Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Awful Din

Awful Din is a Brooklyn based “gritty emo punk” band consisting of Aaron Groom, Kat Doniger, Jay Rodriguez and Don Lavis. Their new LP ANTI BODY will be released on January 28th on We’re Trying Records. These answers are provided by singer, guitarist and songwriter Aaron Groom.

What is your earliest memory connected to music?

My parents had these kids music tapes they would play in our minivan. I remember Jerry Garcia’s Not For Kids Only was on heavy rotation and I don’t remember when we started listening to it. So that’s probably the earliest one.

How did your passion for creating music begin?

When I was a kid I had to take music lessons (piano, violin, viola) and I was decently good but found it tedious. When I was 15 I quit orchestra and started playing guitar to impress some girl. That’s when I found out writing my own music was something I was actually passionate about.

What’s the story behind your current music project?

My partner Kat and I started writing music together when we were in high school in the mid-2000s. We’ve been involved in the New York DIY scene since we moved here in 2008, and we added a drummer and a bassist through friends in 2014. Awful Din has been a thing ever since.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?

For simplicity’s sake I call it Emo. But there’s pop influences, there’s metal and hardcore, there’s folk and country in there if you listen for it.

What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?

I took a musical theater class in college. The professor said that songs in musicals happen when the characters have an emotion that’s too powerful to express with just speech. I think about that whenever I’m writing, and I try to identify those emotions as potential songs when they come up.

What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?

I like to switch up the instrument I use to write songs. Writing on my guitar is different than writing on my baritone guitar which is different than writing on a synth, and it makes for more varied songwriting.

Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?

All of our friends in the New York scene and beyond! Sadlands, Little Low, No Jersey, Something Bitter, Stay Inside, Tired Radio, many others.

How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?

I have been in one relationship for my entire life, with my wife and guitarist of Awful Din Kat. Sometimes I feel like relationship strife can be kind of a cheat code for making emotionally honest music, but that’s not an experience I’ve ever been able to draw from. So I have to be a little more creative about where I source the emotional tension for my songwriting.

What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?

There is a lot of negative stuff in my songs, because I use songwriting as an outlet for negative emotions. I’m not constantly miserable but you might think so if you pay attention to my lyrics. I’m hoping that some of the difficult experiences I write about resonate with someone in my audience. F or example, our upcoming album ANTI BODY deals a lot with my navigating chronic illness in the US healthcare system, and the physical and emotional toll that takes on me.

What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?

How to advocate for myself. Promoting myself and my music REALLY doesn’t come naturally to me, it’s taken a while to get used to it!

What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?

Well my dream was always to play Fest in Gainesville Florida, but we did that in 2023! I grew up going to shows at Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco, so it would be cool to play there.

If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

Probably Tom Petty or Shane Macgowan. I don’t usually get emotional about celebrity deaths but those got me pretty hard.

Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)

https://bandnada.com/b/awfuldin – Bandnada is a resource created by a long time New York musician and is a pretty comprehensive place to find all of our music and upcoming events