There are people in this lifetime who will continue to inspire you, and for me one of those people when in comes to music in particular would be Aaron Bruno.
Better known as the visionary behind AWOLNATION, Aaron has had such a remarkable career over the years, and has come a long way, continuing to go strength to strength. With a continued hunger and passion for music, this year saw the release of the latest record, The Phantom Five, the fifth album to be added to the AWOLNATION repertoire.
With so much to unpack, I had the pleasure of catching up with Aaron himself to find out more.
Well, it's with absolute pleasure. I'm joined by the wonderful Aaron, a.k.a Awolnation. How are you doing?
Good. Had a little bit of a emergency in the last 24 hours because my guitar player had had a family emergency and I've had to try to scramble to figure out a way for someone else to play this show we have. And I figured it out.
It is a horrible thing when this happens because you know, the show must go on, you know, and there's so many people counting on you. So you just have to play through it and figure it out. And I think I figured it out.
But that's what's going on. That's what's going on right now. I think that's that's that's interestingly, part of doing live music, having to improvise when you do get these situations, right?
You know, I mean, I'm sure you have experienced this.
I know I have where there's some shows that are kind of weird when something like that happens. And you remember it because it was sort of different, or something insane happens. When I was younger, I'd play shows and if the guitar player's amp broke, for example, it seemed like the end of the world.
But it's kind of cool to have that human aspect. I remember when I saw the Foo Fighters, for example, way early on, and remember, the lights didn't work.
So they had to play with all the house lights on. And it ended up being kind of cool. And Grohl said something funny.
He goes, ‘What are we at a fucking Fugazi show?’ And that joke stuck with me.
In general, how has 2024 been for you?
Been pretty great.
I started a family. You know, so that's the most important thing that I'm focused on. And it's been very helpful to lean on that as what matters most, because then, the peaks and valleys of a musical career don't seem as dire one way or another. So when I get to see my family's smile, it washes away any struggle or any other thing that's going on in my life.
So that's number one. But number two, is that it just feels really good to finally get this music off my chest that I've been sitting on for a while. And that's always the case whenever I make music.
There's that honeymoon phase of the song, the creation of the song and then the collective of the album. And then, you can't wait for people to hear it. And it's also scary because then you release it, and you've been sitting on what you think is the greatest thing of all time.
And then when you go to put it out, you go, whoa, wait a second, maybe it's not as great as I thought. And then you start doubting yourself. And then you think it's horrible and all of these emotions and everything in between, so it's quite hilarious.
Speaking of new material, you've got the latest EP Candy Pop. So what was it like working on this new body of work?
Well, Candy Pop was going to be those three songs. I intended for those to be part of an album, which ended up becoming the Phantom Five, this new record that's coming out.
It became evident to me for a few different reasons, one of which I won't bore you with. It was more of a business kind of thing. And then the more important reason was that the songs didn't fit the feeling of the rest of the album, the rest of the Phantom Five.
I really wanted to approach this record as if it could be my last one. And whether it is or isn't remains to be seen. But five albums, that's a lot of music.
I feel pretty proud of that body of work if I walked away after this final song and this touring cycle and all that. I'll never stop making music, but I love the idea of putting that pressure and weight on my shoulders to imagine it being a last conversation, a final date, a final night out together. And I liken it to different relationships we've all had throughout our life.
Often at times you don't know that it's going to be the last moment or the last time you're going to have a conversation with someone, whether it's due to an untimely departure or a breakup or various reasons geographically. You don't know, right?
So in this case, I thought if I plan it, I'll put a different kind of pressure on myself for all of these songs, hopefully to be great and really relatable to the Awolnation family and the people who have given me this opportunity and this career and this second family.
And then if I continue on, that's fine, too. And if I'm, you know, if this is just something I made up to challenge myself, well, the drama is lovely.
So having done five albums, what for you have you started to identify for you what makes a strong album through the eyes of Awolnation?
I think each record has been fairly ambitious, for better or for worse, where there's usually a clear intro song, a warm up to the listening experience, and then you kind of get into the record and the bulk of the narrative and how the songs feel. And then it has a closing of an insane journey, sort of a final action scene, if you will, or final dramatization of sorts.
On this record, I felt like I've done enough of that. I wanted to just feel like a solid group of songs. And while the last song, which is called Outta Here, appropriately titled, I think, it's not another one of those epic attempts of, you know, like A Night's of Shame, my first for my first record, there's 12 Minutes or some of these other songs that go in all these different directions.
This one sort of is a bit of an unagreeable goodbye, you know, a polite handshake and hug, not too many tears, but some. And that's my, that's the goal. I wanted to challenge myself and hit it in a different direction.
