The AudioFeed Special: 5 Answers From Aaron Stone of My Epic

A conversation with Aaron Stone of My Epic.

Apr 28, 2023

The AudioFeed Festival is set to hold in Urbana, Illinois from the 1st to the 4th of July, 2023. AudioFeed Festival debuted in 2013, emerging as the spiritual successor to Cornerstone Festival, which happened for the final time in 2012.

What began with a group of people longing to have something to fill the void left in the absence of Cornerstone has evolved over the last 10 years into a festival with its own identity. This identity is best summarized in our mission statement: Cultivating a cross-ideology community around Jesus and music.

Tickets can be purchased through the AudioFeed website. Kids aged 11 and under are free, and on-site camping is included with the price of admission ($100 USD).

Bio: Inspired and seeking to pass it on. Created and moved to create. A collection of artists and long-time friends, My Epic is the name for the cooperative fruits of Aaron Stone, Tanner Morita, Nate Washburn, Jesse Stone and a collection of other friends. With a raw, "four chords and the truth", approach to song-writing and a penchant for dynamic arrangements, My Epic have spent well over a decade and a half carving out their own niche. More compelled than ever and preparing to release their first full length in ten years, the music is "post" a lot of things and leaning forward and finds the group ready to greet the moment with "open hearts and calloused hands".

Introduction

As a long-time fan of the band My Epic, I jumped at the opportunity to ask vocalist Aaron Stone questions about AudioFeed Fest, potential upcoming music, his faith and the hardcore/metal scene in general. Check it out.

The Conversation

Q: Hi Aaron. How does it feel to be back on stage with the guys and playing at AudioFeed Festival?

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-1:51

Super excited to be back at AudioFeed! Obviously it’s been a couple of years, but for us, we haven’t played live since Facedown Fest 2020 which was a few weeks before the pandemic. At the time, we were writing in earnest for our next full-length album and it’s taken a lot longer than we thought because COVID slowed things down and everybody knows how that goes.
My wife and I had our first daughter and that pushed this back further and it just took me a long time because full-length albums take exponentially more work than just an EP and we’ve only done EPs the last 10 years.
It’s been 10 years since the last full-length album. We were excited with some changes with the band, to kind of have a new era and start it off with a full-length album. I had a little bit of writers’ block and I got through that and we got super excited about the songs again.
And then Nate, one of our primary members who is also producing our record for the first time, has had some health issues and those things just kept dragging it out. In the meantime, we’ve just directed all of our energy into writing and recording so we haven’t said yes to anything that wasn’t writing and recording.
So not only are we excited about AudioFeed, we love it and it’s always a good experience; we haven’t played in three years as a band. But it also means that the record is done and hopefully by then, it will be announced to be coming out by the end of year.
AudioFeed for us is like the kick-off of the second chapter of My Epic or this next big season. We’ve worked on this record in a way we haven’t ever done before. We approached it totally differently and couldn’t be more stoked about how it’s turning out and AudioFeed is where we are going to start to do other things again — playing shows and releasing music.

Q: Sometimes it’s easy to forget that musicians are fans too. Outside of your own set, what experiences are you looking forward to the most at the festival?

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-1:57

It’s true that we are all really big music fans and we try to keep up with what’s going on. I mean, there’s so much music that you can never get your hands on all of it and there’s always this thought that there is something going that you don’t know about that you’d love.
There’s some artists playing this year I haven’t seen that I’m excited to see. There’s certainly lots of our friends playing in other bands that we’d be excited to catch up with. But I think the thing I look forward to the most is discovering new artists I didn’t know about. Hopefully we’ll have some time to walk around and just listen because ultimately, that’s the magic of a good festival.
In the past, I’ve had experiences of either stumbling into a set I kind of knew or an artist that I was maybe not valuing as much as I should have, and then getting to hear their set and at least getting to see their passion and the things they worked on curating as an artist. So that’s what I’d encourage people to do the most. Go see the artists that you know you love, but set some time out just to wander and see what catches your ear.
A couple of years ago, I knew that Derek Webb was going to be playing and he’s an artist that I’ve always admired but maybe wasn’t into his latest stuff. I also knew he was only playing acoustic which generally isn’t my favourite thing, and was worried we were going to be getting there too late.
But we got there just in time and I ran into the tent with Jeremiah. He was playing by himself and it floored me. It was one of the best performances I have ever seen and I almost missed it. Granted, he was an artist I knew, but still, you just don’t know when you’re walking around what you are going to hear.
I guess what I am looking forward to the most is the culture that is created for artists to present their work and for people to hear what’s on the heart and mind of a person and in that way, value each other and find a little magic. So come with an open heart and open ears.

