Aaron Lee Tasjan - Boundary Breaker of Americana
What happens when a genre-defying artist combines humor, introspection, and razor-sharp storytelling to create music that challenges conventions?
Aaron Lee Tasjan takes you on a ride through his bold artistic evolution, from bar gigs in New York to the Newport Folk Festival stage.
With reflections on authenticity, the creative process, and the complexities of modern Americana, this conversation is equal parts inspiring and thought-provoking.
Dive into the heart of Aaron's music to discover the deeper stories that make his songs unforgettable.
You'll also Discover:
Where Humor Meets Heart: Aaron’s Songwriting Secrets
The Compliment That Changed Everything
Behind the Lyrics of “I Love America Better Than You”
From Bars to Festivals: Aaron’s Wild Ride
Vulnerability: The Key to Great Music
Americana’s Role in Today’s America
The Songwriting Workshop That Left a Mark
Justin Townes Earle’s Unexpected Truth
Music That Unites: Aaron’s Vision
Why Authenticity Matters in Artistry
This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the intersection of music, culture, and personal storytelling, as Aaron reveals the nuances of being a modern artist in the Americana world.
Learn more about Aaron's music and tour here: https://www.aaronleetasjan.com/
AND follow Americana Curious on Instagram for the latest interviews and the behind-the-scenes with your favorite artists! https://www.instagram.com/americanacurious
Transcript
I love America better than you her.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Dirty water and her hot dogs too Purple mountain tops jazz and soda pop I love America better than you I remember talking to Justin Townserl.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We used to both live in New York and we frequented this bar called 11th Street Bar.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was playing in there from time to time.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He'd come by the bar one night and I walked out on the porch after my first set and he was sitting out there.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He said to me, hey, those are some good songs, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I said, oh, thanks, man, I'm a big fan of yours.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And he didn't even acknowledge that part of what I said.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He just said, and I'm a picky bitch.
Aaron Lee Tajin:There's all kinds of songs that are capable of like, capturing people's attention, but the ones where people are, I think, being able to do both things, being able to write from real experience and being able to completely imagine and write that and have that feel believable for an audience, to me that's like the high watermark of songwriting.
Ben Fanning:Americana music transforms the world and unfortunately, too many are unaware of its profound impact.
Ben Fanning:Americana musicians are the unsung heroes and here you'll join us in exploring these passionate artists and how they offer inspiration and hope for the future.
Ben Fanning:This show makes it happen in a fun and entertaining way.
Ben Fanning:You'll discover new music that you'll love, Hard earned lessons from the road, the story behind favorite songs, a big dose of inspiration for you and your friends, and a good laugh along the way.
Ben Fanning:I'm Ben Fan Ink and my co host Zach Schultz.
Ben Fanning:It's time to get Americana curious.
Zach Schultz:Hey there everybody.
Zach Schultz:Welcome back to Americana Curious.
Zach Schultz:We have a doozy coming your way.
Zach Schultz:We're getting ready to dive into the mind of the genre bending artists whose.
Ben Fanning:Talent and wit knows no bounds.
Zach Schultz:Yes, it is Aaron Lee Tajin who is the singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, band leader, activist and Grammy nominee.
Zach Schultz:And he's made his mark blending rock, folk and Americana in a way that is all truly unique and his own.
Zach Schultz:His journey began early and he quickly earned a reputation as a powerhouse guitarist, playing with iconic bands like Semi Precious Weapons, the New York Dolls, and of course, Driving and Crying.
Zach Schultz:But he didn't stop there, y'all.
Zach Schultz:He went solo gaving, giving him the space to explore his own unique voice.
Zach Schultz:Missing Mixing classic rock and folk with indie and GL lamb influences.
Zach Schultz:His songs equal parts humor and introspection, tackling love, identity, mental health and society with sharp storytelling and unforgettable lyrics.
Zach Schultz:With collaborations that span from Kevin Kinney to Sheryl Crow and Sean Lennon, he has shown that his artistry truly transcends genre lines, making him one of the most versatile musicians out there.
Zach Schultz:Today, he's released five solo albums, with his latest stellar evolution continuing to earn him accolades and critical praise.
Zach Schultz:Aaron, welcome to Americana Cur.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Thank you.
