Aaron Bruno on ‘The Phantom Five’, the future of Awolnation, and Radiohead: “I definitely don’t want to overstay my welcome”
On the fifth Awolnation record, The Phantom Five, the project’s mastermind, Aaron Bruno, continues to exhibit his range, tapping into everything from electronic to thrash metal and providing yet another multifarious means of sonic escape from the increasingly weird and divided world we live in. While most people know the band’s name because of their 2010 hit single ‘Sail’, they’ve always been much more than that. Bruno first cut his teeth in hardcore punk and a couple of alt-rock groups before striking gold with this outfit he has been steering since 2009.
It had been a good day for Bruno. He’d completed his dad duties, been on a run and to the sauna, and was now doing a round of interviews. It was one of those days where he felt he could look his wife honestly in the eye and tell her he’d been productive. Furthermore, The Phantom Five had arrived a couple of weeks earlier, and he was still riding high off getting it out.
Offering frank insight into his perspective as a songwriter, he maintained that his opinion on the record had stayed the same since its release. He cares so much about his output and doing as best he can that by the time he finalises a body of work, he feels confident about it. While he knows “you can’t hit a grand slam” necessarily with every song, he can try his best to get rid of tracks that aren’t up to scratch or don’t fit in with the “totality of the album”.
He says: “So, by the time it actually comes out – and this is the secret, I think, for any music lover – I’ve been sitting on these songs for a long time. I’ve already been through the ups and downs of, ‘Is this good? Does this suck? Should I get rid of it? Is this great? Is this the best thing I’ve ever done? Is it the worst thing I’ve ever done?’ and everything in between, so it’s really more of a relief.”
Similarly, come release, he’s already put the record past his harshest critics, his friends, and they’d be the first to time him if it wasn’t very good. “By the time it goes to the general public, I’ve been through the gauntlet of the real reviews because these are people who are rooting for me and hopefully care about me, but also aren’t afraid to say, ‘Yo, this isn’t great,'” he expresses, and is safe in the knowledge that if the world were to blow up tomorrow, he’d be content that he’d put out a pretty good record just before.
The album formed over lockdown. While Bruno doesn’t want to resurrect the negative emotions that period brought for the world, he worked on The Phantom Five, his batshit thrash side project, The Barbarians of California, and Awolnation’s 2020 covers album, My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers, and Me, during this time.
It’s hard for him to know how long the songs took to craft for The Phantom Five, but he knows he was always busy after realising he wouldn’t be touring for an extended duration. Many musicians, including Bruno, doubted if live music would ever return, so he jumped into his work, as one thing he had complete control over was the music he created. He got his head down and waited for it to pass.
No matter what side of the political spectrum people found themselves on, one thing everyone had in common was the existential dread the pandemic provided. When he went into writing the material for The Phantom Thread, Bruno sensed that there were “a lot of emotions up for grabs to write about.” Apart from that, if he was to try and extract any positive outcome from that grim time, he felt he was ready for a pause in touring.
“I was at a bit of a stagnant part of my career, where it was more of the same; you put out a record, go tour it, rinse and repeat,” he explains. “It provided an opportunity for me to rethink things: to appreciate playing concerts more, to appreciate talking to music lovers without social distancing, to hug people, to touch sweaty hands in the crowd, and all this stuff.”
Only two years ago, when Awolnation was on tour, it felt like the world was still riding out the last reverberations of the pandemic, but now their leader has no doubt that “we’ve definitely moved on.” Although it has left lasting damage on the collective psyche, for the most part, people are now willing to blow off steam at shows and move on with their lives. Accordingly, there was no better time to release his band’s fifth album.
From this perspective, these comments about the origins of The Phantom Five only heightened the sense that it had purposely hedonistic moments, such as the second track, ‘Party People’. Yet, this is Aaron Bruno, and there was more to it than just letting your hair down. Dare I say it, it’s a political album in aspects.
That song was a “sarcastic look at party music like the Beastie Boys” and all the 1980s music he grew up with, such as Twisted Sister. There was another underlying motivation, too; it was “an attempt to sarcastically acknowledge that I want to bond with people musically regardless of the party they represent. I looked at it as a metaphor for a certain kind of openness to all different people.” Interestingly, he never opened up about his own views. I assume they’re less stringent than most of the world’s.
Bruno maintains that he connects with people by talking about music. He’s never been one to openly political signal in music and knows that many punk and underground bands are well-read and fantastic at it. “That’s never been my out,” he expresses, though. “I’ve always liked music to be an escape from the reality of a political climate, a social climate, because I want to escape, just like when I put on a movie.”He mentions The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the work of Paul Thomas Anderson and even Stanley Kubrick as cinematic means of escape.
It might seem tangential, but There Will Be Blood is his favourite PTA film. While he loves Magnolia and The Phantom Thread, something about the 2007 classic struck a different chord and made an artistic impact despite him not being a filmmaker himself. Whether it be the Jonny Greenwood score, the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis or even the final scene, it represents something profound. Once more, Bruno uses this to make a broader point.
“Funnily enough, it made a similar lasting impression on me to what Radiohead’s OK Computer did when I first discovered it.” He was still in a hardcore band then, and although he doesn’t want to denigrate that particular project, he feels he was “pretty one-dimensional musically and artistically. So, when I discovered OK Computer, I immediately thought I need to do better – not that I could ever amount to anything like Radiohead – but I’ve got to open my mind and think a little deeper and work a little harder.” With albums as musically and lyrically substantial as The Phantom Five and the band’s previous efforts, you can hear traces of the 1997 classic.
Coming back to the political nature of some of The Phantom Five, the single ‘Jump Sit Stand March’ appears pretty explicit in its messaging, with lines like “Mob mentality’s overrated” and “New, new world order is overrated / I think I’m just sick of being stimulated”.
“For example, I’m talking to you right now; I’m more interested in what you think as an individual rather than a group,” Bruno explains. “There are necessary groups that have been very impactful and helpful. Of course, I’m not denying that.” He then says that the song addressed an “information overload” he doesn’t feel is as hegemonic as when it was written. During the pandemic, it felt like every other day, there was “a new thing to be outraged about”.
From both sides, he saw a lot of insincere copying and pasting of slogans online and just became “tired” of that moment in time. He maintains he’s more interested in a person’s favourite film than who they vote for. Bruno also said he’s “very uneducated” on the new Linkin Park vocalist Emily Armstrong, who is currently at the centre of much debate.
Regardless of the politics that may or may not underpin some of the latest albums, there are whispers that this might be the last from Awolnation. Whether it be this project, his previous ones, or even the fact he’s got to work with the likes of Del the Funky Homosapien, Bruno has done enough up to this point to make any young aspiring musician more than happy. He recognises this, too.
At the moment, he feels artistically satisfied. Although he never runs out of ideas and doesn’t even contractually owe anything to a label, his mindset has changed from the early days. Now, he cares more about his family than career goals, and he feels like he’s surpassed any expectations he had for Awolnation.
Bruno contends: “I definitely don’t want to overstay my welcome. I’d rather people want more than be like, ‘Dude, enough with the seventh record, no one cares,’ or whatever.”
