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The Rosenbergs - Meet The Band - Joshua Aaron - Diary
Welcome to Joshua Aaron's online diary. He constantly updates with new things going on in both his personal life and dealing with the band as well as sharing his views on various events. Check back here often to read the latest postings.
It's been quite a while
Well I haven't written in almost 6 months but I wanted to come on and post an update. David and I have done quite a bit of work on the next Rosenbergs record (we've demo'd and written all the new songs) and we are pretty happy with what has come out.
I have been working on my solo record under the name Stealing Heather. It's going to be title 6 Minutes To Somewhere and there's already a buzz about it. The record will be released in the spring of 2006 and at least one of the cd release parties will be held in my hometown of Cleveland, OH. I'm hoping we'll have it at either the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the House of Blues.
You can check some stuff out at www.numberonemusic.com/stealingheather or on www.stealingheather.com
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 11:33
Summerfest Report
Just got back from Summerfest and thought I'd post a report on the events.
The first night we arrived we went to see Night Ranger. What an amazing band. We hung out backstage with the guys and saw one of the most impressive fireworks displays I could imagine. The show was amazing and to see Jeff and Brad playing these solos together in harmony was truly and incredible experience to say the least. They ended the show with one of my favorite songs of all time, Sister Christian. Barring the fact that it was 40 degrees in the 4th week of June and this was the first trip in years I haven't brought a coat, we had a fantastic time.
The next day David was on the phone with Brian from the band Guster and we were all decided to go checkout the new Michael Moore movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. Without getting overly political and influencing anyone let me just say that no matter if you are a Republican, Democrat, for Bush, Anti-Bush, Liberal, Hippie, etc. you MUST SEE THIS MOVIE. Don't miss it. It's a very important piece of work and although some people (without even seeing the movie) will tell you it's all hype and untrue, they are very wrong. Michael Moore came out on CNN this morning and said in no uncertain terms that he is ready and will respond to anyone that makes claims that any portion of this movie is untrue and already has a "war room" setup to defend everything.
Michael Moore, let me personally say thank you for bringing this to the masses. You are a true American that believes in doing the right thing and standing up for the freedoms of this nation's citizens.
We all (the 7 of us who went) walked out of the theater feeling horrified, energized, angry, and like we had just been sucked down a black hole. Guster caught a cab and went back to their hotel. The four of us just stood outside the theater talking about the world. We toyed with the idea of canceling our show later that evening at Summerfest since none of us were really in the mood to go entertain anyone, but, the show must go on and we decided that we would say a little something to the fans in our usual political demeanor.
We went back to the hotel and got ready for the show. Our driver was supposed to pick us up at 5:15pm. At 5:20pm I called the head of transportation and was told "oops, we forgot about you guys, someone will be right there". How nice. So we waited another 15 minutes until the driver arrived and off we went. The guy who was driving us had no clue where to go so he got us close and then called the driver who had been taking care of us (Scott). Let me tell you about Scott. He is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Here's a guy who had got to be in his late 60's (forgive me if I'm way off Scott) and doesn't take shit from anyone. He came on the scene, told the rookie to go away and had us within 5 feet of the stage within 10 minutes. Scott, you rock!
My gear had arrived right on schedule and we had people there setting everything up for us. Very nice. A bunch of fans had driven up to see the show and we attracted a bunch of new fans once we got going. The biggest problem was there was only one monitor mix for the three of us and so we couldn't hear anything that we were doing. We did the best we could but the best part of that situation was when the show ended I walked into the trailer and the sound engineer came in after me and I said, damn, I couldn't hear anything, I mean I couldn't even hear the drums. His response is what made the moment. Here it is. "I know, your bass was really loud, why didn't you turn it down"? I had no idea how to respond to that. I was like, "dude, we've been doing this for a lot of years and you never ever touch anything once sound check is over. It is the sound engineer's job to make sure everything sounds perfect. You can't just screw with an amp in the middle of the show." Anyway, whatever, it was what it was and the fans loved it so that's what counts.
After the show we went back to our hotel, dropped off our instruments and headed back over to see Guster's show. Their stage manager Natalie provided us our backstage passes and we stood on the side of the stage and watched as over 2500 fans sang every word to every song Guster played. If you haven't heard of these guys or had a chance to see them in concert, make it a point to check them out. They put on a great show.
After that was all over we headed back to our hotel and everyone (well the four of us at least) came into my room and, in our vain little way, ordered pizzas and watched ourselves on Carson Daly. I fell asleep about 3/4 of the way through the show and the rest is history.
Next up, David and I are going to open for Colin Hay from Men At Work and we're doing it acoustic so if you're around New Jersey on July 10th be sure to check it out. I'm going to enjoy these next two weeks of peace and quiet. Later.