Zach Schultz:Aaron, your lyrics, as I mentioned in the intro, your lyrics have such a unique blend of humor and introspection.
Zach Schultz:Is there a particular song that started like a funny idea or a real life experience that ended up taking on a life all of its own?
Aaron Lee Tajin:I remember talking to Justin Townserl.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We used to both live in New York, and we frequented this bar called 11th Street Bar.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And there was a little porch on the front of the bar that had, like, a tiny wooden bench on it where people would kind of sit and smoke cigarettes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And that was where I met him.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was playing in there from time to time, and he had.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He'd come by the bar one night, and I walked out on the porch after my first set.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I had to play a couple of sets.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I walked out after my first set, and he was sitting out there by himself smoking a cigarette.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I didn't want to bother him, so I didn't really say anything to him, but he said to me, he said.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He said, hey, those are some good songs, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I said.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I said, oh, thanks, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I'm a big fan of yours.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And he didn't even acknowledge that part of what I said.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He just said, and I'm a picky bitch.
Aaron Lee Tajin:There's some good songs, and I'm a picky bitch.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I remember talking to him about, I really revered him as a songwriter.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I thought he was an incredible songwriter.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I felt really lucky to sort of get to meet him that night.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Talking about songs sometimes and talking about that idea of, like, being able to just make something up that still feels totally real and believable.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I think that there's all kinds of songs that are capable of, like, capturing people's attention, but the ones where people are just kind of winging it, I mean, that's my favorite thing from the Springsteen, the Off Broadway.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Do you ever see the Springsteen, Off Broadway thing?
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, he's getting ready to play Thunder Road, I think, or something like that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He's on the piano and he's kind of talking a little bit, and he just goes, by the way, you guys, I just made all this.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I never worked in a.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And to me, I'm just sort of like, yeah, that's how good that guy is.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You know what I mean?
Speaker E:It's so Funny that you bring that up because our previous or our last guest, Steve Poltz, had a moment at the Springsteen on Broadway that absolutely changed his life.
Speaker E:And so last week I went back and rewatched it and you're right, it is so like, Bruce is so amazing and he just makes everything up.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker E:I do.
Speaker E:I want to tag on that kind of.
Speaker E:I heard recently heard a funny story about your new single that you.
Speaker E:Well, it's been a song you wrote a while ago.
Speaker E:Yeah, you've got it out now with Dave Schools of Widespread, which is awesome.
Speaker E:I love America better than you.
Speaker E:There is a funny story behind your premise for writing that I'd like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, sure you wouldn't mind?
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I.
Aaron Lee Tajin: It was like: Aaron Lee Tajin:I think I just moved to Nashville.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was just writing songs.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I made a deal that I was going to write.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I made a deal with myself.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was going to write at least one song every single day that year.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So I was writing a lot of songs, you know.
Zach Schultz:Yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Because I was just trying to.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was just trying to get better.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And also part of getting better to me at that point in my life was like just learning to care a little bit less.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I had to crush my ego a bit, you know, and so writing that many songs was a great way to do that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Because if you write 360 songs, like, there's no way that you're gonna write 365 goods.
Aaron Lee Tajin:There's just like zero chance of that, so.
Zach Schultz:Or bad ones, for that matter.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Or bad ones.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, there's a good.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You may.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You may write 365 terrible ones.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But that's whatever.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Whatever it is is what I've kind of learned.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So I was writing a bunch of songs and I.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It was like the coming up on the 4th of July and for some reason I decided I was gonna write like, I'd never really written like any sort of like patriotic song.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Not that my song is really patriotic.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It doesn't really take a side as far as like, that is our modern version of patriotism is concerned.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But I called my friend John Latham and I was like, man, I'm gonna go on Facebook and tell everybody that Lee Greenwood is Canadian.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I was like, would you be interested in kind of helping spread that idea around or whatever.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so me and John kind of tag teamed it and on my Twitter post it really blew up and people were really getting upset.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, this is the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:This is the dumb part too about this is like people were kind of mad that like you would suggest that the guy who sang God Bless America, or God Bless the USA rather was.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Was like, not, quote, unquote American, even though Canadians are North American.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, it's.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's just kind of another one of those things where you're sort of like, man, y'all are really kind of.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But yeah, people really reacted strongly in a very negative way for the most part.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I just thought, what a dumb thing to get mad about.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Here's.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Here's the other thing about that song.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I had a.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I had an experience.
