Interview with Aaron Rudin from Dusk
We are exited to announce our band in this series! We sat with founder & Drummer from Dusk, Aaron Rudin to get to know this up and coming band & discuss their creative process. . Dusk uses narrative through out their songs to take us into a journey of self discovery. Dusk brings us the acoustic version of their new single “We’d Love To Help You Drown" which is about it’s about a character that is being coaxed into a dark direction. We hope you enjoy it!
Siglo Events: Well guys thank you for participating in LA Live Sessions. You are the first official band that we recorded. So congratulations, let’s start with the basics. How did Dusk come to be? What’s the backstory?
Aaron Rudin: Dusk took a long time to get off the ground. I began writing in 2014, after working on a short film score for a friend. Something about that process got the creative juices flowing, and as I wrote more and more songs and ideas, I developed what I would consider to be the Dusk “sound”. I tried out many different vocalists over about a 2 year period, but struggled to find the right fit. I hit the jackpot when I finally found Trent online, basically on what I would describe as a dating app for musicians. After writing together for a few months, Trent and I decided to bring in my brother Michael to play bass, and soon after that we were fortunate to find our guitarist, Alex.
S.E.- This new single, “We’d Love To Help You Drown” is pretty intense. You mentioned that it’s about a character that is being coaxed into a dark direction. What was the inspiration behind it?
A.R.- All of our songs are tied together by a narrative story. We haven’t revealed much of that yet, but it’s something that will become much more apparent as we move forward. This song in particular is about dealing with tragedy. Our character has some unresolved issues that he’s tried to suppress, but when disaster strikes, everything comes flooding back to him. He is spinning out of control emotionally, trying to find a way forward. His inner demons feed on his desperation, offering their “guidance” in making things right. The chorus is a warning, for those who choose such a dark path, but in the end he rationalizes his desires and decides to take the risk.
S.E- Walk us through your creative process. How does it start for you guys? How do you develop a song?
A.R. -Trent and I have a stockpile of musical ideas in the reserves, ready to be turned into songs, but because we have this narrative through line, we generally write in chronological order, rarely skipping around. If a song feels like a good fit for the next chapter in our story and we are excited by it musically, Trent and I collaborate on lyrics and then bring the song to the rest of the band to work on the live arrangement and flesh out the music. Hearing the song played with the full band usually makes us go back and re-address some of the lyrics and melodies. It’s an interative process.
S.E- If there was one thing in the world that everyone should know about Dusk, what should it be?
A.R.- We respect the intelligence of our fans. Some listeners will only ever listen to our music once and that’s cool, but for the people who want more out of their music, we hope they’ll find a level of depth in us that is rarely found in other bands.
S.E.- What’s next for Dusk? What can we expect from you guys this year?
A.R- We’ve got some shows coming up and more music and video content to release over the coming months. We’ll be playing at The Satellite on 7/11 and hope to see many new faces there. There’s definitely some surprises in store for the rest of 2018, but we’ll just leave it at that for now.