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MEET RADIO DISNEY’S NEWEST SISTER DUO RUBY SUMMER
By: Lauren Pinney
Ruby Summer is a musical force of nature with a plan to take the music industry by storm. This sister duo act comprised of 18 year old Ruby and 21 year old Summer have a plethora of talent and a musical background that only outlines their obvious aptitude. Hollywood Teen’Zine got the inside scoop of their real life sister act, how they got started and how they are planning to leave their mark on the music world.
Summer and Ruby Spiro have grown up in a musical family and have always been influenced in the arts from both their mother and father. “He is a very well known producer and music and song writer himself, so he has taught us a lot. Our mom has taught us a lot as well,” the girls shared with us about their parents. Both Summer and Ruby have been singing and dancing since they could talk. “Our dad used to record our voices in the studios and the songs that we would make up in our heads when we were three years old,” Ruby reminisced with a laugh.
As the girls grew older they began playing around on a serious level with theirre musical traits. “We all started writing together with my dad. I remember one time we put both of our voices on this one song called Malibu," the girls recalled. "We had never really sung together until that moment. We heard it through the speakers and we were just like ‘Oh my gosh! That sounds really unique and really special,’ and we just looked at each other and said we should do this!” After that they started working on it and writing songs together and the “craziness” as they called it began.
They took their newly found interest by the reins and sought after advancing their career themselves. “We started going on meetings and running around with our little CD when Ruby was 13 and I was a sophomore in high school," Summer confessed. "We had our mom take us to the beach and take pictures of us and we put them on a little CD and made a four song disc. It got us into a bunch of meetings." It wasn't until the girls met Doug Howard from the Nashville based record label Lyric Street Records that things really started forming together towards a future in music that Ruby and Summer dreamed of growing up.
About a year ago they began traveling to Nashville for a month at a time working on putting songs together for their debut album, which was recorded partly in their home studio Glitter Box and the rest in Nashville. Majority of their time recording the album was spent in Nashville where they met with some of the top producers and writers. “We were there (in Nashville) for a month and we would come back (to Los Angeles) for a week and go back there. We were really hunkering down trying to get this record right.”
The sisters have a natural talent for songwriting and admit that they take the best song written, no matter who wrote it, to put into consideration for the album. Although the girls write all of their music, they do get an occasional idea or two from their dad. “Summer writes alone and I write alone,” Ruby explained of their writing styles. “We are always inspired to write; we just go together and make the best ideas that we can as a group.” When it comes to their music, they are both very different, yet very much alike. Summer usually writes songs about her fantasies of the world, and even about the oh-so-famous topic of boys and relationships. Ruby is more of the spur-of-the-moment type of writer, “every little thing that comes through my head I need to write it down on paper. I have bits of paper in my purse that I use for ideas. I love music that brings everyone together, and no matter what, I know that there is someone out there who has felt the same way as me. So, I do write from my heart.”
Although the girls tend to write apart from each other, they both agree on sending out the same unified message. The girls described this best:
“Music can really change someone’s bad day. Music can change someone’s point of view, and music is a universal language. You can be any race, color, gender and any age, and music will bring all different types of people together. That’s really what we promote for our music. Sometimes we end up talking about our relationships and boys, but it still brings people together, people who deal with the same thing. Our music is also about girl power. We believe that you don’t need any guy to make you feel good about yourself. Our music is just about being comfortable in your own skin, and being empowered, and independent.”
Both Ruby and Summer are passionate about being yourself and standing up for what you believe in. At the very least, their music will give you just that; a sense of knowing yourself and being united with everyone else who has ever felt the same way.
Their enthusiasm for music and passion for telling stories has made them an obvious choice for our listeners. Ruby Summer plays on the popular and well respected Radio Disney. Their songs hare also be featured on a variety of Disney movie soundtracks such as Tinker Bell and Pixie Dust. “We love Tinker Bell! She is the ultimate,” the girls shared with excitement. “They sent us some songs and they were like ‘Do you want to do this song called How to Believe?’ It was an adorable, sweet song. They asked us to do a song for the next movie and that was a more melancholy song about Tinker Bell. Actually, when we saw the movie she wasn’t just this beautiful fairy, she was actually going through stuff, which is what we kind of wanted to communicate.”
The sisters have had an opportunity to open for popular radio disney artists such as Honor Society and Mitchell Musso, which has helped them work towards achieving their goal of their very own live stage performance. “The whole fantasy is performing live on stage with stage sets, and costume changes, and stuff like that. So, we have lots of crazy ideas about our live show,” Summer shared about their future tour plans. “We are rehearsing every single day, we need to keep on growing and growing and getting better!”