Aaron Lee Tajin:This has been living in Nashville, has been my first time living in the South.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I always lived sort of above the Mason Dixon line before I lived in Nashville.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I was here.
Aaron Lee Tajin: t Barack Obama was elected in: Aaron Lee Tajin:Me and Jason Ross, the singer for 7 Mary 3, were.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We had a night off and we were out to dinner in Nashville just watching the election unfold.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And the things that we were hearing people say at the tables around us about Barack Obama and black folks, generally speaking, sometimes was atrociously appalling.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I mean, it was like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Just thinking of it now, like, makes me feel a little sick to my stomach, you know?
Speaker E:Sure.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I sort of realized how differently folks view things sometimes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I was very lucky.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I think I grew up in a lot of situations where things were pretty diverse and the places that I was living and the friends that I had and the folks that I knew were loving, kind hearted, open, who definitely wanted to be living in a beautiful world.
Aaron Lee Tajin:However, there is another side to that, and that was my first.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That election was my first experience seeing that I wrote this from many different experiences that I had had.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I mean, the Lee Greenwood thing was a catalyst to kind of start making it up.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But I'd been thinking about it for a really long time.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You can't really write a song like just wake up one day and be like, oh, I'm gonna write a political song today about the duality of the two party system in America and how they sort of treat each other and just kind of do it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, it's like Tom Waits calls it, setting a trap to catch a song.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You think about the song for way longer than you ever actually write it, you know, And I thought about that for years before I.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Before I wrote.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And then I wrote it and then I.
Aaron Lee Tajin: And finished it in: Aaron Lee Tajin:And realized after all of that Stuff that had just happened that the song wasn't done yet and wrote some more verses and fleshed out the choruses more.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so really, even just writing it took years as well.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Well, what a fun song it is.
Zach Schultz:It's catchy.
Zach Schultz:And then you listen to like the sixth time and you're like, oh, my gosh, there's a lot.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, that's the thing that's kind of cool about.
Aaron Lee Tajin:About it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:To me, it's.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It is.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It is fun in a way.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I mean.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So I've been doing this thing where I teach a songwriting workshop to high school students.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like 30 of them, me and a couple other songwriters.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And we break up into groups of three and we each write a song together with the students.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And then we come back and everybody plays the songs that they've written for the group.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's really fun and it's cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And the kids are super, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:They're so smart and like, I just.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't worry for the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:When I.
Aaron Lee Tajin:When I get to hang with these kids because they're so cool.
Zach Schultz:If you were teaching my high school class.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Are you a teacher?
Zach Schultz:No, my parents are, though.
Zach Schultz:Oh, cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Oh, cool.
Zach Schultz:But I love, I love the fact that you're in there teaching songwriting because it gives them a great chat.
Zach Schultz:Way to channel their thoughts and inspiration beyond just tick tock.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Definitely.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Definitely.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, it's the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:A lot about the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:How hard it is to be vulnerable in those.
Aaron Lee Tajin:To offer up whatever your ideas, whatever you.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And especially in front of a group of your peers.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's like, man, that's kind of a scary thing.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But it's really cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's like these kids kind of like you watch them, you know, like, it was really magical.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We did one last night and this young woman, Gabby, had never written a song in her life, and she came up with two killer lines, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, really amazing, you know, And.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, and she was smiling and we were high fiving and stuff.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It was really cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I played.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I played I Love America for the kids last night.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And by the end of it, everybody was clapping along and the chorus and stuff.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Cause it is fun, but it's also like a pretty stark picture to me.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I love that about songs, how they're kind of like life, like they're not this or that really.
Aaron Lee Tajin:They're kind of like all of these things at once.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And that's why I think, like, ChatGPT will never get it, because it could probably write you a song about a dog.
Speaker E:Right?
Aaron Lee Tajin:But it's not.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But it's not.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's not going to really get the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You're not going to get the duality of humanity in that song.
Speaker E:The human emotion.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, yeah, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's people.
Aaron Lee Tajin:People do that because they're human, you know, and that's a unique skill set to us.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Meet.
