Aron D'Alesio's Nerves of Steel Keep Him Humble

Photo courtesy of Laura-Lynn Petrick

Aron D’Alesio is a humble dude. In Hamilton, Ontario, where the tight-knit music and arts scene sways frequently between refreshing and eager to please, it’s hard for some not to get carried away on the hype waves that surge when a band breaks out of the city or an event brings thousands of people into the core. As the singer and guitarist of Young Rival, a beloved hometown indie rock band, D’Alesio has experienced the rush of spontaneous attention first-hand with several of the band’s videos going viral. Egos have been inflated for less, but D’Alesio greets old pals and new acquaintances with the same disarming and chummy smile. When we take over the nook of a patio hidden in the heart of James Street North to chat about his first release of solo material, he asks how I’m doing, then probes attentively when I initially answer with a simple one word response.

Since a change of name and style in 2007, Young Rival release and perform music on a modest schedule, with a third album on the way in September and a much anticipated annual Boxing Day show. D’Alesio is looking to do something similar as a solo artist. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to balance it with all the other projects I have on the go. I wanted to lend some legitimacy to it, rather than uploading something to Bandcamp that might fall off people’s radar without any presence.” Now sitting on roughly 15 songs and still writing, D’Alesio isn’t looking to offload everything all at once in hopes of some overnight success. That’s one of the reasons he’s chosen to do a four song cassette as his first physical release. “When I was a kid my dad was transferring his vinyl to tapes and I thought a lot of them sounded better than the records. So I wanted to lay the groundwork and start getting material out under my own name. A cassette is a good way to do that in a tangible, but informal way.”

Each of the four songs on the tape unveil a different side to D’Alesio’s weird-spirited surf rock. From the 50s prom balladry of “A Long Time” to the ominous, noir shifts of “Carousel,” each track features a different voice and guitar sound from D’Alesio. He says that’s what he likes best about writing solo material. “When I like how something sounds, I record it without running it through a series of checks and balances. It’s more of a gut feeling.” D’Alesio answers most questions followed by a laugh, as if he’s surprised by what he’s just said, but there is a casual confidence paired with his breezy attitude. “Even if something sounds really weird or shitty fidelity wise, I don’t worry about it because sometimes I really dig that.”

Live, D’Alesio layers intricate and loose guitars over the tracks he’s put together from the recordings. It’s a bizarre and captivating approach to performing rock solo, and it works especially well given the slightly skewed emotions his music invokes.

There’s a visual hint to the writing D’Alesio does as a solo artist. It’s not as harsh a shake up as when David Lynch paired Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” with the insanity of Dennis Hopper’s character in Blue Velvet, but it’s along those lines. Accordingly, D’Alesio took to Open Archives and edited a video from the vintage footage to build a visual vibe for each song. “I’m not really a video guy” he explains. When I bring up the massive viral attention Young Rival videos received, he explains “I see this as a chance for me to look at video in a different way. I wanted the music to accompany the visuals so they complimented each other and made you feel something, rather than having a wild video concept that did crazy stuff only because of the concept.”

Speaking of Lynch, D’Alesio realizes it’s hard to say who his actual influences are. He’s always had an affinity for sentimental, clean sounding surf rock like Santo and Johnny, but he’s developed a writing and playing style that came from a time when he shut off a lot of external things. “I stopped paying attention to outward things and went inward to find my style. I think that is the only way you can connect outwardly.”

Without meaning to, D’Alesio’s provided me with a launch pad to discuss the state (both current and future) of Hamilton’s music scene. Aside from his own musical projects, D’Alesio bartends at several venues in Hamilton. “The service industry has always been good to me because I always knew I wanted to play music so I needed a job that was flexible and could let me walk to record or tour or whatever.” It also helps that he’s witty in a way that never makes you feel stupid. For a musician that sees the music venue business from both sides of the bar, it seems odd that no one has picked his brain on Hamilton’s apparently bustling scene before. It may be that his easygoing nature keeps that kind of discussion at bay, but his passion for the city quickly unfurls when questioned on what’s going right and what needs to change.

“Hamilton is totally a good home base to start a band, or make art. You can live well here beyond your means” he explains. Other bands have noted that it’s relatively cheap to live in Hamilton, but that too has changed with the out of control housing market. “It’s wild and unfortunate that young professionals that should be able to get a house here are being priced out of the market. Maybe when these condos start to pop we’ll see more action down here.”

He’s talking about a core that has very few streets humming with positive energy. “People have been asking me for years about it. I’ll be in Toronto and someone will say ‘Yeah so what’s going on in Hamilton? Is it awesome?’ and I tell them yeah, it’s fine. But we need folks here.”

Circa 2009, James Street North began hosting monthly Art Crawls and the yearly Supercrawl, a street festival that brings the likes of Broken Social Scene, Spoon, Arkells and Passion Pit (to name a few) to town for a free weekend of live music. Still, there are only so many Art Crawls you can go to before it starts to get a bit stale. When I tell D’Alesio it sometimes feels like there aren’t enough venues in town he quickly puts things in perspective.

“There aren’t enough people to support the music venue business yet. No body is venue loyal, nor should they be, but there are a lot of people throwing shows in Hamilton and the pie is getting split so many ways. The nightly competition has grown whereas before everything would sort of roll through one place.” When I press him on what the next step is he continues “I think diversification of venues is good, but when the foundation and people aren’t here to support it, it is damaging for local businesses.”

“It can’t thrive” I agree. “Exactly” D’Alesio says assuredly. When the people get here it will thrive. WIth condos being built, people are going to start living in the core again which hasn’t happened in a long time. People will walk to work and go explore at night and then things will get interesting.”

Some that have lived in the city during the developments on streets like James North are so excited to endorse and praise what’s going on, that they don’t stop to sift out the interesting and inspired from the generic. I mention the Hamilton Music Awards and D’Alesio comes the closest I can imagine to losing his cool. “That’s one that is damaging for the city, because you have people looking in from the outside thinking that that’s what is going on and it isn’t. I mean, keep doing what you’re doing, but don’t call it the Hamilton Music Awards because it isn’t what Hamilton is about. There are so many talented people working in the music business here that don’t get represented by something that is meant to shine a light on the city.”

Hamilton is good at weeding out those looking to try and make it big without a genuine sound though. “Here, you have to just go and play and try out your music” explains D’Alesio. People really looking to make it big and get noticed head to Toronto, so you don’t really have as many people trying to step over other people to get to where they want to be. It’s more community minded.”

Though he’s well known and active in that community, D’Alesio notes that Hamilton hasn’t really influenced his sound. “We just kind of did our own thing. A lot of people are in it to be something or they have a fixed end in sight, but it’s nice to just do it for yourself.” That reason for making music is why D’Alesio’s new tape is so refreshing—there isn’t a contrived moment on it. “I don’t often get writer’s block, because I don’t do it for anyone else. I think when you have writer’s block, it’s because external factors are overtaking the personal side. I think music is weird as a business because for me it is self-indulgent and I get to have fun, but for a lot people it’s only about writing something that connects with someone else. At the heart of it, I am trying to make something that I can connect with.” D’Alesio knows there are no short-cuts to building sustainable creativity. When you do anything for the right reason, what you create resonates far longer than a goal set simply for glory.

Luke Cummins is a writer living in Hamilton - @xtrmnnchlnc