It's 13 February 2010 and Roy Sommer is fifteen years old. He's shot up six inches seemingly overnight and has so quickly outgrown his current wardrobe that he has to borrow from Leon and Jonas. The white button up shirts are tight around the chest and the pants reveal his ankles, but they work in a pinch and put off clothes shopping until the weekend.
Maman finds an old emerald green cardigan of Joseph's and gives it to Roy - the sleeves nearly reach the tips of his fingers. He is awkward, his hair is unruly, his forehead is fighting a losing battle to acne, but the general unpleasantness of being a teenager doesn't seem to weigh him down. He is a smile wrapped in a heavy knit cardigan and trousers that are practically impossible to sit comfortably in. He's adjusting his trousers when AJ sits across from him and suddenly Roy is no longer bothered by the fabric pinching his thighs.
Roy is fifteen years old when he meets AJ Javid and he is absolutely smitten. Adolescence has been a steady in and outflow of crushes, mostly unrequited. AJ turns to look at Roy who's been looking at AJ, and Roy knows this time it's different. This one'll be requited. Both of them seem at a loss for traditional greetings, and after ten heavy seconds of silence Roy says the first thing that comes to mind:
"Do you like piano?"
New Single: Barfuß Am Klavier 24 OCTOBER 2014 / musikexpress.de
...and so, it seems, that Sommer son can sing. Sommersöhne's first single is a somber song of heartache and nostalgia, the misery that accompanies a painful breakup. Though the band has a typical lineup (Roy Sommer's brothers - Leon, Jonas, and Noah - providing accompaniment), Barfuß Am Klavier features only the vocalist and his piano. It's a vignette of longing, a painfully honest account of regret, the story of a man who lost love and dreams of what he knows he'll never regain...
Following a gruesome breakup at the age of 18, Roy swears he'll keep his guard up from now on. He swears it when he meets a young artist named Cecilia at a pub (predictably he sings the Simon & Garfunkel classic to her and, somehow, she is moved by this). He swears it again when he meets Marie at an after party, who manages to break his heart in record time by revealing she's married five minutes into conversation. He swears it one more time when he's backstage at her show. At nearly twenty years old Roy is rebounding, pining, and completely obsessed.
The feeling is not mutual, but it is appreciated.
Roy follows her for three months and in a moment of misguided passion he makes the commitment to spend hours in a chair with his arm extended as a renowned tattoo artist permanently inks the image of a completely naked mermaid onto his forearm. The resemblance to her is vague but when she sees it for the first time, she knows. She bids him a final farewell via text.
Hindsight comes quickly with this one, almost as soon as he reads that text.
He inhales, exhales, and doesn't swear anything.
New Single: Wohin Du Gehst 28 JULY 2015 / musikexpress.de
...the band continues to release single after single, and we're beginning to question: when will they release an album? The latest song, titled Wohin Du Gehst, is yet another brutally honest point of view telling a man's experience of seeing his ex out with friends, unchained by the pain of lost love in the way the narrator is. As the song progresses, Roy's voice becomes more desperate, frustrated, exuding a feeling of being trapped the same way the narrator feels imprisoned by his longing and overlapping social circles, which leads us to wonder: is Roy Sommer okay?...
At the highly developed age of twenty-two, Roy has dated around plenty. His first and most traumatizing heartbreaks are behind him (so he assumes) and this emboldens him to make rash decisions with his heart. Roy has never been guarded (no matter how many times he swore he would be) and at some point came to the conclusion that sticking a knife into his chest, carving out his heart, and serving it on a platter to anyone who smiled at him was a brilliant way to approach romantic relationships.
At some point he realized there was nothing more attractive than complete and total enigmas. Giving your heart to an enigma is similar to screaming into a void, which has its pros and cons. Roy is an optimist, and so when he meets eyes with her after her gig, he is overcome with a singular thought: There's no way this could go wrong.
Roy has made a habit of being left behind. Lacking the spine to properly break up with another person, his relationships typically ended in one of two ways: a mutual silent decision to stop seeing each other, or his partner reads the room and insists ending things is for the best. After a few months of dating Roy breaks tradition and tells her: This isn't working, I'm sorry.
They stare at each other as if they're both deer in a showdown with a semi until Roy leaves, taking back the platter and his heart with it.
Sommersöhne: Alles nix Konkretes 12 FEBRUARY 2016 / musikexpress.de
...there's a new wave of music in Germany, and it's driven by acoustic guitar and harmonicas. The lead single of Sommersöhne's album, Pocahontas, is an emotionally charged apologetic ballad that's impossible to not sing along with. The catchy melody is accompanied by swelling guitars and steady drums that only rev up in intensity as the song progresses, Roy Sommer's gravely vocals giving voice to the feeling we've all experienced at one point or another: despair and regret. These seem to be a theme in Sommer's lyrics, the overhanging question of: Was that the one? Will I get another chance? That remains to be seen, however, if this heartbreak us gives us these songs - Roy, I beg you, for the sake of the German music landscape: please get dumped more often...
This is his great love, he reminds himself over and over again.
Eventually, the reminder isn't enough.
Sommersöhne: Schlagschatten 7 DECEMBER 2018 / musikexpress.de
...they're back, and sadder than ever. In Sommersöhne's sophomore album they explore the themes typical of the average German twenty-something: heartbreak, discontent, and malaise. Following his success overseas in the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things, Roy returns to the music scene with his brothers to produce an album that surpasses their debut in concept, technique, and cohesion. One of several stand out tracks, Du Bist Anders tells the story of a man willing to say everything while his partner remains silent. The song starts slow, delicate, and intensifies as guitar, bass, and drums are slowly integrated along with a pitch perfect harmony that amplifies the longing of a person stuck in a relationship that is, by all signs, not working...