Last week on May 25, it seemed like a typical Wednesday hour lunch for SDA. Students collected their wallets and marched off to the cafeteria, prepared to stand in the noisy lunch line for another dull meal. Then they appeared. “S-s-san D-d-dieguito A-a-academy,” stuttered Ruby and Summer Spiro excitedly into a big microphone in unison grabbing the attention of all students near the front of the gym. Everyone’s ears perked up at the sound of two vivacious voices echoing across our campus.
At first, students assumed it was another death metal or screamo grunge band formed by students from the academy. But these two Southern California chicks weren’t dressed right. Instead of wearing ripped shirts and baggy jeans they were clad in bright and dapper little outfits. The brunette sister Ruby was wearing pink shorts and a long-sleeved shirt lacquered with golden sequins and her blonde sister Summer was wearing a vintage white dress with a puffy skirt. Summer explained to the audience, “My name is Summer and her name is Ruby. But when you combine them it’s our band name—Ruby Summer!”
True to their band’s name, Ruby Summer played music that had a lighthearted summery feel with all the extravagant beauty of a ruby gemstone. Their recently released single on iTunes “French Kisses” speaks wistfully of their imaginary French boyfriends from Paris. Lyrics from this song include lines such as, “Cause I love, I love, I love, I love you French kissing me…Baby all I want is your French kisses to follow me to California.” Their song “Midnight Queens” felt reminiscent of the classic band Abba’s song “Dancing Queen” but only due to its glittery attitude. The tune and lyrics were completely different. For example, “Midnight Queens” include lyrics such as, “No shoes on the dance floor, it’s just girls under the stars. ‘Cause we got the love tonight, no boys breaking our hearts.”
Synchronized dancing was performed along with the music. The girly dance routine included hip movement, hopping twice, and then some super hair flips. But when they took breaks from hopping and swaying, they didn’t stop head banging. It’s probably difficult to resist flipping your hair, when it’s long, goddess-like, and full of beach curls. Sparkles and hearts and love seemed to emanate from the gym that day. Their album “Mermaids and Poets” is available for purchase by visiting www.rubysummer.com, clicking on shop, and then ordering one of the “Mermaids and Poets” drop cards.
“When we talk about surfer boys a lot of people don’t really get what we’re talking about. But we know you’ll get it, San Dieguito”, said Ruby before calling senior Evan Angelico up from the audience because they thought he was cute (which they made blatantly clear afterwards by shouting, “We just had to get you up here because you’re so cute!”) Angelico was then serenaded by them and forced to dance while they sang a song that has not yet been released on iTunes called “Surfer Boy.” YouTube videos show that this is a common part of their live performances at high schools.
A lot of SDA’s student body seemed to look a little skeptical as they passed by the band that day. But it’s clear by the number of students who requested their signature that they were a pretty big hit with the academy. It’s safe to say that fans of Taylor Swift will probably enjoy this band. Although pop music may never be able to obtain the same coolness factor or street credibility as say, death metal or indie music, Ruby Summer may prove to be a valuable guilty pleasure for many secret admirers.