Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Mook.
Hi Aaron, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Aaron Mook, and I sing and play keys and a little guitar in the indie band, Crooner. I was living in Pittsburgh in 2019 and experiencing a serious depression when I moved back home to Erie, Pa. with the goal of making a record under a new name. To do this, I enlisted my longtime friend and musical collaborator Brian Kinney, alongside independent musician and friend Teddy Rankin and my brother, Travis Mook. We recorded our debut album, We’re Gonna Live Forever, in a hallway using a broken laptop and released it in February 2020.
The album was fun, but a lot of work, and we initially planned on taking a break before deciding on our next project. However, once COVID-19 hit the U.S., we found that we missed each other and were all going a little stir-crazy, so we began sharing demos and had a bunch of Zoom meetings to discuss themes, imagery, and what direction we wanted to take the collective in. When it became safer to see each other, we rerecorded our favorite demos to create our second album, Heaven in a Hurry – an LP that is more collaborative, cohesive, and one we are all incredibly proud of.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For the band itself, yes, Crooner has had a relatively smooth road. We decided early on that we would essentially try anything in the studio, because the worst thing that can happen is that an idea doesn’t work out and you move onto the next one. We’re very open with each other and value our friendship more than our creative relationship. We all love to write songs and sing, so we’re each given the opportunity to dabble with different instruments in the studio and no one is really in charge of the creative direction between us. We just wait for an idea that grabs us all, and once we have that, we know we’re ready to move forward.
Our biggest struggles have been technical, but even there, we’ve been lucky. Sure, we recorded our first album on a laptop that was constantly dying, but thanks to savings and stimulus checks, we were able to upgrade our recording equipment prior to recording Heaven in a Hurry and even soundproofed a corner of Brian’s house. In that sense, aside from those expenditures, we have essentially recorded both of our albums for beer money, and as a DIY operation, we take pride in being able to record an album that sounds real to us without much outside interference.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Crooner is an indie-rock and nostalgia-pop band creating genuine music and releases without any delusions of grandeur. We don’t expect to blow up any time soon, and until recently, we weren’t really interested in performing live. Our first album, We’re Gonna Live Forever, was created out of necessity, and once we proved that this was something we could do and wanted to do, we were able to focus on creating something more artistically fulfilling with Heaven in a Hurry. We make music for ourselves first and foremost, but of course, we also hope it clicks with others. I think we’re most proud of how lax our attitudes are toward the project and how much we value each other as friends first. We’ve pretty much agreed that Crooner will never formally “break up,” even if there comes a time that we go a decade without putting out a record. It will always be there for us when we need it, and in between releases, we will almost always be involved in each other’s side projects in some capacity. That’s why Crooner often feels more like a collective than a traditional band to us.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes! You don’t need to be in the same room to do this kind of thing. I mean, sometimes it helps, but for as awful a time COVID-19 created for us and so many people around the world, it also gave us the motivation to find workarounds – to get better at recording demos by ourselves and feeling comfortable sharing them with each other. It reminded us of the importance of having a friendship with each other and getting together just to talk and hang out as opposed to always being in album mode. Life is short and unpredictable, and even in the worst of times, we feel grateful to have each other and this wonderful outlet we’ve gifted each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://croonerpa.bandcamp.com/album/heaven-in-a-hurry
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/croonerband/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/croonerband/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/croonerpa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@crooner8289
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/croonerpa
Image Credits
Elle Taylor
