Country Fried Rock 1523: Aaron Lee Tasjan Behind the Scenes Recording In the Blazes

Sloane Spencer: 00:01:29

This week, I got to hang out with Country Fried Rock alum Aaron Lee Tasgin.

You might know Aaron Lee Tasgin from his time playing with the band Everest as the guitar slinger for a time with Driving and Crying, his stint with the Madison Square Gardeners, or even on the road with the New York Dolls. We spent some time at his place in East Nashville just before his brand new album, in the Blazes, came out.

We'll chat with our bud, Aaron Lee Tasgin, the alumni tour of Country Fried Rock, and I'm your host, Sarah. Sloan Spencer. So, Aaron, what you been doing?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:02:02

Well, I just came back from a bunch of gigs in Texas that was really fun. I haven't played in Texas too much, so it's been an exciting adventure playing down there. But, yeah, I just did that, and that was really cool.

And here in Nashville for the big Americana fest this week, it's cool to have, like, a community of people that care about the records, that great artists who maybe. I don't know. I feel like Americana is like one of those things that's combination of all this different stuff.

So that might make it sometimes maybe too eclectic for certain people or something like that.

Sloane Spencer: 00:02:39

Hey, y'. All, this is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock.

We've had an incredible year with more people finding us on the radio and our podcast than we ever imagined. Thank you all so much. Careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:02:54

Hey, this is Aaron Lee Taschen on Country Fried Rock.

Sloane Spencer: 00:02:57

So at Country Fried Rock, we've been on board with what you're doing for a while, since your ep. Well, I guess since before that ep. Anyway. It's been a bit of a process to get in the Blazes recorded and released.

How did all that end up working out for you?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:03:10

You know, it was really a process of necessity, I think, more than anything. I was doing this tour with my friends John Moreland and Caleb Cottle, and I think you actually sponsored the tour or some of the tour anyway.

Sloane Spencer: 00:03:24

One Good Night's Sleep.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:03:25

Yeah. Yeah, no, it was awesome. Thank you very much for that. But, yeah, I was, you know, and I wanted to have something new to give people on that.

So I just made this little another EP here in town really quick, just me and my guitar. Kind of like I do my gigs, and that was cool.

And I didn't even really try to do anything with it, but I just kind of put it up online, and some people actually ended up writing some stuff about it that was really nice. Kind of out of nowhere and that was kind of cool.

But, you know, I guess my point in saying all that dumb stuff I just said is that there wasn't really much ambition for it at all. And I knew I needed to make like an album because that's.

If you're gonna be a songwriting guy that makes records, at some point you have to do like a whole one.

So I kinda, you know, I kind of felt like, I don't know, some just weird self imposed thing to just want to prove to myself that I could put something together that lasted longer than like six songs or whatever. And so I did that. I just called, called up a bunch of my friends and said, let's, you know, make a record together.

Just a bunch of people that like I'd met throughout the years that had offered to help, like, you know, hey, if you ever want to make a.

Sloane Spencer: 00:04:36

Record, where did you end up recording it?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:04:40

We did it in California.

Sloane Spencer: 00:04:42

Oh, okay. I don't know why, I thought you were in New York.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:04:44

Yeah, no.

Well, we did Crooked River Burning in New York, but this one, we in California at this studio called New Monkey, which is a really cool little studio. That's where Elliot Smith came from, a base. He like basically put the studio together and they've gone a long way to kind of keep it.

Sloane Spencer: 00:05:01

So, yeah, I mean, they kind of kept Elliot Smith's vision alive.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:05:04

Yeah, it's so. It's cool. I don't know, it's fun to be in there and it's just a great room with a great vibe. And, you know, that's the other thing too.

I think I learned a lot.

This guy Eli, who we hired to produce it, he really taught me a huge lesson about recording, which is like, I think the two most important things are a good engineer and the other people that are playing on it. It's like if it's the right group of people, you can just really fly, fly through getting great stuff. And.