Speaker A:Cry, cry, cry till you're laughing There's a funny side on the other side of all these lies that we tell Lawsuits Just to have a life Just to have.
Zach Schultz:So I'd like to choose your own adventure question.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Going back early in your high school career or early when you just discovered, hey, I have a knack for writing music.
Zach Schultz:Or maybe you go back to your New York Dolls days or your driving and crying days of an experience that you had, or a moment that really was big for you on that front.
Aaron Lee Tajin:A big moment.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I haven't really had any big moments.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I've had a lot of small little things that have.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That continue to add up over time to my career and stuff like that, but I've never really had a breakout moment or a big hit song or a viral TikTok video or any of those kind of things that traditionally make up a successful music career.
Aaron Lee Tajin:A lot of my heroes were kind of like that, where they just kind of went from one thing to the next very quietly, very sort of.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And that's been my experience.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I've learned now as I've gotten older to go back and.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And feel gratitude for things that I've done in the past, that while I was having the experience, I was enjoying it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But you're also having the experience, so you're kind of caught up in that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You're not really.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Or at least I'm not always able to step back in those moments and really fully have the gratitude that I should, you know, so I've learned to go back and appreciate those things in a different way.
Zach Schultz:But what's one that's maybe changed for you then?
Aaron Lee Tajin:One that's changed?
Zach Schultz:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Like you experienced it then and you're kind of maybe just like, hey, yeah, I'm on stage here.
Zach Schultz:I'm doing this, or I'm writing this song.
Zach Schultz:And then you look back at it, you're like, man, that was something really special, and you have that gratitude for it now.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Okay.
Aaron Lee Tajin:2017.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We, my band and I, were the first band on the main stage on the first day of the Newport Folk Festival.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Oh, yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And we drove.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It was a tough.
Aaron Lee Tajin:The routing.
Aaron Lee Tajin:For whatever reason, we had to draw in a day in one day.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We had to drive from Nashville to Rhode island to get to the gig.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so we drove, whatever that is, 16 hours or 17 hours or something like that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, got checked into a hotel somewhere between Nashville and Rhode island, four in the morning or something.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Slept for, like, two hours, got up, drove the rest of the way to Newport, drove onto the festival site, put our gear on stage and jumped on and went, 1, 2, 3, 4, go.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so, yeah, because of that, those travel conditions, like, I was barely conscious when we played that show.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But I had.
Aaron Lee Tajin:My friend.
Aaron Lee Tajin:My friend Pia from Norway was visiting at the time, and she took some pictures of the show, and she sent me one of the photos, like, a long time after the show.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Might have been years after, I can't remember, but it was a long time after the show.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And she had been sort of up on the scaffolding kind of behind us.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so the photo she got was the back of the fort stage out to the.
Speaker E:Out to where me and Ben stand.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, exactly.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And it was so.
Aaron Lee Tajin:There were so many people watching us play.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, you couldn't even see a blade of grass, like, anywhere.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, the lawn was just full of.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I thought to myself, like, I've been the first band of the day at many a festival, and I know that usually what that means is that you play for, like, the sound guy, the stage crew, and about 10 people who walked through the gate at.
Aaron Lee Tajin:To be there.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's just the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's just kind of usually how it is.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But realizing it's like, man, we were really.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We were really connecting with people at that time in a way where most of those people probably had never seen us before.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I'm.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yet so many of them felt compelled to come early and give us a chance to sing for them.
Aaron Lee Tajin:What a special gift.
Aaron Lee Tajin:What an incredibly beautiful moment in the world where people were willing to take a chance on something they didn't know because they trust the Newport Folk Festival.
Aaron Lee Tajin:They've had so many great experiences there.
Aaron Lee Tajin:They trust them to show them something new that they can love and that can become part of their.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Their life and the way that those bands at Newport do.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And we got to be a part of that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That's just a little.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Just one little few.
Aaron Lee Tajin:One.
Aaron Lee Tajin:However long 40 minutes or however long the set for 40 minutes of time, we got to share this incredible thing with thousands of people.
Aaron Lee Tajin:How cool.
Speaker E:Yeah, that place is Newport.
Speaker E:It's been set on this pod a billion times, but we.
Speaker E:We love that place.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Me, too.
