Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Long.
Hi Aaron, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m a small-town central Texas kid, born and raised in Waco by a bad a*s single mother. Now that I am in my late 30’s I look back and wonder how she did it. She’s an amazing person. She named me after Elvis. I feel blessed to have had a safe childhood that allowed me to dream and develop an interest in music and storytelling. Both of my grandparents were self-taught musicians and played several instruments. They would have these jam sessions in their living room, so I was introduced to the overall process, sections, and melody that way. I grew up on Gospel, Classis Country, and Motown. I still get the same nostalgic feeling when I hear those songs. My older cousin Eric Jarvis was also a huge inspiration in my musical path. He would come scoop me up and take me to Houston for a few days, and I would sit in on rehearsals and go to his shows. They were all great players and the songs were soaring swamp rock with three guitars and four-part harmonies. I remember being 10 years old and so inspired. He introduced me to the Beatles and ELO, so that really shaped the influence of my writing. I started playing guitar and forming rock bands in my early teenage years. and that became my primary focus. Collaborating, writing, performing is all I dreamt about, and when I finally started touring in my early twenties, I had developed some bad habits. I left the business, got engaged, and started a corporate career. I didn’t pick up a guitar for nearly 5 years. My songwriting story begins here and it really starts with heartbreak. Going through that grief of a breakup is where the songs were initially for me, and I think I was trying to understand and process emotions that I couldn’t understand or tame. But I heard music and melodies again, and I used that to understand the pain and express what I was going through. When I finally picked the guitar back up, I wrote my first record in a few weeks. My older cousin was now a music producer, so I sent him the songs, he like them, and we made the first “arlo” record in 2018. It was the first project that I worked on as the lead vocalist. I was living in NYC at the time, dating a phenomenal actor/singer, and was so incredibly inspired by my partner at the time, and the frequency of that place. We worked on the second collection of songs while I held down the same job in corporate finance, got engaged, and landed a little deal to make a record with the Bush Brothers in Atlanta. (Brandon and Kristian Bush – Sugarland, Train, John Mayer) We captured 6 songs in 3 days and it was one of my favorite musical experiences. I feel so blessed to have had that opportunity, and the songs really captured that magical time in my life. My favorite track from that session “Ingenue” would later win the “John Lennon Award” as well as the “Unsigned Only International Music Competition.” The pinnacle of my career thus far was then paused as Covid hit NYC, which influenced our decision to relocate back home to Dallas and separate. Heartbreak is tricky, but there seems to be plenty to observe, discover, and write about. I am thankful for all of it, hard as it was and still is. I am currently building a roster of DFW players while I finish writing my next record. There are discussions happening around tour supporting some artists that I really admire, so more to come on that. I love red wine, collect records, plants, and art, and my 13-year-old cat is a chatty swaggie gangster.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the biggest challenges for me is growing both a corporate and music career and prioritizing it all behind my faith and relationships. There is so much that goes into crafting, producing, and releasing songs, and the good ones come from an emotional experience that I have chased around to understand. That can be a fervent place to look around, but its where the honest songs are buried. So, I dig around sensitive terrain looking for explanations, and it’s a practice to stay there. The moment has the songs. But often the moment is already taken by a zoom call or business meeting. All of my songs are driven by and written via emotional responses to experiences in my life. It could be trauma or it could be love or faith. Creating enough space to drill down into these ideas and feelings is often a challenge, and it requires a significant amount of emotional energy to capture in an authentically honest way. They are love songs, breakup songs, and some are both. But they are always my truth. Keeping a steady balance has always been a challenge for me in many ways. My mind is tired and my spirit often feels troubled, so perhaps my safe place is in the process. Relationships seem to ultimately get caught in the crossfire, and that part is hard sometimes to move through. There is no way around it, but obstacles create opportunities to develop and strengthen your story. Without Love, none of it matters and never did. My faith in the Most High has led me here, and I am incredibly grateful for the highs and lows.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
arlo is a Dallas Texas based recording artist with NYC roots. His economically structured blend of Americana Folk Pop and is centered around true stories of love, loss, and love again. The release of his 2018 self-made and self-titled debut LP is an authentic collection of hooky bops taken right from his diary. The release of his sophomore EP is expected to drop in the Fall of 2021, and is a sonically satisfying blend of soaring snaps that cover a broad range of feels and blur the dusty genre. The first single “Ingenue” is a recipient of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Award, and arlo is a two-time winner of the Unsigned Only Music Competition with his debut single “New York, Queens.”
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
God is Love. That’s what matters the most, and I am a firm believer in keeping your frequency high and posture in gratitude. Energy is the currency of our spirits, and I try to focus on knowing when and how to spend it. I have made mistakes in my life that have shaped who I am, and although I live with that pain and grief it has created opportunities for me to grow into something new. Somebody that I admire once told me that perfect is boring. I have done my best as a sensitive and emotional human to evolve and grow out of turbulent terrain, and the older I get the more important each choice seems to be. And I am okay with that. Loving yourself is easier said than done, but living via fear will only push what Love you have out of your life. If we knew our worth from the start and used our power for the Good, we could patiently take a control break to watch the Universe connect the dots. God, faith, family, community, relationships, Love, gratitude. These are the pillars that I try to build on here in my late 30’s. I wish I had felt this way sooner, but there has never been a better time to be better to each other. At the end of the day, I write songs to heal my spirit and address some of the circumstances where I fell short in one of these areas. My hope is that I can articulate it well enough for people to hear my cry, appreciate where I went to find it, and make room or a place for that emotional energy in their own lives. Most of us are perpetually healing, and what matters is that we remain humble to God, focused on Love and the Light of the Present, with just enough space left to let go of what doesn’t matter.
Contact Info:
- Email: aaron.long1038@gmail.com
- Website: arlo.hearnow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arlomusicpage
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arlomusicpage
- Twitter: @arloforreal
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcQGiPGT60-KJfpqCToZcww
- Other: https://www.sonicbids.com/band/arlomusicpage/
Image Credits
Jason Moody Photography
Elisa Fisher Photography
Morgan Mabry
Alex Pepper
You Look Lovely Photography