And we did a lot of that live thing, you know, we did a lot of the live thing where it's like there wasn't a whole lot of overdubs or anything like that. And yeah, it was just fun to. It was just fun to make a record that way.

That's kind of like very much like in the moment, like shooting from the hip kind of vibe, you know.

Sloane Spencer: 00:05:52

How did you connect with Eli originally?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:05:54

We were in this band together called Everest.

Sloane Spencer: 00:05:57

Oh, okay. That Eli.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:05:58

Yeah, he was the bass player in Everest and then he also produced the first two Delta Spirit records, which are still, I think, my Favorite Delta Spirit records. They're so good.

Sloane Spencer: 00:06:10

Well, so for folks that I mention you to, I think most of them recognize you as a guitar player for other people's bands. And I don't think it was till the EP with Crooked River Burning that they were like, oh, he writes songs, too.

And then the work that you do tends to be a little more, I guess, coming from a folkie or a folk songwriter base. And I've had a lot of folks.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:06:29

Be like, oh, yeah, that's true. I think there's definitely some truth to that, you know, And I'm.

I'm kind of, you know, thinking about it much more in terms of, you know, the songwriting things these days, just because that's, like, what I'm just choosing to put my time and efforts into, you know, or what I feel like. I don't know. I feel like that's what I wanted. Like, doing that makes me feel happy and. And I have a lot of fun doing it, so. But, you know, I can't.

I certainly can't deny, like.

And there's good reason for people to know me as that, because that's pretty much all I've done, really, for the last, like, 10 years of my life, you know, was. I'd always did this in between, but it was very much that, you know, in between playing guitar in bands. But I still. I still.

Every once in a while, I get to get up in town, someone will call. Joe Fletcher called me up a couple weeks ago and asked if I wanted to jam with him. And Brian Wright did, too, which was really not fun.

Man, those guys are so good.

Sloane Spencer: 00:07:31

Oh, man, Brian Wright is the best. We featured him a couple records ago, and then it got picked up. And, you know, he was Texas, then he was Los Angeles, then he moved to Nashville.

Anyway, that dude is amazing. I totally love him. I cannot wait to see him play live again. We need to get him back on the show, too.

Brian, when you get back off tour, we need to talk. We've been chasing Joe Fletcher for a while, too.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:07:50

Yeah, he's so good. He's so good, man. He's got. Joe has a song on his new one about this dream he had about Hank Williams. It's just amazing.

Sloane Spencer: 00:08:01

Hey, y', all, this is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock. Those of y' all who listen on our podcasts, it's a quick hit of just the conversation.

If you want the full radio program with all the songs that we talk about, ask for it on your local radio station, joining 20 other stations across the country get the goods@countryfriendarock.org hello, my.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:08:22

Name is Aaron Lee Tasjan. You can catch me on tour for all of the time and you can find out where that's happening@www.aaronleetasjan.com.

Sloane Spencer: 00:08:35

I'Ll admit I'm super excited about your set at our party tonight with Erin Lee Tasjan and friends. Who did you give a buzz to?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:08:42

Yeah, just, you know, a bunch of people from the neighborhood. We're just a band of neighborhood folks.

Sloane Spencer: 00:08:49

In a really cool neighborhood.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:08:51

Yeah, in a really cool neighborhood. That's kind of what it feels like to me. You know, it's not. I don't want to get all high school football about it.

You know, we're not, like, representing our community or anything, but, like.

But it is fun to, like, be like, man, all these people just live right around here, and you can call them up and start a band for, like, one night, and that's what we're doing.

So we got John Radford who's, you know, played with everybody in town, but probably most recently people would know him from his band Steelism that he plays in. So he's playing drums with us, the great Keith Christopher from Billy Joe Schaefer and Steve Marriott and the George Satellites on bass.

And then we have Lily Hyatt singing. Love Lily Hyatt. She's so her.

Her album that she put out earlier this year is one that I've listened to a bunch, and we're actually doing one of off of that tonight. A song of hers called Jesus would have let me pick the restaurant, which is.