Speaker E:You said you never had a number one hit, but you do have a Grammy nomination.
Speaker E:My also.
Speaker E:Do you have a dream collaboration or that you would.
Speaker E:That you would just be over the hills wanting to perform with or write?
Aaron Lee Tajin:Me and my friend BP Fallon wrote a song together, and he met Jack White, and Jack decided to record it for Third Man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And then Jack produced it and played guitar on it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so he was playing my guitar riff that I'd written, which is pretty intimidating.
Aaron Lee Tajin:One of the greatest living rock and roll guitar players play your riff that you wrote.
Zach Schultz:It's pretty cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And it's called I Believe in Elvis Presley is the name of the song.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And it came out when Jack was doing the Green.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He was doing the Different Colored Record series.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And when he was doing the Green series, he made a one on BP Fallon, and that song appears on that record.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But it was really cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I did get to meet him.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He invited BP and I out to the Dead Weather show that they were playing in Brooklyn, and I got to meet him at that time.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It was very brief, but cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He was super, super cool guy.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But one thing that happened that was really cool that night, Allison Mosshart, the singer of Dead Weather, who's also the singer of a band called the Kills that I love, she came up to me in the hallway and was like, hey, that was a cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I love your riff that you wrote on that Jack song.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That was really cool.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So.
Zach Schultz:Yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Take that to the bank all day.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:What's a misconception that people sometimes have about your music?
Aaron Lee Tajin:I read a review of the most recent record that said that I can no longer be considered.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't know if I'm going to paraphrase this, but it was something to the effect of after this record, he can no longer be considered like a, you know, a song.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like a folk Americana songwriter or something like that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Oh.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I was like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was like, yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't know if I buy that, but, yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:The hardest thing to do with music sometimes is draw a line in the sand, because it is sort of like we were talking about earlier.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's a lot like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's full of complexities and contradictions and all of those things that make us all human, and that's why we connect to it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I use to be.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's funny, I feel like I.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Before I got into therapy, I used to think about myself too much, and I was probably.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I probably had some answers ready to go.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And then, like, I started doing therapy and thinking about myself a lot less.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And maybe it's made me worse at interviews.
Ben Fanning:I don't Know which is the best.
Zach Schultz:Interview question response ever.
Speaker E:Yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That was the best.
Speaker E:That worked great.
Zach Schultz:We're going to retitle the interview.
Zach Schultz:Why Aaron was ruined.
Zach Schultz:No, his rock and roll lifestyle is not nearly as fun now.
Speaker E:Well, because Stellar Evolution has been praised.
Speaker E:And for you, I mean, like I said at the beginning, you evolution over your albums.
Speaker E:Every album has been just better.
Speaker E:Better.
Speaker E:This one, it's fantastic.
Speaker E:I mean, my daughter's dance crew, they warm up to pants when they're dancing.
Speaker E:I come in and they're warming up or shutting it down.
Speaker E:And I mean, the teacher has a good sense of music.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I tell her, man, tell me about.
Speaker E:About that song, because I just love the meaning within it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You know, that song started off a lot differently from a musical standpoint.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It was kind of like, well, here, give me one second.
Speaker E:For the folks at home, Aaron grabbed a guitar that says Stellar Evolution.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, this is my cut.
Aaron Lee Tajin:This is my custom Stellar Evolution guitar from our good friends at Epiphone.
Zach Schultz:Oh, yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So when the song started, it was kind of more like strummy, kind of.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't know if you guys can hear that, you know.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I was going like, everybody seems so bored.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, they're so advanced.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I'm laying down on a chaise, long riding songs about pants, you know.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So I kind of had this kind of like strummy, kind of like 70s, almost sort of more of the thing that I've always done kind.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And as the song went and we did a full track that way, we had the whole thing, like, basically totally done.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And then as the song went along, there was just something about it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like I wanted it to kind of bop along a little bit more in a different way.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That's the only way I can think of to describe it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's just like boppy.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You know, and I wanted it to be boppier.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't know.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You hear kids say that too a lot nowadays.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That's a bop or whatever.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't know what that really means.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But I knew that I wanted more of whatever that was.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so I kind of ditched the big acoustic thing and went for this kind of like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Do you all know that guy, Corey Wong?