Q: For as long as I can remember, I’ve always viewed your music as experimental rock. From the post-hardcore soundscapes of classic albums like ‘Yet’ to the drony indie rock leanings of an EP like 'Violence', what can fans expect from you for your next project?

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-4:27

I would say that for every record, the attempt is to not be a different band but to grow and progress in a good way. We always talk about the right amount of “different”. If a band or artist makes the same record again, fans don’t tend like that. We [fans] may think we want that, but ultimately, we want some change and if it’s too different, it can put people off.
As a band, we hope that the new record is the right amount of “different” from the last thing. It is like Ultraviolet and Violence shoved into one, plus the growth we’ve had in the last four or five years as people, artists and musicians.
We’ve always desired for My Epic to have a broad reach and for us to be able to do whatever we wanted to do. From the tender, soft, quiet and acoustic stuff to big, slamming raw baritone or even post-rock experimentation stuff. All that is a part of who we are as artists and musicians.
So this record has that. It has some beautifully understated acoustic moments — something we haven’t done as much on a full-length — and it’s got some massive and huge slamming songs that would fit in a set with Black Light, Hail or Lower Still and it’s got softer moments that would go with the Broken Voices record or Voices as a song. I’d like to think we’ve progressed more as songwriters and we certainly put more into the production of the record than we have ever been able to do.
There’s been points in the past when we wished we could do something about a song but we were out of time so we decided to make the best version of the song possible. I mean, there are songs on every album where we believe we couldn’t have done it better and they turned out perfect, but there are always a few that at the end of the record, we felt fell a little short.
Maybe that’s just our own obsession and fans never really notice, but this is the first record where if we weren’t 100% convinced that the direction was right for the message, the point and feeling of a song; we kept chipping away. There are songs that started off as giant slamming huge riff songs and now they are acoustic because during the writing of the lyrics — because usually the lyrics get in last — a much different version arrived and we agreed that it was the strongest version. So we scrapped whole songs worth of recording. And there other songs which weren’t intended to be giant slamming singles but they went that way.
More than ever, we tried to trust ourselves as artists and let the songs tell us what they wanted to be. We did the drums and pre-production with Matt Goldman who has done all of our other records but Nate, who is in the band, produced this record. We’ve taken two and half years to record it — which we’ve never done before. It’s a piece of art that we are excited about and we wouldn’t be releasing it if we didn’t think that it’s the best thing we’d ever made, although that would be for people to decide as they’ll have their own opinions about the art.
We have left nothing on the field this time, so we’re super excited for people to hear it. It’s beautiful and it’s big and it probably shows more of our 90s influences because I grew up with Grunge music — The Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana — and other more guitar-focused 90s bands like Oasis and Third Eye Blind who were really important bands to most of us growing up.
So I think one of the reasons this has taken time is to get that sound infused into the production without changing the writing which is really cool. Hopefully, people will agree with us about it being the best record we can write right now and in some ways, a really special one.

Q: As a band that has been on the scene for almost two decades now, in your opinion, what are the biggest needs of Christian bands in the rock and metal scene today?

