I was lucky enough to pick Aaron, from Gemini Syndrome’s, brain a bit via telephone a few days ago, and I have to say: I enjoyed hearing his take on his new album “Memento Mori” due for release August 19th.
Here is what he had to say about his new album, touring with the new line-up, and the Churko Family.
Side Stage Magazine – Hello Mr. Aaron, how are you?
Aaron Nordstrom – Good, how are you?
Great! So for this new album, I sense that there is an “enlightenment,” if you will. Can you tell me a little about that?
Yeah, definitely. It’s part of a three record idea. When Lux came out it was kind of a birthing process… prospective if you will. The lyrical concept is a lot about childhood, teenage years, coming of age, being comfortable in your own skin. This record is more about remembering the path. This record is much more focused on, more or less, coming to grips with the concept of mortality. I, myself included, can get caught up in the game… get caught up in whatever and lose sight of the fact that this isn’t going to last forever. I think people take that for granted.
Oh, absolutely! I, myself, am a recovering addict and the song “Remember We Die” really spoke to me. I like how it focuses on a bigger picture and something bigger than ourselves. Do you mind if I ask where that comes from?
Um… it’s just my personal experience in my life… Like, I was raised in the church and had a big fight with God, cursed the church, and then started following assertoric schools and I don’t think there was ever a point that I can say I was atheist. I always knew there was something bigger, maybe that came from more questionable choices as a kid, kind of tripping and saw larger pattern with the universe as we know it.
Ok, so this new tour… I see you all are hitting off a lot of dates in the United States. You guys must be excited!
Yeah, I mean it’s been about 8-9 months since we’ve been out and we are kind of ready to just hit the ground running.
I see you all are on a few big festivals this year?
Yeah, so far we did Chicago Open Air last Sunday.
And how was that?
It was great man… It was kind of scary at first because it was kind of stormy and we were supposed to play at 11:40 and they ended up pushing us back about a half hour, which I think worked out to our benefit. By the time we actually hit the stage, the second stage was actually packed and it was a great crowd and they were incredibly responsive.
Fed off that good energy?
Yup!
So, how was your experience working with Kevin Churko this time around?
It worked well. We did a couple of songs with Churk. The fact is, we love that entire family. It’s easy to work with them. They understand where we’re coming from and what we are trying to accomplish and they always bring really good ideas to the table. They push all of us, as players and writers and performers, and explore things that we may not have done on our own, necessarily, ya know? Singing melodies that I wouldn’t want to all the time or pushing Brian to play drums as he wouldn’t want to, maybe.
Push you out of your comfort zone?
Yeah, they are very good at that! And you know, since the first record, I have actually moved to Vegas, recently. You know, I can now say we hang out, outside of work. They are just great people. There was a point maybe two years ago, when we were leaving for tour and our RV broke down. We left LA and hadn’t played a show yet. It broke down and took 5 days to get the part or whatever, I think it was the Nonpoint tour, and they took our entire band and crew to their house and put us up for like a week or whatever and there was no question asked, ya know? They were like, “We’re not gonna have you stay at a Motel 6 or something.”We ended up grilling and hanging by the pool, and they really are our friends outside of just being our producers.
So, I see there was some line-up changes… for the positive, I assume? How has that been?
Um… I mean, its good at this point, you know. I mean, it was certainly disappointing when people had to leave… and I understand that life happens and people’s opinions change, and on the other hand, life happens and you have to take care of family first. And ya know, it put us in a place where, when we went to write this record, it was really just me, Brian, and AP. You know, I played guitar for over 20 years with Otep, so I definitely have the ability to record. In a certain way, once we moved on from the grieving process, or whatever… You know, it gave us the opportunity to really dive in and take control of what we really needed to write. I guess less cooks in the kitchen. And I think we came out with a really stronger product, and at the end of the day, not to say anything bad about our first record, ya know. I loved it, but I think… again, we pushed ourselves musically, ya know. And songwriting….. now we’ve got Charles and Daniel. And they are new guys. We worked with them on some spots on the record, which is really cool to kind of bring them in to the inn. Personality-wise, everyone get along great, more or less. The camp is happy all the time. It’s hard to be happy all the time on tour, but I think the dynamic of the five of us works really great. It works great on stage. We have a lot of fun at the end of the day. That’s what it’s all about. If you stop having fun, you know, I think the reason people play rock ‘n roll is because you don’t want a normal job. Music is a passion. We are artists, and the minute that art stops being enjoyable, it’s like… why are you doing this? Because the weeks away from home and the long drives, not showering for days on end… it gets hard. So if you are not absolutely in love with what you’re doing, there are so many other things you can be miserable, yet more comfortable doing.
Absolutely! It all sounds positive, and brilliant things happen when you’re pushed out of your comfort zone. What is it you want to get across about this process?
I mean, at this point it’s an appreciation for the present moment… The fact that your alive at all. There is a guy named Richard Dawkins who wrote a book called the “The Selfish Gene.” It was all Memetics. Like, the mathematical counter-parts of genetics. And he had this one piece he wrote, where he says we are the lucky ones because we get to die! He goes over mathematic equations of the likelihood of you even being born…. out of the infinite amount of possibility of someone being born and YOU actually being born. The fact that you got to even be a “thing” is a miracle in itself. So, the fact that we get to go through this life at all is an experience. The whole chorus line in Remember We Die, is it’s the only thing we know. I mean, you can have faith in God or religion and the afterlife, but the reality is we do not really know. There is no way to really prove it, you know what I’m saying? This experience is this symbiotic life, or whatever, is the only thing we can really say we know for sure. I think that a really important thing, at least for me, is to remind myself on the regular, because it’s easy to get frustrated with life and give up. I mean, i suffered from depression, suicide, and stuff throughout my entire life and there was some moments where I had, let’s just say, got myself really sick by some bad choices and found myself in the hospital and was knocking on death’s door. It was kind of, like, a moment of, like, “wow,” ya know? That was a really terrifying place to be, because despite faith in God or anything else, there is no guarantee. And ya know, the amount of experiences I have had here that suck, are trumped ten-fold by the good experiences I have had, and the relationships I have made, and the friends and family that I have. You know, and to take that for granted is such a silly thought to me, but it took a lot of trauma to get that.
It does. I relate. Well, this all seems kick-ass, and a positive direction you guys are going in. At the same time, it’s heavy… musically, Its drums and bass sounds really good and tight. I like it, and I appreciate you taking time to talk to me. You seem like a very enlightened person, and we need more of those now-a-days. Is there any other message you would like to get across?
I’d like to say thank you. That’s the bottom line. Without people supporting it, without the fans coming out and coming to the shows, making a family out of this, that’s the really cool thing about it, our fans. I have seen relationships that grow that don’t even live in the same part of the country. Never met each other, but because of this band and the music, I’ve seen people helping people out who are struggling with money or whatever it is… might be sending money to each other, helping them with food or whatever. Just, the community that we have become a part of is a huge reward for us. I mean, I’d rather be doing this, than anything else really.
So, Gemini Syndrome inspires?
Yup, that is right. I’ll leave you with this too. You said I am enlightened? The Buddha says, “Everyone is enlightened. It’s just a matter of every light.”
Wow, I like it! I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. I’ll be checking you out the next time you guys are around. Thank you!
My pleasure, thank you.
