Round About Interview
Q: Can you talk about your musical history, and how Round About formed?
Patrick Garrity: I started playing guitar and singing in high school, and writing my first decent songs shortly after college. We've both been in a few bands over the years; Round About started in 2010 when an old bandmate/bassist friend of mine and I decided to start up a new project.
Aaron Lowenberger: I loved music as a kid and idolized lots of guitar players. I played saxophone but it just didn't click for me. I convinced my Dad to get me an electric guitar when I was 12 or 13, and that's pretty much what I've done with my free time ever since. I took a hiatus from bands when my son was born, but in 2013 I was looking to start playing out again and responded to an ad from Patrick. That's how I joined Round About.
Q: Was your creative approach different on Inner Voices & Curious Choices than your previous release Coming Into Focus?
Patrick: The primary difference this time out was really that we returned to recording how we're most comfortable, and that's with an engineer rather than a producer. We've always had a good idea of what we're looking to capture and have always preferred a collaborator invested in working with us vs. following someone else’s process.
For each album I’ve always tried to add a little something extra in terms of guest musicians, and for this one (in addition to our friend Mark Bower who’s played keys on all our records), we were lucky that Michael Clem (from Northern Virginia's Eddie From Ohio) very generously provided some harmonica on a tune as well which was a great treat.
Aaron: For me the approach was similar. Patrick took care of most of the details, I just tried to contribute the best songs and guitar parts I could. I guess the other main difference for me is that I didn't really compose any of the solos this time around. On past records I've always written a few of the solos ahead of time, and improvised the rest. This time I improvised all of them.
Q: I was wondering how you would explain the themes and concepts on Inner Voices & Curious Choices?
Patrick: I'd like to think for this album it's pretty much in the title. These tunes are about characters and people (both real and imagined) taking stock of the decisions they have or haven't made, and what happens as a result. That being said, I guess the most common thread I hear across this record (spread out amongst three songwriters) is that sometimes we too easily keep our eyes closed when they should be wide open.
Aaron: I don't think I can put it into words any better than Patrick did.
Q: What is your recording process like? And has it changed over the years?
Patrick: As it happens, for three of the four albums we've made, all of the tracking has been done over a long weekend in a professional studio. We're not full-time musicians, or have record label support or anything like that, the other guys each have kids, etc., so it never seemed reasonable for us to make it a drawn-out process. While a little frightening the first time out, I feel like we've learned a lot with each experience, and for Inner Voices & Curious Choices I never felt much of a time crunch or pressure at all. Then again, I didn't have to do all the fancy guitar work Aaron did.
Aaron: A little pressure and a deadline is good. Otherwise, I'd still be in the studio trying to achieve some imagined level of perfection that is never actually in reach.
Q: Have you started playing shows or virtual shows?
Patrick: This spring and summer we're finally back playing most of our regular gigs and we're very excited to get back out there and promote the new record. We played the National Cherry Blossom Festival recently and to say it was refreshing and refilling would be an understatement.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
Patrick: I’m really proud of this album; to me it’s the best thing we've ever made because it's a culmination of our decade of experience writing and playing together. I feel like everything converged as I’d always envisioned it could.
We're also in a time of transition, as our bassist I mentioned before recently left the area for work, so we're moving forward as an acoustic duo. Luckily, we've always played duo shows along with band ones and enjoy it. So, it’s bittersweet in some respects, but I've long enjoyed and recognized my good fortune to be playing music with a guy as talented as Aaron, and I'll happily do it as long as he keeps putting up with me.
Q: Can you talk about your musical history, and how Round About formed?
Patrick Garrity: I started playing guitar and singing in high school, and writing my first decent songs shortly after college. We've both been in a few bands over the years; Round About started in 2010 when an old bandmate/bassist friend of mine and I decided to start up a new project.
Aaron Lowenberger: I loved music as a kid and idolized lots of guitar players. I played saxophone but it just didn't click for me. I convinced my Dad to get me an electric guitar when I was 12 or 13, and that's pretty much what I've done with my free time ever since. I took a hiatus from bands when my son was born, but in 2013 I was looking to start playing out again and responded to an ad from Patrick. That's how I joined Round About.
Q: Was your creative approach different on Inner Voices & Curious Choices than your previous release Coming Into Focus?
Patrick: The primary difference this time out was really that we returned to recording how we're most comfortable, and that's with an engineer rather than a producer. We've always had a good idea of what we're looking to capture and have always preferred a collaborator invested in working with us vs. following someone else’s process.
For each album I’ve always tried to add a little something extra in terms of guest musicians, and for this one (in addition to our friend Mark Bower who’s played keys on all our records), we were lucky that Michael Clem (from Northern Virginia's Eddie From Ohio) very generously provided some harmonica on a tune as well which was a great treat.
Aaron: For me the approach was similar. Patrick took care of most of the details, I just tried to contribute the best songs and guitar parts I could. I guess the other main difference for me is that I didn't really compose any of the solos this time around. On past records I've always written a few of the solos ahead of time, and improvised the rest. This time I improvised all of them.
Q: I was wondering how you would explain the themes and concepts on Inner Voices & Curious Choices?
Patrick: I'd like to think for this album it's pretty much in the title. These tunes are about characters and people (both real and imagined) taking stock of the decisions they have or haven't made, and what happens as a result. That being said, I guess the most common thread I hear across this record (spread out amongst three songwriters) is that sometimes we too easily keep our eyes closed when they should be wide open.
Aaron: I don't think I can put it into words any better than Patrick did.
Q: What is your recording process like? And has it changed over the years?
Patrick: As it happens, for three of the four albums we've made, all of the tracking has been done over a long weekend in a professional studio. We're not full-time musicians, or have record label support or anything like that, the other guys each have kids, etc., so it never seemed reasonable for us to make it a drawn-out process. While a little frightening the first time out, I feel like we've learned a lot with each experience, and for Inner Voices & Curious Choices I never felt much of a time crunch or pressure at all. Then again, I didn't have to do all the fancy guitar work Aaron did.
Aaron: A little pressure and a deadline is good. Otherwise, I'd still be in the studio trying to achieve some imagined level of perfection that is never actually in reach.
Q: Have you started playing shows or virtual shows?
Patrick: This spring and summer we're finally back playing most of our regular gigs and we're very excited to get back out there and promote the new record. We played the National Cherry Blossom Festival recently and to say it was refreshing and refilling would be an understatement.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
Patrick: I’m really proud of this album; to me it’s the best thing we've ever made because it's a culmination of our decade of experience writing and playing together. I feel like everything converged as I’d always envisioned it could.
We're also in a time of transition, as our bassist I mentioned before recently left the area for work, so we're moving forward as an acoustic duo. Luckily, we've always played duo shows along with band ones and enjoy it. So, it’s bittersweet in some respects, but I've long enjoyed and recognized my good fortune to be playing music with a guy as talented as Aaron, and I'll happily do it as long as he keeps putting up with me.