Aaron Frazer on avoiding 'Whiplash' with new eclectic album: 'I Am Still Me in Every Context'

More than three years into his solo career, Aaron Frazer is set to embark on his first headlining tour. Frazer – the drummer and lead singer of soul outfit Durand Jones & The Indications – has released his first solo album Presenting… in January 2021 when touring options were limited due to the COVID-19 restrictions and they only managed to fit in a few opening gigs with fellow Black Pumas fans.

For his second set Into the blue (out today via Dead Oceans), Frazer will support the new record at nearly 30 dates and across multiple countries – a challenge he's nervous about, but ready to take on.

“At this point in people's careers, if they're the first person up there without an instrument in their hands, they've probably been doing it since they were a kid,” says Frazer. Advertising sign. “And I've spent a lot of time on my butt… behind a drum kit.”

But Frazer isn't completely untested as a headliner. His booking team pitched the idea of ​​a one-off show at the iconic Troubadour in Los Angeles (the city he now calls home) for February and, within minutes of selling out, it sold out. The group added two more nights in the city, including The Lodge Room and The Paramount in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, which both sold out.

“It moved really fast, which was great, man,” says Frazer. “I don't think anywhere in the world has my back like LA has my back.”

Tonight, it will celebrate its release Into the blue at The Wiltern, which has a larger capacity than his entire Threepeat set, and will officially introduce his loyal audience to the 10-track collection that showcases an even wider range of Frazer's talents. Following his soul-focused debut, Into the blue takes the listener from the 1950s pop of “Perfect Strangers” to the 90s R&B style of “Fly Away,” along with the bolero-inspired Spanish-language track “Dime.” While the genres sound disparate, Frazer and co-producer Alex Goose manage to ground the album with Frazer's slick drumming and signature falsetto.

Advertising sign caught up with Frazer ahead of his album release gig to discuss evolving as a frontman, his love of hip-hop and how he manages to create cohesion as a “genre-agnostic” artist.

Into the blue takes you into even more genres than before with 90s R&B, 1950s/1960s rock'n'roll and, of course, soul. How do you make all these genres sound cohesive on one album?

I'm extremely selective in my listening, but for some people I wanted to avoid the whiplash feeling. Finding these lines you can combine to make a more cohesive listening experience. So, like the Italian film score, some of the spaghetti westerns. Ennio Morricone was a big influence on this record, and David Axelrod. Both Morricone and Axelrod, you have these big operatic background vocals, but then you also have really hard drums – very breakbeat-oriented drums. For me, it keeps the drums hard throughout.

For example, the opening track “Thinking of You” — I was listening to a lot of Black Ivory from Harlem when I was writing it. The true The period it needed to be was to dial the drums back a little bit, but I wanted to push the drums a little bit further so it could also go with a song like “Dime” which is part Little Beaver and part Kali Uchis. So yeah, hard drums, background vocals, and it's still me in every frame. This is also the tie that binds.

Speaking of “Dime” with Cancamusa, what made you want to add Spanish-language vocals to that track?

I was working with a Spanish co-author. I had this beat that I made with Alex Goose, my co-producer, as well as Robin Hannibal from Rhye. We put that piece together and it had this smooth, intimate romance, and Spanish is such a romantic language – it literally is a romantic language. It seemed like the right context for a Spanish-speaking artist. I wrote the lyrics with a writer named Sofia Lafluente, and she brought the Spanish perspective to it. I love being able to shine a spotlight on other artists, either through my production or my own social media. So much of my soul audience is Hispanic and I wanted to show respect to the culture and bring a Hispanic artist to the track.

Your career has been heavily influenced by older soul music. What drew you to this music?

I've always felt genre agnostic. Hip hop for me has always been the core of my musical DNA. That's how I learned about soul music in the first place. The first CD I ever had was Big Willie Style by Will Smith. I wish it was a cooler album. [Laughs] You get what you get when you're a kid. But on this record there's “Just the Two of Us” which is a Bill Withers interlude and the “Men in Black” rap which is Patrice Rushen's “Forget Me Nots”.

From the jump, my introduction to soul music was filtered through hip-hop. It's always been a part of how I understand music. Every hip-hop record draws multiple lines out to other records across generations. So here's a break from the drums from the 60s. Here's a sample of soul from the 70s. There is a jazz piano part. This is the core of my musical philosophy. All these genres and different decades, it's all just one thing.

Despite the depth of genres and instruments you bring to the album, the tracks never sound cluttered. How to achieve it?

It definitely takes a lot of work the more items you put in. Many of my musical heroes are good at just that. Curtis Mayfield makes these huge covers, but it's never like, “Wow! OK, I get it.” It's never overbearing. Lee Hazlewood is another one I go back to a lot. He makes country music, but there's a grit to it, and his arrangements are just cavernous. A lot of it depends on where the arrangement is and being able to see when everything fits in. There is a call and response to create a conversation between the elements.

You had a very successful run of shows at Threepeat in Los Angeles earlier this year, but now you're going on a full headlining tour. What can fans expect?

I have a drummer signed to this tour who also sings background and plays percussion. So when I'm on the kit, it'll be on percussion and background vocals, and then when I go up front, it'll be on drums.

So, unlike the previous concerts, you will become even more of a frontman. How is this;

It feels bare. It's like a fever dream when you walk on stage without your pants on. It's fun, but it's a challenge. It requires a certain amount of bravery. I'm learning as I go, but I'm looking forward to this opportunity to experiment with abandon. That's something I admire so much about Durand as a front person – his sense of abandon, his freedom on stage.

I also need to figure out who I am as a front person. I don't come from the James Brown school of frontmanship. It would be weird if I did. Smokey Robinson had his own stage presence that is more humble. Or Curtis Mayfield, his stage presence was interesting because he was holding a guitar for a lot, which is cool. When I have a guitar in my hand, I'm like, “Okay, I'm safe. I'm fine. I have something to do with my limbs.”