Sloane Spencer: 00:09:46

That's the best lyric ever.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:09:47

Isn't that so good? That one made me green with envy. I was like, man, that's good. You Lily Hyatt. But yeah, so we got Lily Hyatt singing.

We've got Brian Wright is singing. We're gonna do.

Since the whole night is basically kind of a fundraiser for Eddie's piece spaghetti, we're gonna do a super sucker song that Brian's gonna sing and he. Oh, man, he sounds so good. And then Alan Thompson's coming by and he's gonna sing some Grateful Dead with us.

Sloane Spencer: 00:10:18

That's fitting.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:10:19

Yeah, totally. Yeah. So we're excited about that. And then we've got our special end of the end of the whole thing. Closer outers.

Our good friend Kevin Kinney's gonna come sing the last one with us. So it should be a lot of fun.

So it's kind of like a little Rolling Thunder review, you know, I Mean, it's nowhere near that good, but just people in the neighborhood, it's really fun to see.

You know, I always loved, like, looking back through like, magazines, music magazines when I was a kid, you know, and it would just show, like these one time things that happen where all these people, like, just happened to be on stage together at some cool moment. And I don't know, I just feel like that kind of stuff is fun and like, totally forces me to consider different things creatively.

You're working very closely with a bunch of other people who thing you really like respect and. Yeah, it's a great thing for a lot of reasons. For me, you know, I enjoy it on several levels.

Sloane Spencer: 00:11:19

So what's happening with the release of in the Blazes?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:11:21

Well, there's a bunch of. Basically, there's a bunch of gigs. So there'll be a lot of that going on.

I'll be in Washington state and then I gotta come run back to Nashville because I'm doing something for the very fine people over at Lightning 100. And then it's just like a bunch of gigs. I've got some stuff opening for Ray Wiley Hubbard and then some.

Some stuff that I'm doing kind of on my own and then some gigs. What are you doing? Is a very intimidating question for me. And I've always. I've always tried to shy away from having to answer it.

Sloane Spencer: 00:11:59

I feel like, what's your aversion technique?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:12:04

I don't know. I gotta mix it up. Because a lot I get asked that question more than probably some other people do. So I try to keep it fresh.

So my answer always seems genuine. But change the subject is always a good one, especially if it's something really interesting.

Yeah, I saw an episode of Seinfeld where I learned that when I was a kid. In the episode, Jerry was gonna get this girl's number off a charity list. And he was wrestling with the morality of that.

And I think he ultimately decided to do it at some point. Like later on in the episode, he's sitting with Elaine. I'm trying to remember, like, the exact line she says, because it's like the way that she.

The way that she phrases it is like, perfect. But anyways, the whole idea of changing the subject as a way to, like, throw somebody off the beaten path, you know, because I think.

And that's actually a great technique in songwriting too. Like, I love, you know, I really. I love, like, Kevin's songwriting particularly so much because the story within it is so rich.

Sometimes it goes to all these different Places, sometimes just in the same verse. And I really like. I admire Hayes. Carl can do that really good, too.

Sloane Spencer: 00:13:19

He does. Similar technique. Two really different songwriters, but. Yeah.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:13:23

Yeah, but they have that kind of stream of conscience style of writing things that. It's like, man, when they. When they. I feel like, you know, any writer, you can sort of sit there and be like, okay.

You know, these songs particularly are great or exemplary work that that person did. And the ones that Hayes and Kevin write, like, for me, that are like.

That are like, just like, man, some of my favorite songs ever, because they have. That they came together in this very, like, free, unedited sort of way. So there's this kind.

I don't know, there's just this, like, reckless kind of thing to it that I really love.

Sloane Spencer: 00:14:03

I'm your host, Sloan Spencer. You can keep in touch with us on Facebook.

But I really like Twitter, where we are at country fried rock, ending with R O K. And if you want to see pictures of my shoes, my dog, and my lunch, stop by Instagram. But whatever way you like to hang out, stop by and say, hey.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:14:21

Hey. This is Aaron Lee Tashan. Check out the new record in the Blazes on www.altobviously.bandcamp.com.

