Nick: Hey, so what�re you up to?
Aaron: I just ate dinner� had some salmon patties.
Nick: You work at the San Francisco Aquarium of the Bay right? And you eat fish for dinner?
Aaron: I know, right? Some of the shit I did today, I should never eat seafood again, but I do. Our drummer [Chris Lyman] works there too - he�s head engineer. I dived where the water overflows into these concrete rooms. They�re little spaces filled with pipes and plumbing. There�s a whole ecosystem with its own set of rules in there, out of sight out of mind recesses, pretty damn gross.
Nick: And what is it exactly that you do there?
Aaron: I�m a professional scuba diver. I�m basically in tanks three to four hours a day scrubbing glass, vacuuming, feeding animals. There are big presentations where we have special masks that let us talk - big shark feeding presentations. We hand feed them and it gets pretty hairy. There are some close encounters, it gets pretty wild. I�m on the top side a little with husbandry tasks.
Nick: Do you have to have qualifications for something like that?
Aaron: For me, I was scuba certified at 15, so I have 13 or 14 years diving. I used to own a tropical fish store. I�ve been doing this kinda shit since 16. It was actually a Craigslist Post under science. Chris started pulling tickets at the booth, then was the body guard for the mascot. He watched his back so no one would push him over [laughs]. He runs the show now, facility engineer.
Nick: So I�m guessing that�s where a lot of your lyrics come from.
Aaron: Like I said, I�ve been doing this forever and obsessed with the ocean. Man, just watching jaws when I was five changed my life. I know way too much about this stuff. I get a little burned out on all things fish sometimes though.
Nick: So you�re immersed in that world. And Giant Squid is all about that too.
Aaron: It definitely is. I�m definitely always thinking about all things water related. We get off the path sometimes, other shit here and there. I�m interested in history, especially the Sacramento Gold Rush. A lot of that�s on our Sutter�s Fort 7� with Grayceon.
Nick: And so what�re the lyrics on the new album about? More ocean creatures?
Aaron: I wanted to get away from it for a while, but got slammed with this idea. There�s this graphic novel I�m writing and it turned into one giant thing. The album is more or less related, it�s got the same name: The Ichthyologist. It�s a grand, fucking epic thing� so yeah, there�s a huge tie in. A lot of the stuff on the record won�t make a lot of sense �till you read the book [it has yet to be released as well], but there�s a definite, obvious progression where everything relates to the demise of the character.
Nick: So you knew what the track order was going to be before you went in the studio.
Aaron: In one of the first songs we wrote, �Rubicon Wall,� the character kills himself over deep water. I thought, �Well fuck, if he dies, that should be the last song� [laughs]. There�s another one about him getting drunk as fuck on the boat above open water and having delusions. �Well fuck, that�s before the last one.� The first is about this crazy premonition he has in his dreams, all of which come to fruition. Then there�s a break, more historical stuff, more pioneers.
Nick: Are there any longer tracks, like �Metridium Field�?
Aaron: There�s no 20 minute fucks on here for sure. That would have been fun - I�d love to do that again someday. Things come in and out, there are solos on top, we start doing different melodies on top of things, but this record is already over an hour long and is ten songs. Each song is a song; there aren�t any sound bytes and buildup samples to skip. Every song has a verse, course, and a big ending. Nope, no fucking 20 minute rifferium this time.
Nick: You worked with Matt Bayles on The Ichthyologist, right?
Aaron: It�s Mat Bay-less� we didn�t know that until the day we me met him. But he laughs �cause he knows everyone calls him that. We�re a huge fuck fucking fan of his, I mean he produced Isis, Mastadon, and Botch. He�s always been a dream dude to work with and was always out of reach. So one day I looked up him, just Googled him - sure enough, it�s mattbayles.com, and there�s booking info and contact info for his management company. We emailed them a couple of times before someone responded, but they were super positive, he liked our music, and was he was down to do it. It was a yellow page kind of thing. Dude�s a bad ass, so he�s not cheap.
Nick: So did the label front that or you?
Aaron: Well, the label didn�t front it, and, well, they�re not even putting it out. More or less, they weren�t ready for us to do another album and we were. So we said, thanks, talk to you later. So we�re fronting all of the money ourselves. It�s pretty incredible amount to scrape together, but we�re going to release ourselves in a very limited, 1,000 only pressing with a special cover. It�s totally DIY and we�re going to sell them religiously at $10 or $12. We have to figure out how much debt we�re in. Hopefully the limited release will move pretty quick and we can make the dough back and find someone to release the vinyl and someone to release the CD. That�s another awesome thing� I can�t say much, but we�ve had exchanged a few friendly emails with a record company and their attitude about it was that it�s a no-brainer.
Nick: The response to your first record [Metridium Fields] was pretty emphatic. We�re you expecting that kind of praise?
Aaron: No, it was shocking as hell. Those songs, we wrote them so long ago and had just rerecorded them with new people. Honestly, I don�t know if there were just ahead of their time, but the Neurosis and Isis fans were really into it. When we first got on The End [the label that released Metridium Fields], they kept pushing us on metal web sites and magazines. It was mostly a metal label at the time. We thought we�d get shit like �What�s with this indie gay ass shit, indie fag?� I thought the world was going to hate us. We�re not really a metal band - I always thought of us as fitting in better with indie and stoner crowd. But we got these positive reviews, it was off the hook, but a total shock. He never let that shit go tour heads though. It did reflect in records sales, but when we went on tour there were still cities where only 15, 20 kids would come out for a show. A little buzz works wonders, but it doesn�t pay the bills.
