By Club Nokia was packed with people eagerly awaiting the three awesome acts that are Zeale, Imagine Dragons and headliner Awolnation Saturday night.
When Awolnation took the stage, the crowd was pumped and ready to mosh, jump, and dance to the music of Aaron Bruno. Songs like “Burn It Down,” got people up and dancing while Bruno screamed and crooned his popular songs.
When the song “Sail” played, the whole audience cheered and sang along to the popular song, screaming out the lyrics and reinforcing the strangely hypnotic aspect of it. Only this song could get a room full of people to say, “maybe I should kill myself” in unison.
But Before Awolnation blew the roof off of Club Nokia, Bruno sat down with the Daily 49er to discuss his views on music, the success of his passion project “Megalithic Symphony” and the viral video that has sailed into hilarity.
Q: How has mainstream success changed the way you feel about music?
A: It hasn’t really. I love music either way, and I’m very fortunate to be in a situation where more people than I ever hoped are hearing the songs that I wrote. It’s great not to have to be as stressed out about what exactly I’m going to have to do with my life or how I’m going to pay the bills, so that’s one great thing, but at the end of the day it’s still the music I love.
Q: I read that the name Awolnation came from your old high school nickname.
A: Well, yeah. It was just an old nickname I had and then I attached “nation” when I wrote these songs, and [the songs] are just supposed to be a place where people can escape to when an escape is needed.
Q: Apart from ‘Sail’ your music videos seem to have this whimsical aspect, but the lyrics have a serious undertone. Is there a specific reason for that?
A: The lyrics in my songs are already serious enough, and I’m not a big fan of seeing music videos that take the lyrics literally. I was trying to do something to sort of trick the people into listening to the song as a lighthearted thing, and when they do listen they actually realize that there’s some heavier stuff going on with the words.
Q: Your songs have been featured in a lot of commercials and television shows. Why do you think your music appeals to the market of sound tracks?
A: I don’t really know. [“Sail”] blew up and started getting a lot of air time on the radio, so I think that success, most of the time, just creates more success and opens the door for more opportunities. Some of the companies that heard our song all around maybe wanted to be current.
Q: Okay, I have to ask: recently I saw a video on Youtube called “Cat Jump Fail” which used your song “Sail” as the background music for a cat jumping out of a window. Have you seen the video?
A: Yeah, I have seen it. It’s great. I loved it! It’s one of my favorite videos that I have seen.
