AARON KING – xIAMKINGx
Aaron King is an extremely talented, and versatile musician in the Buffalo, NY heavy music community. From vocals, to guitar, to drums, and traversing every genre of music under the sun, Aaron has finally dropped a solo album he feels is a perfect representation of himself. Fans of melodic and progressive hardcore music will LOVE this album. The songs are short and to the point, the catchy melodies sprinkled throughout each aggressive passage creates a perfect balance of anger and beauty. This is an album written by the emotionally complex FOR the emotionally complex. Let's get into the interview.
1. In recent posts, you've said that your solo album is an extension of yourself. What did you mean exactly and what are the lyrical themes?
Lyrically, a good portion of this record deals with death and processing through grief and pain. The loss of family and friends is something that went through my mind a lot during this writing process. Musically, it was pushing my boundaries of writing on my own and not really falling into one genre but more so blending different influences of heavy music into a unique representation that really fits who I am.
2. I really enjoy the melodic aspects of the record considering the album is 90% aggressive hardcore. Where does the sprinkling of melancholic chords and such come from?
I've been listening to a band from the UK called Loathe a lot lately and I love their blend of abusive heaviness and more melodic approach as well. Bands like Cave In, Poison The Well and Norma Jean are also very influential to me. Sprinkle in some Foo Fighters for powerfully built melodic guitar riffs and add a dash of Drug Church with a kind of happy heavy punk riffs approach. You get some interesting music that comes out of all of that.
3. Talk about some of your favorite bands you think sound similar to xIAMKINGx.
My music is such a random blend of the influences I mentioned before. But I also don't think I sound like any of them at the same time. Don't know of any bands that have put all my nonsense into one presentation like this.
4. Why did you end up going with shorter songs? Is it just the genre or were you making some kind of deeper statement?
It's more of a song structure thing for me. I process through songs one at a time and write the music until it feels like a coherent song and a lot of times for me, that winds up being on the shorter side. I have somewhat of a short attention span and like the get in and get out approach to music a lot of times for heavier music. I write in fragmented sections and sometimes rearrange things until it makes sense.
5. What inspired the album art and who created it?
The original imagery is what is on the inside of the tape cover. It is a kid hiding his face behind his hands. Playing around with different effects, I wound up with an image that looks like a vibrant garden grew over him. To me it's like bringing light and new life into the darkness of life experiences.
6. Who did you record with, or did you do all this yourself?
I record everything myself with my home studio set-up. It really helps me dial everything in as needed. I try to keep this project as DIY as possible and push myself in all aspects of presenting it.
7. Do you have a personal favorite on the album?
The track SIX:TEN is one of my favorites because the song is a dedication to my grandparents who have passed. The address of the church they met at was 610. When my grandmother passed away 4 years ago, she died at 6:10pm and it felt like their love story was complete and they were reunited in the next life.
8. Will you ever put together a live band to perform these songs?
I kind of go back and forth with this idea in my head all of the time. I would like to get a live band together and at least perform here and there. I'm also torn with the notion to keep this as just a recording project on my own and just start a different band to do as a full band and play shows.
9. Can you recall the exact moment you decided you were going to make this album? What was going on?
I had bought a baritone guitar (Highly recommended by the way. Heaviness lower tuning of a 7 string guitar but the comfort of being a 6 string guitar) maybe a year or two ago and I couldn't get comfortable writing on it for a while. During this past year I just kind of just took the approach to make myself at least write a song with it and I wound up loving how it sounded and what I could accomplish on using the baritone guitar. I had written 2 songs at first with plans on just doing another EP and maybe try to do a split with another artist/band. When I got around 4-5 songs in, I was in a good flow with writing and challenged myself to write at least 10 tracks and put out a full length on my own. I really found a good groove and just kept pushing until I at least reached the 10 track marker and it felt good to accomplish that.
10. Any plans for live-action/performance music videos?
Most of the time I think about it after I've recorded the parts and then I just move on and forget to film myself playing it. I'm trying to get better at adding that aspect to the routine. I'm a work in progress.
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