Interview Highlight: Summer Giddings

Hear from singer and songwriter, Summer Giddings, as she speaks with Sam about her latest music to celebrate the festive season. Her single, Paper Hats and Mistletoe, as well as her new album, Christmas with Summer, are both out now.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:13):
Our next guest has just released a Christmas song just
in time for Christmas, entitled Paper Hats and Mistletoe. But
you'll also find an album from her Christmas with Summer.
Her name is Summer Giddings, and it's my great pleasure
to be chatting to her right now. Summer, welcome to

(00:36):
Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your time.

S2 (00:39):
Thank you very much.

S1 (00:41):
Now, Summer, I just thought I'd start off by giving
you an opportunity to introduce yourself. Tell us a bit
about yourself and how long you've been singing for.

S2 (00:52):
Um, so my name is Summer Giddings. I'm 23 years
old and I have low vision. I've been singing probably since.
Since I started high school about ten years ago.

S1 (01:02):
And, um, of course, this week. Your latest single, Paper
Hats and Mistletoes just come out. So tell us a
bit about the song there and how that, um, the
idea came about there.

S2 (01:16):
So my main idea for the song is that it
doesn't really snow in Australia at Christmas, and there's a
lot of Christmas songs out there about snow and winter time,
and I set out to write a Christmas song that
wasn't about snow.

S1 (01:30):
That's fair enough. And this sort of thing is you
sort of write what you know. And how much did
you draw on your experiences at, you know, family Christmases
and spending time with family and friends and the memories
you've had of Christmases in the past and putting that
into the song. What's sort of been your favourite memories

(01:53):
that you wanted to make sure to include in a
song like this?

S2 (01:58):
I haven't really had any big family gatherings during Christmas.
My family have been like all over the world, all
over Australia. So, um, I guess it's kind of it's
just kind of on the general family experience, familiar moments
that we share at Christmas time.

S1 (02:13):
That's understandable, and I think everyone can relate to the
whole paper hat thing. That's a universal experience for anybody
in Australia for sure. Now, with regards to the album itself,
what can people expect there if they've been following quite
a few of your songs over the past few years?

(02:36):
This isn't your first single or your first album by
any stretch. You've been quite active with songs like Fantasia
and things like that a few years ago, so what
sort of things can people expect there if they check
out the latest album from you?

S2 (02:52):
It's a bit different to my two original songs that
I've already put out. It's more acoustic voice and piano performance. Yeah,
the album is mostly voice and piano. I was going
to try release Paper Hats and Mistletoe with a fuller track. Um,
so more instrumentation, but unfortunately due to time constraints, I
wasn't able to. So hopefully that will be released next Christmas.

S1 (03:15):
Nah. But the version that did come out is fantastic,
and I have had a listen and there's some influences
there from, um, I heard a bit of, you know,
the sort of things you'd hear from Benson Byrne. Has
he been a kind of influence for you with your
music and some of the things that he's released in

(03:36):
sort of the more acoustic tracks that he's done? What
have been your influences there, do you think?

S2 (03:41):
I don't know about Benson Byrne, but um, one of
my main influences has actually been Delta Goodrem. I've been
fortunate enough to work with one of her producers, music directors,
on my other singles, but, um, I think Pepper had
some mistletoe. There's a song on my album called That's
Christmas to Me by Pentatonix. It's a very different version
to obviously they sing a cappella in the original and yeah,

(04:04):
I think my original song Paper Hats and Mistletoe has
been closely joined to that song.

S1 (04:09):
Well, that's really fantastic to hear. You've had the opportunity
to work with one of Delta Goodrem's producers. That's a
huge claim to fame. That's really exciting. What was that
like to work with them?

S2 (04:22):
It was good. We didn't have much personal contact. It
was all over email and stuff. But my other two
original songs were part of university projects. Production and mixing projects.
So I kind of did the bass for my assignment
and decided to finish the song. Release it. So I
sent them to him and yeah, what he produced based

(04:44):
on my demo instrumental. My demo track was really good.

S1 (04:48):
That's really fantastic to hear. Now, Summer, with regards to
the single and the album. So the singles out already
for people out there, you can go and check it
out already, but the album that's coming out on the
4th of December, and there's quite a few ways that

(05:09):
people can listen to it. There's quite a few music
apps as I understand it, so I'm just going to
grab them now to let people know that they can
check out summer's single and her album. So that's Paper
Hats and Mistletoe, the single, as well as Christmas With Summer,

(05:32):
the album by heading to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube music,
Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer. So any of those apps
of your choice that are your favorite, you can check
out summer's work there. Now, Summer, if people would love
to follow you on socials or find out a bit

(05:55):
more about you, what's the best way for people to
perhaps do that and give you a follow and things
like that?

S2 (06:03):
So I'm on Facebook and Instagram. My handles are at
some beginnings. Official.

S1 (06:09):
Perfect. Okay. Well, I've been speaking today with Summer Giddings,
who's just released her latest single, Paper Hats and Mistletoe.
And her album Christmas with Summer is very shortly coming out,
so make sure to check out those ones. Summer, thank

(06:30):
you so much for your time today. It was great
to catch up with you and chat about your music.

S2 (06:36):
Thank you Sam.