Nick: A lot of those reviews compared your vocals to Serj Tankian. What do you think about that?
Aaron: It�s super weird. This is from the same people who think Isis sounds like Neurosis. If you play any two albums of theirs, it looks black and white to me. But people love to say that kind of shit, and the way my nasally voice comes out, I guess it made sense to them. I really hope this new record diminishes that, throws it out the window. But System of a Down was, ahh, is a cool band. They were the Dead Kennedys of that shitty nu metal scene. They were a little goofy, but they had some balls and made something of merit. Serj is an interesting dude. If SoaD fan check us out because of that, great. I remember the comparisons surprised the label; they hadn�t seen that coming.
Nick: So how do you categorize your own music?
Aaron: The way I categorize the cult of NeuroIsis, if that�s a pool of water, I want to step the fuck out of it. Whatever, if it�s heavy and down tuned it�ll get compared, but the more we can step away the better. I absolutely love those bands - I have a big Neurosis tattoo on my arm. In a lot of ways I see our music like Subhuman riffs, just super ultra slow. Neurosis and Isis, those bands are the best in the world and trying to be like them is retarded. I�m surprised by how much music I hear that tries to do that though. I think out singing sets us apart. On the new record there�s no screaming, well we got Karen Crisis, of the legendary Crisis for a track, but there�s hardly any screaming or any of that. Actually, in the past, we had these weird ass breaks. On the original �Metridium Field� we had these little reggae breaks. That just shows how out of left field we were coming from.
Nick: Speaking of weird breaks and whatnot, Giant Squid uses a lot of additional instrumentation. Is that an afterthought or part of the songwriting process?
Aaron: All the really bizarre instrumentation is added afterward. Once the skeleton tracks are done, we�ll listen and say �This part is screaming for a Hammond Organ.� The new one doesn�t have as many random things� well, I take that back. There is flute and oboe. But on the last one mixed it in this whole house full of strange instruments.
Nick: Was that with Billy Anderson?
Aaron: Well he engineered it, but halfway through the record, we moved from Sacramento to Austin and there was this guy, Jason Rufus Sewell, he had a studio at his house with an original church pump organ and any old analog keyboard you can think of.
Nick: And you just got a new baritone guitar, right?
Aaron: Yeah, a 7-string, made by Matt Rains from Austin. He�s a super monster jazz guitarist. Jazz guitars used to be that way back in the `50`s, `40`s even - they wanted that bass string. Given our weird tuning on the 6-string with the drop, I missed out on a whole string. I wanted my D-string back so I could play the chords I used to play. We dropped super low on this one to G(!), and I tuned my Les Paul for that on the record, but it�s a little sloppy. This dude made me a baritone and I got my D back. We do a lot of stuff on the really high strings, so I couldn�t have done a 6-string baritone or I would have lost the high D string.
Nick: What kind of responses have you gotten on tours?
Aaron: They�ve been really interesting. In certain town, for whatever reason, there�ll be a lot of people. Columbus, Ohio was like that, so was Buffalo, New York. But in some music towns, like Nashville, you could hear the crickets. We played on a Tuesday in Toronto once, super late and on the night of a huge hockey game, but there were 40 kids there who wouldn�t let us get off the stage. So we played �Metridium Field� as an encore, which he hardly ever play. The West Coast is always kind to us, the Northwest, Austin too. Since we lived there, it�s kind of a home town show. We had a huge reaction at the last Emissions [from the Monolith] show. We were one of the first bands of the day and were able to jump onto this local show. Some people who saw us earlier came over from the Emissions room at Emo�s to see us. It was awesome. There�s nowhere like Austin for music. The really appreciate music there.
Nick: Are you touring this year or early next year?
Aaron: We were trying to do a quick Northwest thing, but it�s last minute and most clubs are booked to December. We�ve being talking to Intronaut. We also love to tour with Minsk, and talked with them a little bit. Hopefully we�ll play all of February. If possible we�d like to do another national tour as well as get back to Canada. Of course we�d love to get to Europe sometime next year, but that depends on the label.
Nick: Is that hard to plan touring? You share a member with Grayceon, right?
Aaron: Yeah, Jackie Perez Gratz. She�s our cello player and plays these super epic sad cello parts throughout the new album. There�s far less keyboards. Grayceon just fucking rules. They�re probably the best band in all of San Francisco. So far it hasn�t created any problems. We did a tour together [for Sutter�s Fort], so that was easy. Her and I go over plans so far in advance. Our drummer is in a couple of bands as well� Turn Me on Dead Man and Smiles.
Nick: So I have to ask about the studio shark pics - what are those all about?
Aaron: The studio sharks! There were just there. The guy who owns the studio, Stone Gossard, the bassist from Pearl Jam, the dude is a bit time scuba diver and ocean dork. There were sharks everywhere. We just walked in and were like �You�ve got to be kidding me.� There was a full sized blue shark above the drum set. It was a total coincidence. Also, we�re recording a bunch of guest instrumentation in Oakland at place called Sharkbite Studioes. Another coincidence!
Nick: Really?!
Aaron: Yeah!
Nick: Thanks for your time, is there anything else you wanted to add?
Aaron: Nope, thanks for the interview. Make sure to tell John I said �Hey.�
John: Hey!
