Teenage love rock

Even at such an early age, Avary is a veteran. He's been playing in bands since, as he says without a trace of irony, he "was a lot younger" -- 14 years old. He picked up a guitar in the seventh grade and joined his first band, Monkey Chunk, the next year. None of his bands went anywhere; Monkey Chunk was "a joke," accomplishing little more than humiliating Avary in front of his eighth-grade classmates when the group performed at a school dance. "It was the worst night of my whole life," Avary says, "and every time I think about it, I cringe because it was so embarrassing." Charlie 27, his last serious band, fared a bit better.

"We were really big around the Grapevine area," Avary says, before realizing that being "big around the Grapevine area" doesn't amount to much. "This sounds so lame," he adds, laughing. "We broke up and had a final show at a house party, and there was at least 250 kids there. We played a reunion show six months later. I don't think anybody knows us anymore."

After Charlie 27 split up, Avary began doing solo acoustic shows, playing the songs he would eventually record as The Rocket Summer. Though he considers himself more of a drummer than a singer or guitar player, Avary grew comfortable in the role, building confidence in the songs that he soon recorded. Even so, he didn't think he'd hear them on the radio -- at least, not so soon.

Avary was shocked and thrilled, then, when Josh Venable, host of The Adventure Club on KDGE-FM (94.5), called him. To say he was happy when the first track of his EP, "So Far Away," turned up on The Adventure Club's playlist a few weeks ago is such an understatement, Avary laughs when you ask him about it.

"I almost got a concussion, I was jumping so high," he says. "That was embarrassing. That was probably the coolest thing that's ever happened. He called me the night before. I'd had a really bad night, and I heard the message and I was like, 'Oh my god!' Because he said he liked it, but he didn't say whether he was going to play it or not. I don't know how that goes. And I didn't really tell anybody, because I didn't want anybody saying, 'Oh, Bryce said he was going to be on the radio.' So I just kind of waited. Then he said [on the show] that he was going to play a band called Rocket Summer. I started calling everybody." Including Venable several times to thank him. "He always says he hates me, which is kind of weird," Avary adds. "He's joking, I hope. I can't not thank someone for helping me out, so I call him. I think he's getting annoyed."

Avary can probably live with annoying Venable, especially since The Rocket Summer's radio exposure has already paid off. Avary has struck up a friendship with Will Johnson, a musician he reveres. ("Me and Will have been talking through the Internet and stuff, and he really enjoys the Rocket Summer stuff, which is really, really good to hear.") He's also seen sales of the EP shoot up dramatically in, of all places, Cleveland, where a pocket of displaced Adventure Club fans live. Most important, his parents have encouraged his efforts. "They do now," he says, laughing, "because I'm on the radio."

The attention has Avary ready to head back into the studio. Actually, he's been ready, almost as soon as he finished the first batch. But he's happy with The Rocket Summer EP. To him, it definitely serves a purpose.

"Since then, I've written 10 new songs, and I think they're way better," he says. "It's good to have this record out there to promote the other songs. It's the same sound, but it's just...more powerful. It's more emotionally driven and more pop. I don't know. I like it a whole lot, but please don't think I'm bragging."

Avary knows that even if he was bragging, he couldn't get away with it for long. His older brother, a student at Texas A&M University, has already jokingly told him that being on The Adventure Club is as far as his career's going to go. But you can hear the pride in his voice when he talks about everything that's happened so far, and the hope for what might happen in the future, even as he tries his best to be modest.

"I'm not a celebrity, but I have to sign a whole lot of autographs," he admits, referring to how life has changed at Grapevine High. "Which I refused to do at first, but I started doing it this week because a guy wouldn't buy it unless I signed it. I wanted to sell it, so I hid in a corner and signed it. Someone saw it and said, 'He's signing records.' So everybody pulled out their records and made me sign them." He sighs. "It's only one class. Hopefully it hasn't spread."