On a cliff edge, contemplating the release of his sophomore album with Awolnation, 'Run', Aaron Bruno is feeling reflective. Peering across the infinite Pacific landscape, as if from a cloud buffered high point, the scene is a fitting metaphor for his career to date.
He is currently stood atop a perilously high peak, balancing expectation with fame. Having released the massively anticipated, deeply varied record’s lead track, Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf), back in January, its YouTube play count already stands at well more than a million. Awolnation are still a phenomenon.
In 2011, Sail went multi-platinum in the US and enjoyed a 79-week stay on the Billboard Hot 100, the second longest in the chart’s 55-year history. With pressure to create an equally monolithic work well and truly on, Bruno is scheduled to debut Hollow Moon live on the Jimmy Kimmel show later in the evening.
“Those kind of shows always feel a bit uncomfortable and not quite as free as playing to a sweaty crowd and having a lot of human interaction,” he explains. “The greatest moments in music have always been about unity through music. The hardcore punk rock shows l used to go to when l was a kid had about 20 to 40 people in a room, all singing, screaming or moshing.
“That can create as much impact as over 75,000 people at a festival singing together. The unity that music can cause and the family feeling, the sense of belonging that music can bring, positivity through dark times, that’s what I care the most about.”
A cultivator of emotional, stirring anthems, Awolnation regurgitates Bruno’s struggles and life experiences with uncensored blood, guts and gore galore. Striving to fuse his talents and obsessively perfecting an album that represents his ability, heart, soul and spirit, the music is, for him, a passion project that demands his most committed attention.
“I felt an extreme pressure and opportunity to do something great with ‘Run’,” he says. “I wanted to achieve an album that people would look back on years from now and people would still think of as one of the greats of the time. I wasn’t going to stop until I had represented myself with that opportunity and I feel like I have now.”
Containing melodies and lyrics both freshly cultivated and dug from archives spanning decades, Bruno believes this record will be considered by music heads and fans alike as “a wonderful journey”. He refuses to obsess about download targets or chart positions, stressing that the importance of the follow up to ‘Megalithic Symphony’ lay with writing and recording “the greatest record I could possibly make”.
Having recently seen his rework of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire included on the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack, the opportunities now presented to Bruno put him on par with some of the world’s most successful artists. But, the effects of fame remain minimal. His ambition only grows.
“I want to compose or score a movie one day and that'll happen eventually,” he says. “I don't really do many covers, I’ve recorded two or three just for fun, so we nailed I’m On Fire in a couple of hours. The song is already written. That’s the hard part, I just had to do a weird, lo-fi dark version of it. Lucky for me, the director liked it and put it on the soundtrack. It may seem like a big deal to everybody else but it really wasn't. It was just something that presented a great opportunity, a way to showcase another side of me.”
More commonly loved for his graphic, thrashing, bold noise, Bruno’s adoration of live music led to one life changing moment in his youth. Still young and naive, he found himself in downtown Hollywood, following a friend to a hardcore show.
“I will never forget what happened in that room,” he said. “I still haven't seen anything like it since. People just went fuckingberzerk. There was a dog pile on the stage, people were fighting. But no one was violent. They were uniting and rebelling against the mainstream and no-one was there to see it. It was the most beautiful experience.
“I’ve seen some amazing things and played some amazing things but nothing comes close to this. People were climbing the side speakers and doing front flips into the crowd. Everybody knew every word. I was thinking: ‘What is this I’m experiencing?’ The bands didn't even sound good, that wasn't the point. The point was that people were just going crazy.”
Harnessing the energy he riles up in his fans, Bruno’s own live show now creates the possibility of epiphanies among the masses. He’s back in London to play the Electric Ballroom in April. Awolnation is a sound to be heard live and loud. Take off your headphones, engage with the anarchy and turn this music up loud. Give rise to your inner underdog.
AWOLNATION Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed April 01 2015 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
Click here to compare & buy AWOLNATION Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
