MDRT – Aaron Collins

Very excited to welcome to My Dining Room Table our first real-deal, in-the-flesh musician, Aaron Collins, the front-man of one of my favorite local bands A. Tom Collins! I hope that this ushers in a string of musicians onto the podcast and a little birdie told me that it would. Because most comics wanted to be musicians and struck out; many musicians want to be comedians but can’t allow themselves. So they try to replicate each other’s behavior through perpetual adolescence and lengthy, epic flatulence battles on tour. Funny ways that pass the time. Maybe they just both kind of inherently understand the life of the performer a little bit. Regardless, as a result, when a comic and a musician sit down together and it can often be a lot of fun. I think you’ll agree when you give this episode a spin on your bizarre, record-machine that somehow plays podcasts. Where did you get that anyway?

SkyMall. Of course.

What don’t they have?

That picture up above says everything you need to know about Aaron. He’s a many who leaves it all on the field. I’ve never been to a show of his for any band that he’s played in where he didn’t work himself up into a sweaty, possessed fervor and damn if he didn’t bring the entire room with him. Too many musicians today – fuck it, too many performers today – are detached or ironic or above-it-all and couldn’t Aaron be more the opposite. He lives for this shit. He paints houses and picks up shifts at his cousin’s bar so he can take the band on the road to Europe for a few weeks, promote the new album, than get back to the grind and hopefully do it all over again. It can be a vicious circle but it’s one that Aaron inhabits by choice and with pride.

It was lovely to sit and talk with Aaron and I hope you agree. He’s one of my favorite performers in the city and it was fun to hear what makes him tick; what should make any true musician tick. Enjoy the episode and check out this amazing video his band did for their song “Pants Off Dane Off” off of their last E.P.

Then check out one of Aaron’s guilty pleasure favorite videos from back in the day, “Black Hole Sun,” by “Soundgarden.”

Then buy A. Tom Collins’ new album because it rules.

Then grab the episode of the podcast on iTunes here.