Zach Schultz:Yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:He's a buddy of mine.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I find him to be really inspiring.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I love his plant.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so that electric guitar part that I put on there, that it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Very Cory Wong inspired.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Very Cory Wong.
Zach Schultz:I didn't hear that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:You know.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And of course, he's inspired by a lot of greats like Nile Rodgers and stuff like that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So it's all the lineage back to.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Back to those folks.
Aaron Lee Tajin:But, you know that I just wanted it to kind of bop along the way that a lot of that kind of music does.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so when I made that change, it just kind of, like, opened up the song in a way.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It was no longer really a folk rock thing.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I don't know.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't really know what you call whatever it is, whatever it ultimately became, but that's what I like about it, is that I don't know what to call it.
Speaker E:That's what I think I like about it as well.
Speaker E:There is no genre defining Aaron's sound.
Speaker A:I'm laying down on a chaise Long.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Riding songs about pants.
Speaker A:Dress me up or dress me down Painted jeans or a ballroom gown I know what it means to be a man the world will try to weigh you out so wear whatever you want to the world will try to weigh you down so Honeywell whatever you want to I.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker E:Mean, our show is called Americana Curious.
Speaker E:So when you're busting genres like that.
Speaker E:So what does the term Americana mean to you then?
Aaron Lee Tajin:Because it means every.
Aaron Lee Tajin:To me, it's like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It means kind of that you are creating some sort of music that has its roots somewhere in the history of American music.
Speaker E:Yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And wherever it goes from there can almost kind of be anything, really, if it's well crafted and well done.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, you can do anything and have people dig it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And that's what I like about the audience in Americana that I was.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That it's not a country audience in terms of really being tied specifically to this genre.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And to me, in terms of, like, music and where we've been and where we are, that is a thing that's a little bit maybe of the past as well.
Aaron Lee Tajin:This kind of idea of, like, I'm a punk and I listen to punk music, and my life is punk and my clothes are punk and my dog is punk, and that's it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That's the one for me or whatever.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Maybe there is still some of that out there, but I don't see people living their lives en masse that way, the way that we kind of did in the 90s or whatever, you know?
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so it's cool to me, I think, because it sort of gets more to the point about who we really are as people, you know?
Aaron Lee Tajin:And again, these beautiful complexities within our personalities that exist.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And Americana does a great job of being a representation of that, I think, as a genre, as a musical genre.
Zach Schultz:A sequel could be.
Zach Schultz:I love Americana.
Aaron Lee Tajin:If I could get Jim Lauderdale to sing it, then maybe it would be true.
Zach Schultz:So starting to wrap this up, you've played on so many stages with so many different people.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:What do you wish your audiences would start doing or stop doing?
Aaron Lee Tajin:Oh, what do I wish they would start doing or stop doing?
Aaron Lee Tajin:I wish they would start.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I wish they would start.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I don't know, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:God, my audiences are so great.
Zach Schultz:I love how deeply Aaron is taking this in right now.
Speaker E:Yes.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's funny because it's like the life of playing songs of the life of writing songs, recording them and going out and singing those for people is something that I had to really fight hard for in my life.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I'm so.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I feel like it's such a delicate thing that exists, and I'm so kind of grateful that it's still around, that I'm still going, that I'm still doing it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Like, it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That gratitude, like, really gives me such a.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Such a.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I just feel.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I just, like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I give a lot of grace to the audience, maybe in a.
Aaron Lee Tajin:In a different way maybe than some entertainers do, because it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:To me, I'm really there serving them to me.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I'm not saying that's how it is for everybody, but for me, that's how it is.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I feel.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I'll tell you a little story real quick if I can.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I feel really grateful to have that perspective, and here's why.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I was playing a show last summer in Alabama.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Beautiful show.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Sold out show, wonderful people, great venue.
Aaron Lee Tajin:The Standard Deluxe.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Do you guys.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Have you ever heard of the Standard Deluxe in Waverly, Alabama?
Zach Schultz:I grew up.
Zach Schultz:I grew up 20 minutes from there.
Zach Schultz:Alexander.
Zach Schultz:Kitty.
Zach Schultz:I've been there on the 280 boogie right there at the center.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That's right.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I played the 280 boogie a time or two, so.
