Summer is usually the time for relaxing and many of us have had ample time in the last three months to do just that. Try telling that to Rookie of the Year, a band out of North Carolina who have decided to go state-hopping this summer – twice. Fresh off an East Coast tour with LFO, the band decided to begin a cross-country, end-of-summer tour promoting their latest single, “Sooner or Later.” Releasing their second full-length album, Sweet Attention, earlier this year, Rookie of the Year has already graced the stages of Madison twice this year.

The group’s last headlining tour, the “What is Love” tour, promoted the single of the same name and Sweet Attention, which reached #9 on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist chart in it’s first week and sold over 30,000 copies. As busy as their lives are right now, Mike Kamerman, vocalist and guitarist for the band, took some time out of the band’s touring schedule to talk with The Badger Herald about the new single and the band’s latest tour.

“‘Sooner or Later’ is probably our favorite of all the songs on the record,” Kamerman said. “Our first single was ‘What is Love,’ which is more of a pop-y song, so we thought we’d go back to an acoustic one. Ryan [Dunson, lead singer] wrote the lyrics. It’s pretty much about a girl and about her life and his life without her.”

As if the band was not busy enough with all the touring and promoting, they also shot a video for “Sooner or Later” this summer.

“Shooting the video was neat,” Kamerman said. “We were doing a few shows with Relient K and a camera crew came out and documented a couple of the shows. They were really great shows, and we’ve been friends with the guys from Relient K for a while so it was a lot of fun.”

Shooting a video while on tour is basically the only option for the ambitious band. Logging over 250,000 miles in their career, these guys are veterans at the tour scene and they still love every minute of it.

“We get to see the country and we get to see our friends,” Kamerman said. “Since we tour so much, we’ve been able to meet a lot of new people that we’ve become friends with. We love Madison. We have a good relationship with the guy who books the shows there, and we always have a good time.”

When asked what expectations Rookie of the Year had for this headlining tour, Kamerman was light hearted, revealing that the band has no intentions of slowing down.

“We just got off tour with LFO so we just wanted to play markets that we have fun in and have friends in,” Kamerman said. “It’s the end of summer, so we wanted to have some fun, kind of make a vacation out of it. After this we are going to record our new acoustic EP and it seemed like a good idea to have a little fun before we get serious with recording stuff.”

Over the years, the band has certainly created a name for themselves and a solid fan base. Yet, the group has managed to not become jaded as a result of all this popularity.

“The shows have been great, turning out better than we had expected,” Kamerman said. “Lots of people have been coming out, yet, we’ve been playing in smaller rooms so it’s been more intimate. We’re just having a lot of fun.”

Rookie of the Year will be playing at The Loft on Saturday, August 22nd, at 6 p.m.