By John Ostapowicz / The Jambar
For several bands, having the opportunity at a fresh start doesn’t happen often, but for the New York-based duo of Jake Stam and Matt Montgomery alongside Tim Coakley, pioneered the groups alternative rock sound of Summerdrive.
Originally known as Friends At The Falls, both Montgomery and Stam formed the band in 2018 with the release of its debut EP, “Wild In Our Ways.” Since then, the band has reached over 6 million collective streams across several music-streaming platforms.
The band switched to the name Summerdrive in 2023 with the acquisition of Coakley, who has helped Stam creatively with writing the band’s music. Stam said he was concerned the band’s name change would set the group back from scratch.
“That’s not a privilege that every band has, and we didn’t know that at the time,” Stam said. “We figured we might have to drop the old catalog, but we were able to maintain all of the songs and our fans understood the pivot, which was really nice.”
What started as a conversation between the three members about the band’s musical direction, helped transition the band’s original synth-pop and catchy hook tracks into its new sound.
“The first year of it took a second to find the groove. [Coakley] and I were used to writing songs on our own and [Montgomery] and I were usually discussing stuff ourselves, so we kind of had to marry the three of us and figure out the dynamic, and since then, it has been unbelievable,” Stam said.
After the name change, the band released its first single, “Shimmer” — the band’s most-streamed song since its new identity. The track itself blends mixes of alt-rock, indie-pop and ‘80s-inspired synth-pop in an effort to easily transition fans into its new era.
Stam said the band’s genre and musical style has changed since the two-year-old track made its debut.
“We’re not even in an era now where we would be writing ‘Shimmer.’ I feel like we’re trying to lean a bit more guitar, trying to lean a bit more rock and hit a little harder, which has been really nice to explore,” Stam said.
When looking back on the band’s most streamed song, “You Don’t Have To Be Alone,” Stam said the track almost never came to fruition as both he and Montgomery labeled it as a “failure.”
“When we released it, we hadn’t released a slow single pretty much ever in our career at that point, and I remember it came out and it was really slow,” Stam said. “I remember laying on [Montgomery’s] bed moping saying, ‘Dude, we shouldn’t have did this,’ and he goes, ‘This is a horrible idea.’”
Despite this, the track quickly gained traction and helped launch the band into mainstream popularity with over 2.2 million streams on Spotify to date. Other songs from Montgomery’s and Stam’s older catalog, such as “It’s Alright, Let Me Go,” “Sunkissed Dreamland” and “Be The Change” have each received over 1 million total streams.
In regard to the band’s older streaming numbers, Montgomery said the trio hopes for the same success as members of Summerdrive as they did with Friends At The Falls.
“We’re obviously grateful to have a lot of streams, but we are equally trying to get the same results for this new sound and the new songs we have, and a lot of it is once you release it, there’s only so much you can do beyond just market it and hope that it gets into the right algorithm,” Montgomery said.
With the completion of the band’s summer tour, Stam, Montgomery and Coakley will take a musical break until the completion of their debut album. Stam said the record is expected to be released by the end of 2025 and will include previous singles along with one to two unreleased tracks.