So that's kind of why I did it again. Immediately, I have new songs in my head, whether or not they're for AWOL or not. And I also started this metal hardcore punk band called the Barbarians of California, where I'm simultaneously releasing those songs.
That record will come out by the end of the summer. So that's been very helpful for me to kind of multitask and do both things at the same time. It's allowed me to have a certain kind of focus on the Phantom Five and AWOL that possibly wasn't always there, you know, because it's like someone who, I guess, loves two sports. It is like being able to pull a Bo Jackson and do baseball and football.
As a a result, hopefully be better at both and, you know, hopefully not have an injury that takes me out. This is some American football talk, of course haha!
So from the record, then was there a particular track that really you wanted to push yourself further than before?
Yes and no.
I mean, I would say that in some ways, no, because I've always pushed myself sometimes too far. When you open yourself up that much, to be vulnerable in a way that is almost too raw, it can be challenging. I just felt like confident enough and mature enough at this point in my life and career to kind of keep it tidy, keep it contained in a lot of ways.
I know so many of our listeners really love the aggro stuff that AWOL has done. But with The Barbarians, it helps me to keep that over there and keep AWOL focused on the best songs and the best lyrics possible and not have to rely on as much of a shock value that maybe I have in the past. While that shock value has helped me make a career with songs like Sail and Run and the list goes on and on, I was able to kind of like calm down a little bit.
It's not that this record is less energetic than others. I don't think that's the case. But as far as pushing myself a little further, as you alluded to, I would say the song Panoramic View really did that on an emotional level because I wrote it to my uncreated family, which is a crazy thing to say.
I would say Unborn Son or Daughter, but I ended up having twin boys. So it's always this word play I'm using. Well, I wrote it to my hypothetical, unrealized, identical twins, you know, it's hard to explain.
But we were trying to start a family and I wanted to write a song about facing fear and sort of from a place of hopeful, calming wisdom. And it was around the time we were all really scared for various reasons. One thing we all had in common, whatever part of the world you were in, whatever your political leanings are or religious ideology may be, we were all pretty scared for different reasons.
Some were scared of getting sick, some were scared of the government, some were scared of family members, friends going. There was this fear all around, whichever way you look. So I wanted to write a song to calm the nerves of my family or my younger self, let's say.
So a little bit of time travel there. Huge Back to the Future fan, love time travel concepts. And so it ended up being a letter to what ended up being my twin boys.
I guess like that in itself kind of like slightly backtracking, like containing yourself a little bit is also a strength.
I guess, as well, rather than always being raw, always being vulnerable, there's a beauty with also being like, OK, I don't have to commit 110 miles per hour. You don't always have to go to 11 as the saying goes.
It's the chip on my shoulder I carry musically after being doubted so much and coming from the underground and the punk rock scene and all that. I can't I can't shake that off necessarily.
But there was a certain kind of containment in this record that I think is something that I appreciate, at least looking back. The only time we will be able to tell is if we talk in three or four years. I could have a much more clear understanding of what the hell I just did.
I always go back to the Weezer Blue album. It never gets old to me. I've talked about Rivers so much. He's a friend of mine and someone I really look up to in a lot of ways. But that record's fairly flawless to me.
It's pretty short and it ends and you want to hear it again. So hopefully this is the closest I've come to that kind of simplistic, bombastic attempt at a good record. I'm good with having an amazing career and journey in music, especially with AWOL.
Have there been any moments when you look back that really make you smile?
There have been so many, so many astonishing miracles that have happened with this project and journey since, you know, 2008/2009, when I really was broke, staying on a friend's grandmother's couch in debt that I just didn't know and expected this all to happen.
I had a lot of people who believed in me at this point, but the writing was half written on the wall, and maybe in pencil, not quite in pen that it's over. I have to figure something else out.
So I did. So as the journey went on, whether it was meeting some of my heroes, you know, the list goes on and on, whether it's like James Hetfield or Steve Perry or Rivers Cuomo, Duff McKagan, you know, these people who have accepted me as as a an equal on a musical level has been just overwhelming. Some of the bands we played with, we've opened up for the Rolling Stones.
We shared the stage with Robert Plant. You know, those moments, I don't know if they make me smile, but they definitely make me feel extremely satisfied.
I know I'm talking to you right now, but I've never necessarily been one for the limelight you know. Rolling Stone have never written about me and said, you need to listen to this artist. That's never been my route.
But the other artists I love and adore have accepted me. I suppose if I had to choose one or the other, it would be that route. So that's been really neat.
But to answer your question of what makes me smile, it's all the jokes between the bandmates and the hilarious stuff that happens. I've had the opportunity to play all of the main late night shows here in the States, whether it was like I got to play Conan before that was gone. And some of these shows where we all discovered music when we were younger, it seems less and less people are watching these shows today, of course.
