I went to interview Aaron Stern of D.R.U.G.S. and I walked into the green room, greeted by the band. Kicked back and chilling each with a different electronic in hand. Cell phone, Mac, iPod, it looked like a dorm. Aaron opens a door and jokingly says “step into my office”. When I go in, I realize it’s a bathroom and we get the interview started. There’s some sort of gritty reality to interviewing near a toilet and shower. A poster of John Lennon on the wall. Make this the strangest interview location outdoing Bryce Avary at Uno’s by a mile.
I started out asking him his biggest excitement in this new forming band.
Aaron: “Honestly, the best part about this whole thing is having the opportunity to do it again. All of us have had experience in the past before, being in bands, touring and playing shows. But now that we get to do it again I feel that there’s going to be a lot more that each of us individually savor, I feel like we’re going to enjoy it more. Can’t wait to play for the fans. The new fans, the ones who haven’t gotten to seen us and who we have a lot to prove to. Basically I feel that a lot of our fans from other things will latch onto this and some might not but I think more of the not are gonna be into it because of who’s in it- the people. We’re all individually very passionate about what we do and that’s part of why we came together because we wanted to have the most passionate, strong minded and prepared people for this project.”
Next I asked if the sound was previously intended or natural.
Stern: “We got together with the intention of making the most badass record possible. At the time, that’s sort of what it would sound like so we all have different musical backrounds, we all were in different kinds of bands. We knew it wanted to be heavy and we knew we wanted to be like rock. And that’s as far as we knew. We knew we wanted recording to be raw, we wanted to keep that grit going, definitely, but we knew that you can’t, as an artist, decide exactly how things are going to sound 100%. We knew the general direction we wanted to go in and we went down that road together as a group and all of our influences definitely played into that.”
Then I asked who he listened to growing up.
“Personally, what I listened to depended a lot on what my parents were listening to. My dad played a lot of Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Led Zepplin, Beatles growing up so I latched on to that. That was my first feeling of loving music. Then immediately after, it became MTV and I myself took a step into the world of rock music. Bought my first Nirvana tape, went to a No Doubt concert, started to go to my first shows and moshing and it kind of just rolled out from there. I just was always drawn to rock music.”
I then asked who his biggest non-music inspiration is.
Stern: “Sports are the biggest influence to me. I swear. Me and Craig are actually big sports fans. Craig loves basketball, I love baseball, but we both love football. I think there’s something about sports that you can directly connect to music. In a lot of ways. As time rolled on, I’ve become more and more a fan of sports, specifically for that reason. I feel like in some sense it’s very relatable in terms of what we do in music. In sports, you’re given a ball and it’s your opportunity to make it or not, and that’s basically what you’re given in music. It’s all about practicing and being prepared for the opportunity and when you get that ball and there’s ten seconds left, and it’s time to shoot it, you’re either gonna make it or you’re not. But it all depends on how much preparation you put in, how much work, and never giving up. If you love what you do and you love the game, you play it regardless of anything.”
I next asked how he felt about the correlation between drugs and rock music.
Aaron said “I’ll give you a rundown of the name. We wanted something provocative. We wanted a name that people would not forget and D.R.U.G.S. is surely that. Second, we wanted a name that would make people think. That’s why we have the acronym Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows. It’s up for interpretation but it makes you think and it makes you feel something regardless and more importantly, I feel like for each of us individually as a group, and as a whole, music is an addiction to some extent. And it’s as simple as that. And you can draw that back to the name D.R.U.G.S. if you want to.”
In the middle of asking the question for an answer of how he feels about “drugs n’ rock n’ roll”, the band outside starts yelling and singing and screaming randomly. Hilarious and it showed a lot of the band’s character.
Stern said “It’s gonna be there, I feel they’re synonymous with eachother and music is whatever you make it. I think there’s always been a thing about rebellion in rock n’ roll that’s here to stay. If you go back to the Alice Cooper days, he was hated and he had fans because he did what he wanted and said ‘sorry, f— you’ to everybody else. And now he’s gettin’ rewards from all the people who hated him. Rock n’ roll is mostly about not giving a s— and unfortunately the drugs come in on the side because of whatever reason.”
Lastly, I asked him the iPod question. Who’s on there we would be surprised to find?
“I have a lot of embarrassing stuff on my iPod, a lot of us do because we’re music appreciators.”
His answer?
“I’ve got ‘Party In The U.S.A.’ by Miley Cyrus. It’s fun to bring the party a little bit.”
By far the most fun interview I’ve ever done…. in a john with a John, looking on.
