Singer-Songwriter Aaron Downs tells his story of his debut album ‘Chasing Nowhere’
Photography By MegMilesphoto
Aaron Downs is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter currently based in Astoria, Queens. Born in South Jersey to a musician and a fine artist, Aaron was saturated in creativity and support his entire childhood. His dad was in several blue-grass bands when Aaron was younger, and this obviously sparked the flame for Aaron to follow in his father’s footsteps. Though he started playing guitar around the age of 13 as well as bass guitar at 16 playing in small garage bands and for his church band, Aaron was also growing up performing in plays and musicals. He attended AMDA NY to train to be an actor and singer. After graduating, he immediately began getting hired in shows in theme park and regional theaters thanks to his musician abilities. Aaron now is proficient in 5 instruments including guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, mandolin and ukulele with others that he is anxious to tackle. Aaron played guitar for Belgium pop star Alice Avery in New York City and play at venues such as The Bitter End and Rockwood Music Hall.
Aaron Downs is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter currently based in Astoria, Queens. Born in South Jersey to a musician and a fine artist, Aaron was saturated in creativity and support his entire childhood. His dad was in several blue-grass bands when Aaron was younger, and this obviously sparked the flame for Aaron to follow in his father’s footsteps. Though he started playing guitar around the age of 13 as well as bass guitar at 16 playing in small garage bands and for his church band, Aaron was also growing up performing in plays and musicals. He attended AMDA NY to train to be an actor and singer. After graduating, he immediately began getting hired in shows in theme park and regional theaters thanks to his musician abilities. Aaron now is proficient in 5 instruments including guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, mandolin and ukulele with others that he is anxious to tackle. Aaron played guitar for Belgium pop star Alice Avery in New York City and play at venues such as The Bitter End and Rockwood Music Hall.
As time went on, Aaron slowly began attempting song-writing more as a hobby and outlet than a career. By 2016 he had accumulated 10 songs. He then decided to buy a laptop and an interface and just make demos of each song. “I really didn’t have any expectations for these songs, like releasing them or anything.” Aaron says. “I just had some free time and thought I’d take a crack at it.” Once he finished the demos, he had become good friends with Thomas Holdsworth, a recent graduate of Full Sail University for audio engineering. After listening to the recordings, Thomas offered to remix and produce Aaron’s album. This would be the first album Thomas ever mixed that would be released. Then things really started rolling. The two worked for months making sure everything was perfect. “I was pretty meticulous of these songs, and I appreciate Thomas to no end for putting up with me through this process.” Aaron admitted.
On May 17th 2017, Aaron released his single ‘Dance With Me’, one of the first songs he wrote for the album. The song combines an acoustic R&B style with strong harmonies and heartfelt lyrics. A few months later on August 8th 2017 the full album, ‘Chasing Nowhere’ was released. With genres ranging from acoustic pop to alternative rock, Aaron uses lyric-driven music to express his message of self love and love of others. “I really couldn’t believe that we actually pulled it off!” Aaron joked. “It was really inspiring to see my songs that I wrote mainly for an emotional outlet on Spotify and iTunes and all the other streaming services.” Two of his songs ‘Chasing Nowhere’ and ‘Love Will Find a Way’ went on to be semi-finalists in the Music City Songstar Songwriting Contest based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Now after just celebrating the two year anniversary of the release. Aaron is hungry to get back in the studio. “It’s kind of hard being both a actor/performer and a recording artist,” Aaron explains, “because you just want to do so much, be it performing in a show for 2 months or playing a show in the city, and you run out of time to do everything that you want to do or what you expect you should be doing. Like I have been sitting on songs some of which I wrote while we were mixing Chasing Nowhere.” Despite his frustations, Aaron has been playing open mic nights in the city and also performed a solo act at The Bitter End recently. He also joined a singing duo with his girlfriend Meghan Miles called Red and The Rocker whom just preformed at Feinstein’s/54 Below. “It is currently a cover group, but I intend to eventually release original music with Meghan.” Aaron said. Aaron is excited for the future for his music and is so glad he took a chance and started writing. “To anyone wondering whether they should do something, it doesn’t have to be songwriting, it could be anything: You have to try before you can decide if you can or can’t do something. Just try.”
Though he was featured in recently released Lifoti's September 2019 issue 09, you can check it from below link's for your country:
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