Sloane Spencer: 00:14:33

Yeah, I mean, I think we all emulate those things from people we admire, folks we respect, and that sort of thing. And I noticed earlier when I saw you in the round this year, there were a few stage techniques that I was like, that is a Kevin technique.

I mean, you know.

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:14:46

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Sloane Spencer: 00:14:48

Well. And you had an issue with an audience member who was really inappropriately responding to a song.

It was, like, a really serious song, and she's, like, cracking up, laughing through the whole thing. And I think you actually spoke to her on a deeper level than maybe she was ready for. And I think her response was to laugh.

I mean, like, I'm one of those people if you tell me something terrible, horrible, and awful, I'm probably gonna laugh. But it's a. It's a nervous response. It's not actual, like, finding humor in someone's tragedy. You know what I mean?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:15:13

Right. Yeah, I. You know, that that's the thing that's great about the live thing.

It's kind of, like totally unpredictable, and you just don't know where it's gonna go. And that's. I think, if you have the right attitude about it, that's actually pretty exciting.

I remember one time I was on the road with my friend Rosie Golan, and we were opening for Todd Snyder at this place in Cincinnati, the Century Theater or something. I think it was a big place. But he sold it out. I mean, he, you know, he had a really great crowd there and everybody.

And you know, it was like, it was a pretty great night for him. From the moment he walked on stage, everybody was just like way into what he was doing up there.

But I remember about the third song in, he like, was kind of like half, half starting to play a song, but kind of still talking, like saying something. And out of nowhere, like this dead silent, sold out theater, out of nowhere, somebody yells out from the crowd, get the off the stage.

Which was like so strange. And I can't remember how he handled it. I remember that he handled it like impeccably flawed.

Like the way however he danced around, that was so genius. Like only he could do probably. But I can't remember exactly what he did to get out of it, but he did, you know, but.

But it was kind of like, kind of made people even like more into it somehow because they were just sort of like, man, that could have just been weird. And that guy, like, wasn't weird about it. And that was cool, you know. That's the other thing too.

You know that Smith show that you were talking about, like, it's a bar.

And I kind of feel like when people come into a bar, they're at a bar and they're entitled to kind of do whatever they want to do, regardless of whether there's like someone on stage or not. Like, if you're playing music in a bar, like, part of that gig is that you have to. To make people listen to you, not the other way around, you know?

And so like, how bummed could you really be? It was funny. It was funny that she laughed. I remember thinking like, wow, this is like the. This is like the most serious song I've played all night.

And she's laughing at this one. That's kind of cool, I guess. Or I don't know what it is. But then I remember.

Yeah, no, I did think I did totally go there with it too, because I'm super neurotic about stuff like that. But Moreland, I remember she like laughed in one of like Moreland's songs too. And it's like. And I've never heard that.

Sloane Spencer: 00:17:45

So lots of touring within the blazes. What other kind of fun stuff do y' all have going on?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:17:49

We're working on some music video stuff as well that'll be coming out. Actually, Curtis over there made a really great music video for Don't Walk Away.

That'll be coming out really soon and we're working on one for the dangerous kind off in the blazes. So there'll be some of that. That kind of stuff going on.

There's gonna be some shows that I play, like with a band and stuff, which will be really fun. Yeah. So I'm gonna start doing a few band gigs here and there when I'm out in Washington.

I'll have a band for that and plan some show here in late October at the basement to kind of celebrate the release of the record. And I'll have a band at the.

Sloane Spencer: 00:18:29

Are you gonna put together a fixed band or are you gonna just have different folks come and play?

Aaron Lee Tasjan: 00:18:33

Yeah, I think I'm trying to kind of put something together. But you know, the lucky thing about this town is that it's just chock full of anyone you could. You could hope to play with.

Now whether they're around or not is a whole other thing because they're all. Everybody knows they're good so they get hired for stuff a lot. But it's pretty cool for that.

So if you need to make some last minute phone calls, you can. But yeah, I'm gonna try to have the same band.

Sloane Spencer: 00:19:00

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