So there's a shift there. But the point is, before these high pressure events being filmed it felt like you only have one shot.
My drummer, Isaac Carpenter, who's one of my best friends in the world, he always says something to make me laugh or pull me aside and go, dude, you're not that important. Don't take yourself that seriously.
It's a great reminder, it's kind of like having that wingman to keep you grounded, I guess, as well. Well, music's hilarious, you know, in one way so serious and it changes people's lives.
It's changed my life. It's gotten me through the toughest of times. And I take the responsibility seriously. But it's also quite funny. I get on a stage and I sing, you know, and I take myself seriously. We walk out all hard, like we're tough and play this stuff and try to behave.
So if anyone wonders how it is or wants to know, just watch that movie. And it's very much exactly that.
This is kind of a weird question to ask. But at what point does AWOL and Aaron meet? Where are the bonds but also the parts which are separate?
It's a great question. I've never been asked that before, certainly not in that way. And I'll do my best to answer.
I would say that, AWOL, it's kind of the journal, the secret journal entries of my emotions. A bit unhinged that I've shared with the whole world. But that's different than who I am as a man and who I am as a father and who I am as a friend and a family member. It's completely different.
I feel these emotions inside. But, when I talk to my wife, I'm never talking to her about these lyrics.
I'm never talking to her about the emotions of these songs or anything like that. So I have this other relationship with the listener that's completely separate from who I am as a person, but they're all part of the same thing to a certain extent.
I think AWOL has become my therapist in a lot of ways or my therapy sessions, it just so happens that millions of people have heard it.
Thinking about the time you have spent on the road, especially recently what have been some of the moments so far that made you smile or laugh?
Well, in a positive way, I've started this concept of starting this show/podcast where I'm talking to everybody about music. I don't want to give away exactly what it's about, but it's it's allowed me to be very productive while I'm on the road instead of leaving my family sitting in a hotel room, waiting till nine o'clock to play the show, sweating, showering, eating, whatever it is.
Right now, I'm busy and engaging with people. I'm talking to different artists, but more importantly, talking to the people at the shows, at the gas station, at the grocery store, which I'm about to walk into right now and going, hey, I want to talk to you about music and what you love about it.
There's a bit of a punchline to the show, but that'll be revealed towards the end of the summer. But it's been amazing to talk to people about music and what we all love, because that's what we have in common.
You know, here in America, we're being bludgeoned about election season coming up. And if you turn on the TV or the news, God forbid, which I highly recommend you don't, you're going to be just force fed.
So my way of dodging that is to talk to people about music, because that's the thing we have in common. We have more in common than we don't. But if you pay attention to what's going on, or what they want you to pay attention to, you'll think that everybody hates each other. But I disagree. I think we have way more in common than we don't.
Music is a great way to bind us.
Kind of related to that you have got an amazing and loyal fan base, not just in the States, but also in other parts of the world as well, especially here in the UK. So when you think of that special bond and dynamic you've got with the fans, what is it about it that you're most grateful for?
Two things come to mind.
One, that I have anyone to listen to at all, you know, that I can't shake that miracle, you know, because it wasn't that way. You know, again, back to never being oppressed, darling.
The odds were stacked against me after the handful of bands I was in before had, dissipated and failed. I don't even like to use the term fail necessarily or the word fail, but that's what they did to me.
I'm grateful. I learned a lot from these other bands and value all that time greatly. But, you know, no one wanted to give me a chance as damaged goods in the industry.
So I'm just in shock that I'm even talking about these songs I write because I'd be writing them anyways. The only difference is I'm talking to wonderful people like yourself and the various people across the world about these songs. So just the fact that I have an audience is one thing that comes to mind.
Then on a more poignant level, perhaps I would say I try to give myself a break and not read every comment because it's unhealthy to do so, but I get a general sense of what's going on and how these people feel. And they seem to really get it. They seem to really understand where I'm coming from.
Sometimes I'll read a review of a song, a song like Panoramic View. I'll notice that someone explains at great length and great detail where I was coming from better than I even knew I was. And so I would say that they're really smart, in many instances, smarter than I am, or at least better at articulating what the hell I was going for.
So that's been a wonderful thing to experience.
Well, it's been amazing speaking to you, Aaron. To everyone that supported you on this fantastic journey, what would you like to say to them?
Well, thank you doesn't seem adequate enough. I guess I would say thank you for being open enough to accept a songwriter like myself, because it wasn't by the book. It wasn't and remains that way.
And it wasn't your standard formula. I feel like their support has opened up a lot of different doors for me, both with songwriting and as a person, and it's been really inspiring.
Well, on that note, I thank you so much. And hopefully I'll see you over in the UK really soon.
The brand new album, The Phantom Five is now available on all major platforms.
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Article By Thushara Chandrasiri
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