestern air.

“The easiest place for me to put some of the energy I was feeling through this time was into something tangible, making something that will be permanent,” says Terry. “I was thinking, ‘This can’t be over, her life can’t be over, so I need to continue.’ So that was just something I ran with, and it’s been a beautiful process making this album.”

Lead single “Campanita” is the first introduction to the record, with starry, gentle chording before Chung’s drums fade in like an engine rattling to life, propelling waves of hummed background vocals and Terry’s easygoing southwestern tenor: “You are so smart, and you’re gorgeous, Campanita/But you’re good, and that is why I need ya,” he climbs on the chorus. It borrows from a phrase Terry and his sister would repeat jokingly to one another, while the song “Macaroon” name checks Maddie with a pun: “Hey, Mad love for you,” Terry sings. A later track, “Sana,” which is based on an old Spanish nursery rhyme, was written and performed by Terry’s cousin and fellow band member Anthony Barnett. Being one of Maddie’s favorites, the song was recorded as a dedication, with the hush and mellow sound of Anthony singing in Spanish.

Terry says of the writing process and the difficulty in writing about something so emotional, “Sometimes when I would be writing lyrics, it almost felt like they were gifts. It was like they were given to me.”

Terry and Chung composed the songs while living apart—Terry in Dallas, Chung in San Francisco. They self-recorded much of the material before meeting in Fort Collins, CO in December 2022 to finish at The Blasting Room. Chris Beeble produced and engineered, and Joe LaPorta (FKA Twigs, Sharon Van Etten) mastered the record. Anthony Barnett and Winston Triolo contributed guitar, bass, and backing vocals, and will join Summer Salt on their headline tour this spring.

Summer Salt 2023 Tour Dates:

MAY

30 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East

31 – Atlanta, GA @ Hell at The Masquerade

JUNE

01 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
02 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey
03 – Charleston, SC @ The Music Farm
04 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
06 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
07 – Asbury Park, NJ @ House of Independents
08 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
09 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
10 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
13 – Toronto, ON @ The Axis Club
14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall
15 – Columbus, OH @ Mahall’s
16 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
17 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
20 – St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
21 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
22 – Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th St.
07 – Dallas, TX @ The Echo Lounge
08 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
09 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
11 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
12 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory
14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
15 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
16 – San Jose, CA @ The Ritz
18 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
19 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
21 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
22 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
23 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory
25 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
26 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
27 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre

Pre-Order Campanita by Summer Salt HERE