Zach Schultz:Of course you did.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Beautiful show.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Oh, so.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So we're in the midst of the show that's going, and there's this lady in the front, and she's really being.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Even between the songs and stuff, like.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And if you've ever seen me live, sometimes I'll tell stories of little stories about the songs and stuff before I play them.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And she was even kind of, like, being vocal during, like, oh, one of those people.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I could see.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Well, I could see everybody in the.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I could see everybody around her feeling and kind of looking at her and then kind of, like, looking.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Kind of checking in with me to make sure that, like, I'm sort of okay with what's happening that like no one needs to shush her or whatever.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And we just kind of carried on that way and went through the show and after the show was over, I was doing the merch table and she was maybe the last person, I guess that I talked to at the merch table and we had a very long conversation and it turns out she is a high school choir director and she's also a person who is neurodivergent.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And part of her affliction that she suffers from is this vocalization that happens.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So I felt in that moment really grateful that I was sort of open to whatever was happening at my show and giving grace to the audience for that instead of saying like okay everybody, let's try to respect the situation and let's have everybody be quiet and all that kind of stuff like on the mic or something like that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I didn't shame her in any way for just being who she was.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And then it turned out that even as a part of her neurodivergence, so, so it's that just that right there is like such a great lesson for me in why it's probably better to that way we all have things going on that we don't know.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We all different issues that we deal with that you can't just kind of tell everybody the first time you meet them or whatever.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And having that, giving that grace to folks to be however they are, however they need to be to enjoy their life and a concert experience and all that kind of stuff.
Aaron Lee Tajin:That's a cool thing.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And so I was really grateful for that moment.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And that's maybe why it's like it's hard to answer a question.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I mean we'd all, I suppose at the end of the day we'd all love to be playing sold out theaters for a pin drop audience.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's just hanging on every note.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And sometimes that is it is that.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Sometimes it is that way but you know, it's not.
Aaron Lee Tajin:It's not going to be that way every night certainly.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And that's luckily for me that's not really why I'm doing it.
Aaron Lee Tajin:So.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Thank you for sharing that story.
Zach Schultz:What a incredible, an incredible moment.
Zach Schultz:And shout out to Standard Deluxe.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Yes.
Zach Schultz:So last question.
Zach Schultz:And you can just take where you want.
Zach Schultz:What Looking back over your career down the road one day, what's the.
Zach Schultz:What's Aaron's legacy going to be from.
Zach Schultz:From a music perspective?
Aaron Lee Tajin:Oh God, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I used to tell my, my first manager, Kathy Whitley, who is one of the greatest people on the face of the planet.
Aaron Lee Tajin:And I still.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We talk all.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We just had coffee the other day.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I used to tell her, kathy, when I die, just on my tombstone, just have them write, an effort was made.
Zach Schultz:Well, there you go.
Zach Schultz:Succeeded and no doubt will continue.
Speaker E:Yes.
Zach Schultz:To succeed in that.
Zach Schultz:Aaron, it's been a blast.
Zach Schultz:Thank you for joining Zach and I, and we want to hang out with you in Nashville.
Speaker E:Yeah, thanks so much.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, come on down, see us in Nashville.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Where are y'all located?
Speaker E:I'm in Minnesota.
Zach Schultz:Charleston.
Zach Schultz:Charleston.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Nice.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Cool, man.
Aaron Lee Tajin:I love both of those places.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Please come see us in Nashville soon.
Aaron Lee Tajin:We'd love to have you all down here.
Speaker E:This has been a real treat, a real pleasure.
Speaker E:Thank you very much.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Yeah, likewise.
Aaron Lee Tajin:Thanks, y'all.
Speaker A:Morning.
Speaker A:Birds sing My meltdowns melted away Thoughts my brain thought I should know Put a good on my throat I took it in stride and replied Cry, cry, cry till you're laughing There's a sunny side on the other side of all these lies that we tell ourselves Just to have a life.
Ben Fanning:Thanks for joining Zach and I for this episode of Americana Curious.
Ben Fanning:Subscribe where you listen to your podcast so you are notified when a new episode is released.
Ben Fanning:I'm Ben Fanning, and it's been great sharing these artists and music with you.
Ben Fanning:Until next time, stay Americana Curious.
