Welcome to Hughesville

If Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley were in a John Hughes movie, their relationship trajectory would have gone something like this: Pearl-wearing Sankey falls for leather-jacketed Warmsley after he makes her a mixtape and the closing scene catches them leaving the prom together, much to everyone's shock and awe.

In real life, Sankey and Warmsley grew up on the same side of the tracks in Southwest London, Sankey was the one who made the mix and the camera is currently closing in on them as, yes, a couple, but also as bandmates in their synth and guitar-pop project Summer Camp-no prom involved.

Sankey, 27, and Warmsley, 28, first met at one of Warmsley's shows in London. They eventually got serious enough that Sankey made Warmsley a mix CD onto which she put "I Only Have Eyes for You" by The Flamingos. The two loved the song so much that they recorded a cover of it, and while Warmsley was mixing their rendition, Sankey made them a MySpace page.

Since the song experiment was just for fun, she chose to leave off the pouty photos of herself and Warmsley and instead posted a found photo of seven women, their feathered hair suggesting the late '70s or early '80s. The default country for the MySpace account came up as Sweden and Sankey embraced it, designing a band bio that described a group of Swedish friends who had met at summer camp. And thus the band was born in October 2009.

Summer Camp's page remained hidden for all of 30 minutes before Sahil Varma, of the blog Transparent, discovered it and introduced his readers to the "seven Swedes" and their Flamingos cover. "People were emailing us in Swedish and we were trying to reply with Babelfish translator," Sankey said. When the jig was finally up and the two had to identify themselves, Sankey and Warmsley started recording some original songs.

At the time of Summer Camp's formation, Warmsley had a steady solo career going but Sankey had never sung on stage. She wasn't a total stranger to live performance, however; she had attended drama school in the U.K. But the duo's combined experience did not guarantee Summer Camp a flawless first show.

"It was terrible," Sankey said of the band's first headlining show in London, held at the Lexington. "A lot of people at the beginning said that we were really bad live, and they were right."

But Summer Camp kept on playing, writing and watching John Hughes films. "My favorite is Pretty in Pink for Ducky, but it's Sixteen Candles for how funny it is and for Anthony Michael Hall." Warmsley didn't know many Hughes movies when he and Sankey met, so she gave him a crash course-not only because she's a fan but because his movies deal with themes that fit with Summer Camp's songs.

"John Hughes had this way of talking about teenagers and articulating the feelings and the problems and the emotions of being a teenager in a way that wasn't patronizing," Sankey said.

The result of these influences is the band's debut LP, Welcome To Condale. The album, released in November, is a joyous, synth-pop romp through the teenage concerns that often follow us into adulthood: phone calls from exes, unrequited love, My So-Called Life references (one of the songs is titled "Brian Krakow"). Both Summer Camp members take turns on vocals, but it's Sankey's sultry, Morrissey-style pleading and note drags that ring out clearest alongside the skuzzed-up guitar, drums and synth zags.

The title is another wink at a Hughes idea. Much like Hughes's Shermer, Ill., Condale is a fictional town, meant to be an L.A. suburb where teenage hijinks ensue. "It felt like it exemplified the America we see in movies. It's the America that we grew up looking at." Sankey said. And though the band realizes that this is a fictionalized vision, who really prefers American high school reality to the views of Hughes? All in favor say, "Simple Minds."

Feb. 6 at Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston St. (betw. Ludlow and Essex Sts.), mercuryloungenyc.com; 6:30 p.m., $12. Feb. 7 at Glasslands Gallery, 289 Kent St. (at S. 2nd St.), glasslands.blogspot.com; 8:30 p.m., $12.

-By Christine Werthman