I had the chance to catch up with fiddle master, Aaron Redner, last week, and got the scoop on what the band has been up to! Read on to find out what their “new sound” is all about, what the guys are listening to lately, and just why they take their trips to San Diego so seriously!<\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Tell me what you guys have been up to lately!<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> We\u2019re going through a renaissance. We\u2019ve had our new drummer in the band for over a year now, and he\u2019s really clicking. People like our new sound a lot. A lot of our older fans are really coming back around, and we\u2019re playing shows to great crowds all over the country. We just got back from two weeks in the North East and the Midwest where we had some really great shows.<\/em><\/p>\n And then, Steve Berlin from Los Lobos produced our new album.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> You\u2019re kidding! You must be the other unnamed project Steve mentioned when I interviewed him last month!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> (Laughs) That\u2019s funny! Yeah, he did a great job with us. We\u2019re getting a very positive response from what we recorded, and it\u2019ll be out late summer I\u2019d say.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019re also hitting a lot of festivals this summer, which is great. I think our music is very cross-generational. We consider ourselves a west coast Americana rock band. We encompass so many styles of American music, rock, bluegrass, jazz, and singer\/songwriter. Our sets tend to be geared toward the venue we\u2019re in so we can play a jam band outdoor festival, an indoor seated art center, or a standing room rock show and still have the repertoire that\u2019s appropriate for any of those spaces. That\u2019s my baseline pitch (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> It\u2019s always to cool different styles of music that you don\u2019t expect to hear with different instrumentation.<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> Yeah, that\u2019s what we do. We take more of a traditional bluegrass lineup with drums and try to get lots of kinds of music expressed in a genuine way.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Do you guys write most of the songs together?<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> There are three songwriters in Hot Buttered Rum. There\u2019s no bandleader. All 5 of us have equal input on things. What will happen usually is that one of us will bring a song into rehearsal, play it for everyone, and then we can all make comments and tweaks lyrically, harmonically, and the final product usually ends up having input from all of us.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Are you one of the three main writers?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> Yeah. I think it\u2019s pretty evenly spread throughout the 12 songs on this album though.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What\u2019s your writing process like generally?<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> I\u2019d say I tend to come up with a melody and a chorus and I look at songwriting as detective work almost. You start off with a clue, and then you have to follow it. Sometimes it leads to dead ends, and sometimes it leads to something unexpected. Myself, I try to listen to a lot of music and then stop thinking and start writing. Usually, once I\u2019ve established a groove and form, I\u2019ll bring in the lyrics. A lot of times I\u2019ll ask myself, especially when I\u2019m thinking of songs for the band, I\u2019ll ask myself, \u201cWhat are we missing from our set? Do we need a ballad? Do we need something fast? Bluegrassy? Rock?\u201d Then I let that reality affect my song choice, and that will dictate what I spend my time on.<\/em><\/p>\n I myself am a classical writer. I started playing classical violin, and I still practice a lot of instrumental music as well. A lot of times that will influence melodies and songs that I\u2019ll bring to the band. I\u2019d say our music is influenced by jazz and rock just as much as bluegrass. We were sort of known as a bluegrass band before, but we now have a lot more influences. The final product after going through the \u201cbutter\u201d filter (laughs), when it comes out the other side, it has a lot of new things passed through it.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What have you been listening to lately?<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> A lot of traditional Irish music, actually. Old time fiddle tunes and Irish fiddle tunes are often a part of our set. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll play some down there. I\u2019ve also been listening to the Punch Brothers, and I also listen to a lot of radio. When I\u2019m in the car, I like to channel surf, and keep my ears on their toes (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n I like to have a real sense of what is popular on the radio, so I listen to it a lot. I\u2019ve been listening to Bon Iver recently, then I always like classic rock like the Grateful Dead, Edgar Meyer.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Sounds like you\u2019ve got a good mix.<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> But of course my mainstay is Britney Spear (laughs). That\u2019s my main intake.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Hey, I don\u2019t know! After Tony Lucca\u2019s performance of \u201cHit Me Baby One More Time\u201d on The Voice last week, she might be worth taking another look (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> That show is good!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I know\u2014 I\u2019m addicted. I dig that it doesn’t have American Idol\u2019s \u201clet\u2019s just make you feel terrible about yourself in front of all of America\u201d attitude.<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> Totally.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What are you guys most looking forward to about coming out to Anthology?<\/em><\/p>\n AR:<\/strong> It\u2019s great to see a new venue. We\u2019ve played Winston\u2019s and The Belly Up, so it\u2019ll be great to try something new. We also have some very loyal fans in San Diego, so we\u2019re looking forward to bringing some new songs down there for them. San Diego has a really great live music scene; there\u2019s a lot of great music that comes through there. We take it really seriously coming down there. We plan on bringing what\u2019s unique to us down to the venue.<\/em><\/p>\n Special thanks to Aaron for his time! Make sure you \u00a0come on down to Anthology Wednesday night and dance your tail off! WHAT: <\/em>Hot Buttered Rum<\/strong><\/em> An Interview with Aaron Redner of Hot Buttered Rum By Casey Pukl The Hot Buttered Rum String Band is one of the most energetic and eclectic bands I’ve heard in a while. A fusion of Americana, bluegrass, rock, jazz, and more, these guys sure know how to make a girl dance. I had the chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-6189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32910,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions\/32910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/main.jpeg\" "\\"main\\"")
<\/a>The Hot Buttered Rum String Band is one of the most energetic and eclectic bands I’ve heard in a while. A fusion of Americana, bluegrass, rock, jazz, and more, these guys sure know how to make a girl dance.<\/p>\n
\nHot Buttered Rum on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Wednesday, May 9, 7:00pm<\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $10-$26 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"