INTERVIEW: Red Fang's Aaron Beam Reveals Why Band Is Giving Away New Music
By Casey Moffitt in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 2, 2014 7:00PM
Red Fang is making its way to Wire in Berwyn Tuesday night. We caught up with bass player and vocalist Aaron Beam as the band was making its way through Texas on their Situation:AWESOME! tour.
On each stop along the way the band is giving away free 7-inch records featuring two newly recorded tracks with the help of Scion AV.
"Part of the deal with Scion AV is that we're not allowed to sell it," Beam explained. "I like it. It's cool. I mean, people are going to download it or stream it for free anyway, so it's nice to be able to give them an actual, physical copy that they can put on their mantle next to their taxidermied cat, or something."
The new 7-inch features "The Meadows," a song previously recorded on the band's 2011 release Murder the Mountains. Beam said the song was rearranged a bit for the new release and some changes were made to the vocal parts. He called the latest version "more solid" than the album's.
A brand new song, "The Shadows," fills side two. It's a solid rocker with an unusual 5/4 meter. Beam said he is particularly excited about the new song and that it is a hint of things to come.
"For me, that song is super exciting, and I hope it's the kind of song that we'll be coming up with for the next album," he said. "I'm hoping it turns out that way, but you never really know how things are going to turn out until you get in there and write the songs. I think it's weird and energetic and I'm looking forward to getting to work on (the next album)"
Beam said getting the songs ready for the new release was a bit of whirlwind, as the band did not have a lot of time to put it together.
"We were in Europe on tour while we were working out the arrangement with Scion AV, and it ended up that it had to be finished—like written, recorded, mixed, mastered, everything—two weeks after we got back," he said. "I stayed in Europe for a week after the tour to travel through Turkey with my wife, so we basically had about a week to work on everything."
Beam said the other three members jammed and cranked out "The Shadows" while he vacationed and he came in after to work out his bass and vocal parts. "I think it turned out all right," he said.
Although getting the recording finished was a bit like working with his hair on fire, Beam said he preferred it to the experience of making the band's latest full-length album, Whales and Leeches, which was released in October. The band had little prepared before going into the studio for that project, and Beam described it as a "difficult" experience.
"We set a date and decided to write around that date, and I really didn't like the experience," he said. "I guess it was little too much like work or something instead of letting things happen on a natural timescale. We really didn't have the luxury of throwing stuff away if it didn't work, because we needed material. We didn't have anything else. It felt like we had to force everything to work. At least there was a little bit of that feeling."
"It was such an intense process making that record," he continued. "I had to take a step back in order to be objective about it. I didn't really appreciate the songs until we started playing them live. That made me like the songs more."
Whatever Red Fang did in those sessions, it's hard to knock the results from the finished album. It's gained the band a lot of new fans and more notoriety, as well as being a critical success. It even landed the band an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman in January. It's been a wild ride for the boys, all of whom have spent a lot of time making rock music with little to show for it.
"It's all a little strange, especially when we stop to reflect how long we've been off the radar or spent playing in obscurity," he said of the new recognition. "We rarely played outside of Portland, and sometimes when we played in our hometown nobody really took notice. But making music is something that we feel compelled to do whether or not people take notice."
Beam said he's still not quite used to all the new attention Red Fang has garnered since the release of Whales and Leeches, but he also said it's been gratifying.
"It's taken me 20 years to get to this point, so I guess I'm just not used to all the notice," he said. "I don't think it will ever seem normal to me. And I don't want it to either, because that seems like a sad place when you start taking it for granted."
"The other thing is that I know a lot of other bands out there who deserve it, too," Beam continued. "A lot of it has to do with luck and timing. For some it works out and for others it just doesn't. I know we've worked hard, but that doesn't mean there aren't many more who don't deserve it as much as we do."
Beam said people heading to Tuesday's show can expect a shake-up in the band's setlist for this tour, so if you've seen them recently you can expect a few new twists.
"We've switched some stuff out and put new stuff in that we haven't played in a while," he said. "We were afraid people might be getting a little bored with the old setlist. I'm really happy with it right now."
Red Fang will be performing at Wire, 6815 W. Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, with Big Business and American Sharks at 8 p.m. Tuesday June 3, $20, 17 and older.