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-5:48

I guess we’ve been around for a minute now. It doesn’t really feel like that because we’ve always been kind of obsessed and passionate about making the best art we can and making the truest thing to what we are learning and experiencing that honours our story, perspectives and beliefs.
But we have been around for a while so maybe that puts us in the elder brother's chair in some sense, but I still feel like a young artist who still has so much in front of him and maybe that’s just how you always feel when you are hopeful.
For the Christian rock and metal scene, to some degree, I would say one of the biggest needs is to not want to be graded on a curve. Don’t just desire to be in the Christian scene. If you’re a person of faith, then I would expect that you would want to make the best, truest thing you possibly can.
It’s okay when you’re a young artist, and your goal is to sound like a record or band that impacted you. But I think ultimately, what we need is for people to figure out what is unique to them.
For us, after 15 years as a band, there are times when we would finish a song on the new record and conclude that it’s a song that only we can write, for better or for worse. This is who we are as artists combined and we chase that instead of trying to do the things that our musical heroes would do. That is a part of growing and learning.
The other thing I would say is that we [musicians] have to be willing to put in the work. We have a lyric on one of our old songs, “…if it cost me nothing, is it really worth anything…” and I think that applies universally to almost anything in life. Things that don’t cost you much are not worth a lot and that’s true for art too.
I don’t know that I’m particularly gifted but I know I’ll put in the work and when I listen to some other bands sometimes, it just doesn’t sound right and I get the feeling — usually also from conversations — that they’re not putting in the work. They’re not willing to put a 100 hours into a song or their entire thought process into how an album is mixed. I think that’s where you make something special and is worthy of the Divine. If you’re a person of faith who believes in God and loves Jesus, it shows in your willingness to put in the work.
That means that sometimes, something special will just happen. We have some songs that are special to me that just came but I believe quality comes out of quantity. Even those ones that jumped out of my head to the page came out of hours of working on other stuff. I am yet to find a single good director or author or musician who doesn’t say that they put in copious amounts of time and every once in a while, something special comes out of them. But it doesn’t come if you’re not doing the work.
In general, I just want to see Christian artists make art that is good enough to live everywhere and not just inside to box of the “Christian scene”. I understand that if you infuse it with Scripture, some people won’t like it or won’t want it, but I think there’s a great case to be made for artists who do that but their art is so good that people can’t deny that it is special.
Art is not about being better than someone else but about the artist being better than their past self, growing and making the truest things they can. As for the rock and metal scene, we haven’t played a show in three years so I’m not sure what else is needed.
I guess the thought I have is for us to continue to gather. I think all the social media stuff is super valuable and we have all benefitted from getting to watch bands play online; but there is just something about gathering together. When I talk to younger people, I realize that the thing that benefitted me the most when I was 16 and younger was borrowing a PA system from someone, getting someone to let us use a building, telling all our friends and getting together.
Building the fortitude to solve problems — because there is a lot of problem solving involved in throwing a local show — is good. Being able to work the sound system and figure out how to run security when we were just dumb kids. All that stuff is so formative and being able to solve problems is meaningful.
Gathering does all that and beyond this, there is something about getting together in a room with people that is special. I feel like even in 2018 and 2019, local shows weren’t happening as much and I hope younger people can discover the value these things again.

Q: On a final note, can you share a lesson or word from Scripture that has been a source of comfort to you in recent times?

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-3:42

I grew up a Pastor’s kid — I guess I still am — so I don’t remember the first time I heard most of the things I know about the Bible or Jesus or God. I remember a lot of my first experiences and when I first cognitively understood and believed. It’s been a challenge as I’ve grown older to de-mythologize it and to really see Jesus as a real person who walked the earth.
In the tradition I grew up, we focused a lot on Jesus being God which is true and what I believe. But the older I get, the more it seems really important that He was also a man. That helps me more with how I’m supposed to live and what I’m supposed to do with my thoughts, feelings, actions and the choices I have to make.
The fact that Jesus had a human experience is more helpful to me for how to live my life. I’m almost always looking for a way to sneak up these Scriptures and see them at my periphery to get a fresh vision. I also went to Israel some years ago and that was really helpful. Lately, someone recommended to me The First Nations Version of the Bible, a new translation by Indigenous American believers. People have strong opinions about versions but I believe it’s a valid one, at least within the context of what I’m describing, and it has been really helpful.
I’ve found it really life-giving to read this version and use it as part of my daily rhythms. One specific thing about it is that every time, it talks about a place it translates, what the place means or what the name means. I’ve always had some difficulty understanding the term “Son of Man” and I’ve read a lot of commentaries about it. But this translates it as “The True Human Being” and shows that Jesus on earth is the ultimate picture of what a human being should look like and is what we are being restored to.
Being a human is not something to be ashamed of because we are created in God’s image. Yes, we may be faulty and make mistakes but I think that can go too far sometimes. There’s a lot of theological stuff I’ve seen that suggests we should be ashamed and I don’t think we are supposed to be. I think we should be convicted about our faults and shortcomings and deal with them, but it’s not a shameful thing to be human. It’s a beautiful thing because God made us and loves us.
So, The First Nations Version has been comforting me and making me feel like I can understand God and Jesus even better and to continue to grow in His likeness.

A big thank you to Aaron Stone for taking out time to answer these questions.

Tickets can be purchased through the AudioFeed website. Kids 11 and under are free, and on-site camping is included with the price of admission ($100 USD).

Listen to My Epic here:

Apple Music • YouTube • Deezer • Other Links

Connect with My Epic here:

Website • Instagram • Twitter • Facebook

Connect with AudioFeed Festival by following:

Instagram • Twitter • Facebook

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