A Conversation with Singer-Songwriter Aaron Zimmer

By: Jacob Elyachar

During to my recent trip to New York City, I met up with singer-songwriter Aaron Zimmer.

The Lincoln, Nebraska native moved out to the Big Apple to challenge himself not only as an artist but as songwriter as well.   His move paid off as he has recorded four solo albums and had several of his songs featured on shows like CNN Heroes and TLC’s What Not to Wear.

In this interview, Aaron talked about his songwriting, the recording process of all four of his EPs and his thoughts on how social media has played a huge role in his career.

Jacob Elyachar: What were your earliest memories of learning how to play an instrument?

Aaron Zimmer: The earliest memory I have of learning to play an instrument was a recorder when I was either four or five-years-old.  I got into the French horn when I was in kindergarten and played in the band through high school.   I picked up stringed instruments when I was 12 or 13-years-old, so I played some sort of instrument since I was really young.

JE: Could you please tell my readers about your songwriting process?

AZ: I like to get the form of the song down which includes working on the structural organization of the song and then I will add a melody to that and then I will finally add lyrics to the piece.

JE: When you worked on your first EP, “Inside My Skin,” where were you in life mentally and emotionally?

AZ: I had been on the road for a couple of years with the band that I had in Lincoln but it broke up.  I knew that I had to keep doing something but when I came back to Lincoln, I did not have a job and a place to live…it was a weird time for me.

My former band mates were the closest friends I had.  We lived together and we spent every waking moment together and when that band fell apart I cannot say that we stayed very good friends.   So it was a dark and weird spot for me.

JE: How did that dark and weird spot in your life helped you make a decision to move to New York?  

AZ: I knew that I needed to do something drastic and my time was probably up in the Midwest because there are so many times you can play the same little clubs in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and all of those places in the Midwest.  I knew that I had to do something drastic and move to either New York or L.A. and I liked the idea of living in New York.

JE: During my preparation for this interview, I looked back at all of your work and I noticed that there was a big five-year-gap between your first EP and your second solo record: “Live Wires.”  Why did it take so long to record it?

AZ: It’s complicated.  I had been in New York City for a couple of years and I did not have any traction yet.  I played a lot of shows but I knew that I needed to record something else.  So I decided to meet up with a producer named Christian Cassan in 2006.  We started out originally doing one song together and the recordings were really great so we started to figure out how to make a full-length album but I did not have the money to do it.

I think that record cost me $20,000 to record and to help me pay for it, the same producer got me a job singing on another artist’s stuff and it was a songwriter building up his song catalog.   That paid for a chunk of it but at the same time the producer who was helping me out on the album got a job working on Broadway, which slowed the whole process down and it took two years to get it done.

Making a record when there is just two people takes a long time especially when those two people are busy going in and out-of-town.

JE: While it was a challenge putting “Live Wires” together, what were some of the hardest songs to record?

AZ:  There is actually a song called “Save Myself” on the album that I actually wish to this day that we did not, added the song to the album.  I think the song in theory was really good but I could not get it to do anything musically and it did not have any excitement to it.   I think we recorded it two-to-three times and what we got on the album sort of works and oddly enough even though I wish I left “Save Myself” off the record, it was one song on that record that got played on CNN Heroes with Anderson Cooper.

JE: Your sound on your third album: “This Time Next Year” sounded more optimistic and brighter than anything you previously recorded.  What motivated you to write that album?

AZ: I knew after I recorded “Live Wires,” when I had time to gain a little perspective of the way I wrote songs, I realized that all of the songs sounded sort of similar.  “Live Wires” was all about the same stuff and themes plus it was dark.  When I went back and listened to the album a year later, I was sort of embarrassed of how much complaining I was doing via song. (Chuckles)

I knew that I wanted to find a new way to write songs.  I started out by changing the way I tuned my guitars and I had to write less about me and more about things that were more abstract.  So I tried to separate myself from the lyrics, a little bit which was really beneficial, and I really like that record and I am not tired of it quite yet.

 

JE: “First Persons” is your fourth EP. What were the lessons that you learned from your previous recordings that helped you during this recording process?

AZ: I knew that I wanted to record things without the use of a computer, which we did.   I bought this vintage Tascam 388 quarter-inch 8-track machine.  It was a consumer grade machine that Tascam released in the Eighties and they are fairly rare and really hard to maintain but I knew that I wanted to record to tape and I wanted to do something simpler and I thought 8-track tapes seemed like the perfect thing for me and I did not want producers with computers fixing my bad tracks.

JE: How important of a role has social media played in your career?

AZ: Social media is the new marketing tactic.  Whether you are Lady Gaga’s people or you are nobody, the Internet is how you market your music.   A $100,000 ad in Rolling Stone is not going to do you any good as being active on Twitter, which everyone can do.  The Internet and social media have really leveled the playing field between a major label and people making records in their basement.

JE: If fans look at your schedule on your Facebook page, they will find that you will be touring across both the West and East Coasts.  What is your favorite part about touring?

AZ: The travel.  I love exploring new towns and meeting new people.  I know it sounds weird but I love the highway and I like to drive and see new places plus I like the lead-up to a new show in a new town as much as I like playing a show.

JE: Do you have any advice for any aspiring singer-songwriters?

AZ: You should practice writing songs everyday and perform a lot.  All of the other stuff will fall into place naturally if you really improve at performing and if you are really good at writing songs.   Drawing people to shows and all of that kind of stuff is all secondary to the ability of writing a really good song and the ability to perform it live.

To listen to Aaron’s new EP: “First Persons,” head to this link: http://soundcloud.com/aaronzimmer/sets/firstpersons/

For more information about Aaron, visit his website: http://www.aaronzimmer.com/firstpersons/