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On Location with Michael Cummings

The frontman for rock band Skaters on a year spent touring the U.K.

New York-based Skaters won’t be releasing their debut album, Manhattan, until February 25, but the band’s spent the better part of a year touring to build buzz around it.

“We’ve been to the U.K. seven times this year with only singles out,” singer Michael Cummings says.  “We’d play shows and people would only know two songs—the rest of them they’d have no idea about.”

Luckily the band’s tunes proved exciting enough for British fans to seek them out, album or not. “It was really exciting to see people learning the material,” Cummings says. “By the last trip, there were kids singing along to songs we hadn’t released yet.”

The band felt especially at home in Brighton, where Cummings says it’s easier for up-and-coming bands to find the limelight. “People in the U.K. are really excited about new bands and word spreads really quickly, so you go over there and make a big splash in a short amount of time,” he says. “In the U.S. you really have to go all over the place before that happens.”

Seemingly that’s about to happen, though, as the much-ballyhooed band is embarking on an American tour in support of Manhattan.

“We think this record will be a breath of fresh air for people,” Cummings says. “It’s all about living in New York and our first year as a band when we were all bartenders and staying up until 4 in the morning every night. As you can imagine, that leads to some interesting experiences.”

 

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