For Awolnation frontman and master craftsman Aaron Bruno, the prospect of the “second album slump” was all too real. Throw in the fact that his biggest single ‘Sail’ spent 79 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, you best believe there are more than a few eyes fixed on him.
Thankfully, a wholly committed attitude and self-critical work ethic resulted in a follow-up body of work that the Californian native is itching to present to the world.
Texx: How did you pick ‘Hollow Moon’ as the first single off the new album from 14 stellar songs?
Aaron Bruno: My mentality has always been to make the best songs I’m capable of making and then be okay with whatever single comes to life once I turn in the record. You don’t always have control of how people are going to interpret your song. I mean, there’re a couple of others I probably would’ve gone with first – I would’ve gone with ‘KOOKSEVERYWHERE!!!’ but that would’ve probably freaked people out. Or a song like ‘Dreamers’ would’ve been really fun to go with first but ‘Hollow Moon’ was a nice happy medium of a song that was energetic, would get people’s attention and re-introduce ourselves back to the Awolnation fan base. I think there are songs that are definitely poppy-er and maybe seem like an easier choice but we wanted to challenge the listener and put out something exciting and something that would make people wanna get on the dancefloor and sweat it out with us again.
The label wanted one thing and I wanted something else and we met in the middle, so I don’t know who won that battle exactly [laughs]. But there are a lot of songs that we’re going to push for in many different directions. If nothing else I’m just really proud that at this moment millions of people have heard that breakdown at the end and me screaming in that way.
TX: I really look forward to seeing the progression of the album once it’s released and which singles you choose to put out next. Now you wrote, produced and performed every instrument on the album. Is it tough to be objective about a record when you’re so close to it?
AB: No because I’m my own harshest critic, you know? So I find that it’s really hard to impress myself because I’m really hard on the song and I try to service these ideas the best I can. I had a batch of around thirty-ish songs to choose from to put the record together. The engineer that I worked with, Eric Stenman, he’s a real harsh critic too so if I can impress him and I’m feeling confident about what I’ve done then chances are there are a lot of people out there that will feel the same way, because I will not settle until I feel like I’ve achieved greatness, musically. And whether or not other people feel that way is up to other ears, but first and foremost I wanna be extremely proud and confident and push myself and take it to another level.
I will hate on any of my parts harder than anyone else can, so by the time I turn it in I feel somewhat bulletproof to ridicule because I’ve already put myself through the ringer. And being alone while making those sorts of decisions can be a very lonely feeling, so I think part of that tension that I created with myself was a huge part of how the record ended up sounding – I guess epic one way or another.
TX: How different, if at all, was your working experience on ‘Run’ versus that of ‘Megalithic Symphony’?
AB: This one no one heard, I didn’t show it to anyone except the closest people around me. If you happened to be in my car that was the only way you were going to hear it because I’d always be working on it. It was a very heavy and deep experience for me because I had to live with these ideas over and over and over – because I don’t write songs, then record ‘em, then mix ‘em – I do all of it at once. So when I’d leave the studio I would put the CD in my car to judge what I’d done and what can be better about it, so it’s just a constant work in progress.
I have to give credit to Greg Hammer the president of Red Bull Records, for trusting me to make the fantasy sophomore follow-up record that I ended up making, I’m really happy with it and I’m so excited to play these new songs live, it’s going to be challenging.
TX: That must be the ultimate for any artist – having that solid support system.
AB: Yeah I just got really lucky, it’s a dream come true to have the tools and space to do what I needed to do. It was pretty terrifying when I played it for some folks for the first time, I remember playing it for Greg while we were in Austria after a show. We stayed back an extra day and went to some studio in the mountains and it was a really beautiful experience and I was like, alright man let’s have a beer and I hope you like it. And I just played the whole record front to back. There were still songs that ended up making record that I hadn’t written yet, but his reaction was overwhelming and he was very pleased. Trust me, he would’ve been very vocal if he thought he had a record that he didn’t know what to do with. So that was the first approval on a business side that was nice to hear.
TX: After your incredible set at RAMFEST in 2012 I think it’s safe to say that you’ve got an overwhelming support base here. Any plans to come back for round 2?
AB: Oh yeah absolutely, we’re working on that. I don’t know when because the record is still so new to people but we’re instinctually making a grid of how we’re going to play shows and tour around the world. This is the first time in my life that I’ve had a worldwide release, which his exciting but terrifying as well because, how can you make sure that everything’s going well in every single country around the world? It’s weird. I did hear some rumours about going over there sometime in the fall going over there, I dunno. But we definitely plan on coming.
Visit Awolnation’s site to pre-order the album “Run” due for release on the 17th of March.
