Who is Aaron Schroeder?
Well, usually when people talk about their background they tend to do it geographically, so I’ll start there. I was born in Los Angeles CA, moved to Portland OR, split to Greece for 2 days, moved to Boston MA, then moved to Eastern Washington. I’ve been here two years. I also read too many books.
How do you classify your sound?
A quarter to a classic sound, a quarter to something new, one half to keeping myself entertained. I find that most artists are terribly inaccurate when describing their own sound, and I’m not going to say I’m at all different. I hope it comes across as music that borrows from folk as much as it does Thin Lizzy or John Fante. Wholesome is a good word, I think. Maybe playful, as well?
Who are your biggest influences?
Musically, I am always influenced by Dylan, Bowie, The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, David Bello. There are certain bands like that who I can only listen to a couple songs before having to stop the tape and attempt to mimic their style. For example, even though it’s one my favorite records I can’t listen to Dylan’s “Desire” all the way through. It can be bothersome, but also triumphant as well. I find that my best songs are written this way.
How does your new album, Black & Gold, differ from your debut ?
I think just in sheer size of the recording, Black & Gold is wonderfully different from Southern Heart. We took a lot of time and care making sure each song was distinct from it’s predecessor on this record. Although there are certainly lots of “roll the tape, see what happens” moments on Black & Gold, the music has a lot bigger scope – there’s hardly a spare moment. If we needed a harp, we got a fucking harp, you know? With the first album those spare moments were what made it special to me. Also, my girlfriend says I have become much more confident in my singing with this album.
Pick a song and tell us about it.
Well, “The Mississippi Line” from Black & Gold has a funny back story to it that most people might not pick up on from the lyrics alone. At the time, I was really into Mark Twain, reading short stories, biographies, etc. I had a dream about having sex on a raft. So I kind of fine tuned the idea and it became “The Mississippi Line”. So yeah, I’ve got a “getting laid while rafting” song. Not too many other folk singer can say that, I hope.
Have any gigs coming up?
We’re doing a record release show September 8th here at home. I’m very excited about that – lots of talented people involved there.
What else is new?
We’re diving into the third (as of yet untitled) record. We’ve got a handful of drum tracks down, thanks in part to the help of the fantastic, Isaac Carpenter of Gosling. So that should be out in a year or so. I’d like to keep up the momentum of write/record/ write/ record as long as we’ve all got interested ideas. Other than that, I just finished reading the new Poe Ballantine short story collection. For fans of Bukowski, Kerouac and the like, I really cannot recommend a contemporary author more highly.
Order Aaron Schroeder’s Black & Gold here, for $7.99 (and get free buttons and stickers!).
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