A single guy in an endless summer

“At this point, my [music] career is front seat, and I’m taking a break from being a promoter,” says one-time Blizzard frontman Chris Leyva, who — though his first two solo albums were nominated for multiple San Diego Music Awards — was until recently busy booking local shows via his Black Cherry Music Group. “4th&B closing was a major blow, clubs are dropping live bands.... I have the rest of my life to be a booker and talent buyer, but I don’t wanna be 80 [years old], pushing my music.”

While he’ll still occasionally book talent at Brick by Brick, Leyva is concentrating on a new solo album and planning several EPs with his newest backing group, the Falling Doves (which’ll play Art Around Adams on June 1 and launch a European tour in September). “The band was made to accompany me and my diverse songwriting catalog,” says Leyva of the ensemble that includes drummer Cameron Foley and Italian transplant Stefano Belforte. “I met Stefano the Saturday night he arrived in Los Angeles, he had literally been here three hours.... We had a full band by Monday, and he moved here from Italy. The name the Falling Doves came from an article I read about birds falling all over Italy and Rome, and I just felt, What’s next?, you know? End of the world?”

Rather than sit awaiting Armageddon, Leyva will preview his solo full-length Summer of Life on May 23 at ArtLab in Normal Heights. “I’ll have a CD sampler there with tracks from the record, and I’ll be playing with the Sara Groban band as well,” he says. “The album is a collection of [songs about] being a single guy in an endless summer, which is how it feels living in Ocean Beach.”