What do you get when you balance the silky, jazzy tendencies of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra with the classic earworm tendencies of modern pop music? You get the music of aron!, a singer-songwriter hailing from North Carolina. Even in his early 20’s, his songs sew together the best facets of his jazz influences with the bells and whistles of modern popular music, to create a sound that is as intelligent as it is refreshing. It reminds one of a smooth, rich cup of coffee on a breezy autumn day. Just over a year after the release of his EP “cozy you (and other nice songs)”, aron! is gearing up for the release of his debut album “Too Close For Running”, coming out September 18th. “I like it when albums…reflect on the place that you’re in in [your] life. “Some of my favorite albums do that for me. For this [album], I’m kind of down bad, falling in love,” he said when asked what the title of the album meant to him. “I think in the past, I used to be more non-chalant with it; if things are getting more intense, where it’s like ‘Oh, I feel like we might have feelings for each other,’ then you start running away. [Now] it’s like ‘uh, no, can’t do that.’ So now, it’s like we’re too close for running. We just gotta go with it.” His music is a mirror image of his personality: soft-spoken, yet engaging, charming, and full of wisdom and life lessons.
While his songs tell relatable tales, aron! doesn’t necessarily want to assign a meaning to it; he’d rather leave that to his listeners. “It’s always tough for me, prescribing what the meaning should be or what people should take away from things,” he said. “Because in some aspects I just make the thing and then I release it, and then it’s not mine anymore. It’s for the people who are listening to it and it’s their baby and they do what they want with it. Maybe they teach the baby how to walk, maybe they don’t.” He does, however, hope that people find musical and creative inspiration from his songs. “If somebody’s listening to the album and they’re like ‘ooh, I want to write a song,’ that’s the job done for me. More humans making art which, I think, is very, very good for the world,” he explained. The album has already seen five singles released to date. This includes the song “Not For a Lack of Trying,” which aron! cited as his favorite of the singles to perform live. “I think my favorite to do live is ‘Not For a Lack of Trying’. There’s things with it that take it in more of a blues [direction], which I like. It’s so lit to play blues live,” he said. It is clear that aron! is set to stake his claim as one of his generation’s most exciting artists, thanks to his magnetic personality and sharp songwriting. His upcoming album is just the next step in what is sure to be a fruitful and illustrious career.
- Evan Weidl
