His albums gone platinum, he’s headlining the year’s biggest festivals; but he didn’t want any of it??! Rebecca Fagg talks exclusively to this new singing sensation and finds out just what happened.
Aaron walks into the small hotel room situated in the notorious Camden Lock Hotel, carrying a can of Red Bull and looking somewhat solemn. He apologises for being late and it seems his trademark hairstyle has caused him trouble as the unbelievably diffident singer was apparently ‘hounded’ by fans despite his effort to disguise himself with the classic beanie hat and wayfarers.
In case you’ve been in a coma for the past six months and have somehow still not heard of him, Aaron exploded to the top of the charts with his first single ‘City Lights’ back in February and he has continued to escalate ever since. His album ‘Nowhere Boy’ went Platinum and he even got the royal stamp of approval as he was asked to play at Wills & Kate’s wedding.
Since then, there has not been a festival or concert that Aaron hasn’t been at and there is even talk of another album being released in time for Christmas. Here’s what he had to say about it all.
: So Aaron, it’s fair to say that you haven’t just risen to fame in the past six months, you’ve rocketed, how does it feel to be a number one selling artist?
A: It’s weird; it doesn’t seem real, when I hear my songs playing on the radio and hear fans screaming my name I have to keep asking myself, is that my song? Are they shouting for me? It’s surreal, I never thought that people would react to my music the way they have.
: well they certainly have reacted, your first single ‘City Lights’ went straight to number one, beating both You Me At Six and My Chemical Romance!
A: I know, I never imagined it escalating to that, when we released it I thought maybe it might make the top 100 as I have quite a lot of followers on twitter and YouTube but not number one, it was a very immense, strange feeling when I got the phone call from my manager Mark Johnson. I just couldn’t get my head around how people loved my music when I was just a quiet English student from a small town in Kent.
: Is that why you decided to sign to IndieRock?
A: Yeah IndieRock is an amazing label, I owe them everything. It’s scary to think that I almost signed with someone else, when I first came into contact with the music industry labels approached me and I turned them all down. I was even offered a million dollar record deal by a large American label but I didn’t want to be famous, I just liked playing my guitar and writing songs.
: A million dollars must have been hard to say no to! What made you turn them all down??
A: I knew they weren’t right for me as they didn’t understand how I didn’t want to be manufactured into another easily-marketable ‘artist’ who doesn’t write their own songs and lip syncs, that’s what attracted me to IndieRock and made my decision to sign with them, they didn’t want to change me, I spoke to one of their agents and he just said “record a single, slap a few bonus songs on it and if nobody likes it then those other companies were right, if people do like it, then you’ve got yourself a record deal” and I guess I did the right thing as that single, as you said, went straight to number one.
: Sounds like you made the right choice, now are the rumours true that you are working on an album to release in time for Christmas??
A: Yes! I can officially say it will be out in time for Christmas, I am really ecstatic about this album as there were quite a lot of songs that we couldn’t fit onto Nowhere Boy or that didn’t quite go with the rest of the songs, but this time you can expect to hear some quirkier acoustic songs, some heavier rock songs and a few collaborations that I think everyone will be really excited about
: Two albums in one year is pretty impressive how did you fit it all in?
A: Well I had a lot of songs from before I got signed that I had recorded myself and put on YouTube so I haven’t really had to write many new songs I’ve mainly been working with an absolutely amazing producer called Ellie Hayes to take those songs I wrote back when I was at uni and work them into potential singles.
: Wow, well we’re impressed. Finally, one last question. Can we expect to see you touring anytime soon?
A: yeah tickets go on sale for my ‘Somewhere Boy’ tour on September 20th and I will be touring literally everywhere from the big arenas to the small indie set-ups so watch out and I hope to see you all there!
If you didn’t catch Aaron’s last album ‘Nowhere Boy’ it is available to download on iTunes for a limited time at just £4.99!
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