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 20:26
Live TV
Well I must say that it was certainly more stressful than I thought it would be. I was under the impression that taped TV shows go over and over things until the perfect take. This is not so. Carson was taped as though it was live TV. No interruptions, no stops of any kind. Just go for it.
Didn't matter. We played very well and ended up revising things each morning (including learning brand new songs that we had never played before). It was interesting trying to be a cover band of sorts for a few days. Haven't done that in years.
So tomorrow I fly out once again. I feel like I'm never home anymore and when I do get home I have so much to catch up on that nothing ever gets done. hehe.
This weekend should be really cool. We're headlining at Summerfest in Milwaukee. Lots of cool people, lots of cool music.
...........transmission over
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 17:06
Update
Well, we played a couple of shows in NYC last week and everything came off really well. The show with PlanetImpact was a great success and we helped them raise quite a bit of money for the charity (always makes you feel good).
Next week, onto Dewey Beach to do the PopFest!
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 12:41
Technology and God
So here I was driving in my car the other night and I was listening to this college radio station. The DJ's were having this argument about religion and science (the whole, is there a god and if so is science trying to kill that notion, blah blah blah). It really got me thinking.
A couple years back I first saw the movie Contact with Jodie Foster. If you haven't seen it stop reading this and go watch it right now. The whole movie appeared to a lot of people as simply this alien contact sci-fi drama/adventure. That was not its' intent at all. The movie centered around the exact argument that I was listening to these college kids battle about. The more I started thinking the more it occured to me;
Is all of this technology that is being put in our hands which is supposed to bring us closer together and enhance communication, really pulling us farther apart (and if so, are our lives losing meaning)?
I mean seriously, think about it. Here we all are with our computers and this wonderful Internet where we can chat with people from all over the world that otherwise we would never have even known existed. But, and there is a big but coming, let's think about that type of relationship. More often than not we will never meet these people. We will never even know if they are sick, dying, what they look like, or who they truly are.
If you cannot look into someone's eyes and speak directly to them, do you really ever know them?
Let's look back to the 1950's. Hell, look back to the 1800's. People may not have traveled very far from home and probably didn't get to know too many people outside of their city/town but the people that they knew and cared about were real. These were tangible people that they could take care of when they got sick, called upon when they needed help, and looked forward to seeing when they passed by on the street. The real question (and it's a sad thought to ponder) is this;
Why do we now shy away from human contact in exchange for a keyboard and a monitor in order to communicate with unknown humans instead of communicating with the people that are sitting right next to us?
I have my own beliefs as to whether science and technology are taking away from humanity or bringing it together but I think it's a question that all of us should take to heart.
Is it important to have human contact with truly loving and caring relationships instead of (or at the very least in large majority to) artificial relationships with cyberbuddies?
I think every one of us would agree that human contact and the personal bond we form with one another when we have actual contact is far stronger and more meaningful.
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 00:31
Ahh, no more graphics
I've been working along with the record label's art department to create all of the designs and concepts for the PR that is happening behind the scenes. Been working like mad lately and now it's all finished :). YEAH!
Went and saw my old partner in crime playing a show the other night. It's so nice to walk in and see someone with a huge smile on his face when he sees you. He even invited me up to play a couple of songs with the band. Lots of fun. Hadn't seen him in months and haven't played with him in years. It always amazes me when you can just fall right back into the old groove and make some cool music. It was like we never stopped.
Alright. I think I'll go veg out in front of the tube for a bit.
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 21:08
Some new music for me
Picked up the new Radiohead CD and at first I listened to it and was like, WTF? I was expecting something like "The Bends" but this is not even close. After having listened to it about 10 times now I'm completely digging the vibe. Very different but very cool.
Watched The Hulk last night. I think it's best that well enough was left alone with the old movie. The old one was good, the new one not so much. Something in it kept putting me to sleep. I had to keep going back to the part I dozed off at just to make it all the way through. Two thumbs down!
On a lighter note I finally received these cool jeans I bought off eBay about two weeks ago. I was a bit apprehensive about the purchase considering I got them from someone in Bulgaria but sure enough they arrived brand new with tags and are very comfy. Not as "rock and roll" as I usually like them to be but great hanging out, all around jeans.
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 17:21
Off To NYC
Looks like I'm off to NYC for some fun in a few days. I'm excited. With all this time off I haven't been there in a few months and need to get going again. Man, I've been rehearsing every single day and my fingers are sore. It's a good pain though. Think it might be time to change the strings, hehe.
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 02:59
My First Entry
This is my first entry so I'll keep it short. Just wanted to say thanks for checking out my diary and I'll try to make it a bit more interesting than just this first post.
Posted by Joshua Aaron at 02:37
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