The days continue to go by fast as the girls are busy working on their music, perfecting their sound and putting the final touches on their upcoming debut album. Their newly released EP is an extended music CD that features three song preview from the forthcoming album. “It’s not just a single; it's more than two songs," the girls shared. "Once the album comes out you don’t have to re-buy the songs, you can just complete the album by buying the rest of the songs.” As for the album, the girls admit to be continually trying to add more songs to the list but realize that there can only be so much they can share with the world at one time. We have no doubt that the final product will be well worth the wait. With the rhythms, mixes and complete devotion the girls have put into their music, fans can be assured they will receive a new enjoyable album that will continually be placed on repeat in your CD players.
The crazy lives the girls lead and the constant one-on-one sister time they spend together only furthers the close relationship the two share. “We are like yin and yang, day and night. So, it’s like a perfect fit,” the girls explained of their close relationship. “Even though I can’t say we have been perfect angels, I think that all of the moments that we do have are amazing because we grow from them. We both love each other so much and we are in this together. So, when we get mad or there is a disagreement or something we both know that we want the best for each other and the bad times are still good,” Summer added.
The girl’s have their own hobbies to pull them away from the life of music. Ruby loves to surf everyday and loves the beauty of dancing. Summer finds joy in crafting and piecing together different styles of fashion. She loves the theater and finds a second home on stage, although recently she has been too busy to enjoy that element of her life.
Even with their separate hobbies the sisters always return to their music and the story they want to share through it. To them it is all about living life to the fullest, learning through the mistakes, growing through the tough times and laughing through the good ones and allowing music to tell the story.
Head on over to Amazon.com to purchase their brand new EP “Conspiracy of Devine Events” and support Hollywood Teen’Zine today! Continue reading to find out a little more about the girls!
You said that have a studio in your garage that you call the “glitter box” - why do you call it the glitter box?
We do call it the Glitter Box, for so many reasons. We have a song called glitter box and it is about our house and anybody that has ever been in our house they know that it is very sparkly and we have a Christmas tree that is decorated and we keep it up all year and we use it for birthdays and Christmas and holidays and we call it the forgiveness tree. What it’s really about -- behind all the glittery stuff -- it’s about acceptance and love for each other and forgiveness and stuff that we have learned over the past couple of years. Our dad had cancer and it was a really tough thing it was really difficulties during that time but it really brought us together, it taught us so much about life and I think that’s what its about the glitter box is just the word to represent the magic that happens in our house and love and music and family unity and that’s what it is really about.
Favorite movie:
Ruby: everything that doesn’t make me think. I love the movie Definitely Mareiybe. That’s like my new favorite movie. And I love My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Summer: I am like the total opposite, I love the thinker movies. I think my favorite movies are The Darjeeling Limited because I think Wes Anderson’s comedic timing is so brilliant. And I love Marie Antoinette, I just love the costumes. I could watch that movie on mute, I think it’s just so beautiful. And I love Mulan Rouge, they are so beautiful and they are so well done.
Favorite actor or actress:
Ruby: I am a dancer and I think dancing is so amazing, and one person that I really love to watch all the time is like Jennifer Lopez. She is my favorite. I watch her in like everything, The Wedding Planner to her music videos, everything! I just love Jennifer Lopez.
Do you have any other secret obsessions that nobody knows about?
Ruby: We have a few. We have this obsession with burritos; it’s actually really bad I am trying to get off of burritos. Like I had them last night
Where do you get them from what’s your hotspots?
Ruby: Oh there are like so many I could tell you about! There are like a million burrito hotspot places here. You know Roberto’s, and Pitas. I also have like a slight addiction to Diet Coke, which is really unhealthy . . . but it is seriously so good. I really got an addiction to the Big Gulps like not in a can but it has to be huge with extra ice. And they have those huge cups in the gas stations that Summer and I collect, it’s so horrible. We are like ‘let’s go to that place ‘cause they have diet coke!’
What are your fashion influences, where do you shop?
Ruby: Summer likes to shop for me because I don’t like to be in a store for very long. But we like all the vintage stores. We love vintage. We are really big vintage shoppers, there is nothing I like more than finding something and I know no one else has it. Like those shoes…I just love vintage shopping, I always find the coolest most unique stuff. I always like to finds something different that’s kind of like my favorite thing. I would rather like have something that no one else has than to wear something that everyone else is wearing. We are like ‘that’s weird, buy it’
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