Hiya Aerynn thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today, grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
I think music decided I was a thing for it and I’m not sure I had much choice. My degree was in astronomy, but I had already started writing songs as a coping mechanism for life’s challenges around age 11.
Introduce us you and your musical history?
My name is aerynn, I’m a solo artist singer-songwriter. So I don’t have a ‘band’ per sé, but the album project I’m beginning to roll out now was produced/engineered/recorded by Mark Winterburn. For this first single coming out, it’s pretty stripped back with just me on the instruments and Mark deciding on production, recording, mixing and adding some synth pad. Many of the songs on the upcoming record have contributions by other musicians and instruments, and are more fleshed out and musically complex, so I’ll introduce other conspirators along the way as the songs are released!
My musical history is life-long. My mom used to sing and play rhythm guitar and some piano, and my dad still gigs playing double bass and bass guitar. They were away every friday and saturday night on gigs for a lot of my first decade. I took piano lessons from age 4-10, a touch of cello, lots of choir, and eventually found my way to self-taught guitar. In the mid 2000’s I fronted an alternative rock trio in Hawaii, which really brought me out of my shell musically.
I wrote for the band, dated the bassist, and we lived with the drummer and his girlfriend, so it was pretty full-on. Despite the rough ending to that project, I had two bandmates who believed completely in the songs I wrote and my ability to sing them. I began to believe in myself. From then I knew that getting my songs out into the world would be mandatory, but working full time in astrophysics observatory support meant I didn’t have time to pursue it as I wanted to.
Years later, I moved to the UK and changed careers, and was able to make time for music again, releasing my EP “Summer Leaves” in 2015, a couple of singles since then, and a Christmas album “Sleep In Heavenly Peace” in 2017.
Or did you mean the musical history between me and my current collaborators? …
If so, I met Mark by accident around 2016, as I had booked in a mix session for my song, ‘Fall Away,’ with the owner at the studio where Mark used to work. The owner, unbeknownst to me, had passed my session along to Mark, and I was a bit upset about that as I’m not great with surprises. However it turned out that Mark and I had kind of a compatible level of awkwardness, and so a few years later when I was looking for someone to produce my full-length album, and heard he might be interested in more immersive production, I dropped him an email. Then Covid hit. So we started the project over Facetime, and the rest is, as they say, history.
What was life like for you before music?
It didn’t exist! There was always music around in some form or another.
What was the first song you heard that steered you into a music path?
I have no idea!! However I do remember the first time I heard a singer and thought, I want to sing like them. I was probably around 8 years old, and singing along to The Carpenters on a road trip, and thought, I’d love to sing as good as Karen Carpenter.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
Oh dear… on the outskirts? I have a love/hate relationship with the music industry. It wants me to commit to branding, genre, and one ‘thing’. But I’m an artist, I’ve always disliked labelling myself, and I love lots of different genres and things.
Whats the biggest thing you have learned from someone else in the industry?
That staying true to the art is the most important thing; being myself and being authentic is what will work. I hope they are right!
Tell us Two truths and a lie about you?
I’m terrible at lying by the way. In no particular order: I used to be a fire dancer. I love reading non-fiction books. I played music as a worship leader at church.
If you could wish for one thing to aid your career what would it be?
Confidence; the type where when you walk into a room, everyone knows. I’ve always been more comfortable as the wall flower.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
Definitely!! I have a lot of social anxiety, so worrying about other people’s perceptions has been a life-long struggle. I can’t say that I worry about cancel culture as I don’t have a clear picture of what it is, but I truly spend way too long on socials posts, texts, emails, or any correspondence for fear that I will mess it up. Work in progress.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If no why not?
Hah! I was a massive fan of X-Files and spent a few years really intrigued by conspiracy theories, but these days I find other ways to be entertained. Life is too short to focus on conspiracy theories, but having worked at a couple of telescopes, I’ve definitely had some good UFO conversations.
What was the worst experience on stage?
I’m really wracking my brain and nothing sticks out. Obviously there have been challenges that we all face, like drunk audience members knocking the microphone into my teeth, forgetting verses, getting heckled, but all have been learning experiences.
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about?
I’m actually a silly goofball most of the time, despite how serious my songs come off. But very very few people experience this side of me in real life!
Mark? Hmmm.. He is very chatty and likes talk!!! Which really surprised me for some reason. I have no idea if others would be surprised by this.
What makes you stand out as a band/artist?
I’m the only me out there. I’m the only one who can write the songs that I have in me.
I hear you have a new music, what can you tell us about it.
“Gift” is kind of the first single off my upcoming album. I say kind of, as I did get trigger-happy and release Four Places randomly in 2021, but I’d recorded most of that on my own with Mark adding a few bits and mixing it. The melody and lyric for “Gift” came to me while walking home one autumn night in Boston having closed the door on a very tempting connection. It’s a vulnerable song for me, and not a typical ‘first single’, and easily the noisiest on the record. Visuals of tropical storm aftermath footage were fresh in my mind from the news, which inspired the song’s context of the fact that people go through heartache and tough personal decisions even in the context of a greater maelstrom.
We’re hoping it lays sort of a canvas for the rest of the album build on, as the production on “Gift” is quite minimalist.
What was the recording process like?
The album was mostly recorded and produced across 2021-2023, with some pre-production in 2020. Mark had left the studio where he worked, and we recorded remotely at a few sites; he would bring his desktop computer and rack with preamps and all that kit, and set it up wherever. For this single, Gift, Piano was recorded at Shackleford Pianos in Macclesfield, on instruments I could never afford, which was pretty sweet. Your just surrounded by pianos and more pianos there. We recorded lead vocals at the decommissioned dilapidated Christ Church in Macclesfield, which was uncomfortably cold and had no loos, but was beautifully atmospheric! I recorded my own bass and backing vocals through my really old laptop and interface from 2007 at my humble home studio.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
I’ve been writing for a rather long time, so a lot of them aren’t particularly new to me, but the hardest thing that I’ve learned to be comfortable with is chopping them up and editing, making them shorter, listening to advice from others and letting go of control. Other than that, I think trying to make a cohesive project with songs from all different times and places is really hard! Have a better think next time when choosing songs.
Would you change anything now its finished?
Of course!!! For Gift, I’d probably re-record it and make sure to sort out whatever added the extra hiss! There are all sorts of little odds and ends I’d edit on all the tracks but at some point you have to call it a day, or as they say here, draw a line under it.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
Thank you for listening and being a witness to my songs! The video for Gift will be out in a few weeks, and my new album will be out in the Spring, with another song or two released between now and then.
I would love for you to be part of it, as little or as much as you like. I’m making regular updates on insta and facebook, behind the scenes kind of stuff, and I especially enjoy writing letters to my email community.
I’m not a mind-reader though, and would love to hear back from people on how they want this album to be served up!! I’m busy but I always make time to read and respond to comments and emails from those who are on the journey with me.
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