Blood Red Summer was formed in Lubbock, TX in the autumn of 2006 by front man Ross Hamil. He had started writing music while working on doing some guest vocal parts for another project out of Austin, TX. After about six months of going through member after member, Ross learned that Shelby was returning to Lubbock from his ventures in Georgia. Shelby wasn’t given a chance to move back to town before being approached to try his hand at Blood Red Summer. Although his skill and talents were sought after by many musicians and bands in the area, Shelby graciously agreed to give Blood Red Summer a shot, and eventually joined the band as the second official member.
In the meantime, Ross had regained contact with a previous acquaintance, John Reed. After having seen John perform a reunion show with a previous band for the purpose of raising money for a benefit, Ross knew he had found another missing piece of this puzzle. “I remember watching John play and it literally gave me chills. I looked at my wife and said, ‘I think I just found my guitar player. I contacted him and asked him if he would be interested and he said he would be. After a night of listening to the music, talking, and drinking all my whiskey, John agreed to become a permanent member” Ross said.
John joined Blood Red Summer in August of 2007, nearly 1 year after the bands conception.
Although two spots had been filled with exceptional musicians, there was still an absence of the drummer.
After finding a drummer, they had their first show in November.
When asked about playing live, John answered, “We do a lot of high energy stuff and seeing the crowd feed off that energy, it gives us something to feed off of. It’s like a giant circle of people feeding off of each other.”
About nine months after having come together, Blood Red Summer parted ways with their bass player, Shelby, after which Trace was asked to join.
After several months of behind the scenes work and some thought, Ross brought up the idea of adding a second guitar player. He brought the idea of adding Erik up to the band and everyone was keen on the idea of trying him out.
Ross and Erik met when Ross went with some friends to pick Erik from the airport, as he was flying in from Los Angeles.
As Erik was all over the world on tour with several bands (such as Static-X, Meshugga, Ministry, and many others), he and Ross kept in contact.
Ross said, "Erik and I had always talked about the music I was involved with and he was a huge personal motivation to me given his experience and knowledge with the major label music industry. Once I put Blood Red Summer together and had some music recorded and ready, Erik gave it a listen and told me that I finally had the right mix put together."
About a month after Erik completed his last tour with Static-X before retiring, Ross asked him if he knew anyone that might be interested in jumping in the second guitar position.
According to Ross, "I told him we might be looking for another guitar player and his response was, 'What about me, dude?'"
At that point it was all but a done deal. They got together and had Erik sit in on a rehearsal, and the decision was made.
In January of 2010, Blood Red Summer finally landed their permanent drummer, Wally.
In February, Trace decided to pursue a different career, at which point Shelby was approached to rejoin the band. He gladly accepted.
Since the beginning, they have played several shows (sharing the stage with such acts as Static-X, Bury Your Dead, Powerman 5000, Seventh Void, Dirge, Hinder, Black Stone Cherry, and Pop Evil), have had a song debut and achieve rotation on the nation’s number 1 music station, have released music on European radio stations, have done radio interviews on radio stations in different states in the U.S.
They currently have an advance copy of their debut album, "11 Miles to Misery," and will have the full CD out by spring of 2010.