Name: Shadow Age
Members: Aaron Tyree (guitars, keyboards, voices), Evan Recinos (drums), Ben Powell (bass)
Interviewee: Aaron Tyree
Nationality: American
Current release: Shadow Age's Ours EP is out via Play Alone. Get the tape edition here.
Recommendations: Alone at Prom Deluxe by Tory Lanez. Self Reduction by The Reds.

If you enjoyed this Shadow Age interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit them on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I typically listen to music while completing other tasks, so yes I listen with my eyes open.

Whatever is happening musically is typically the background. I'm a pretty active person so if we are being honest, I'm not thinking about my connection to my body because I'm physically doing other things when listening to music.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

The thing that draws me to music is how natural it feels to as an outlet and art form.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

My first foray into playing music was learning bass and playing in punk bands when I was in high school.

Not long after that I was working in a dead arcade in a dying mall. There was a guitar tucked behind the counter, I learned my first few chords there on that guitar.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Music literally meant to world to me at this age. I was constantly discovering new music, and definitely much more open to different types of music.

I first began creating music around this age so there was a level of excitement and curiosity that is still there, even if it isn't as overwhelming as it was when I was a kid.

I think the biggest change to how I receive and experience music is how my closeness to it. Like it becomes harder to fall in love with a bands when you see four a night for weeks at a time. But when you do happen to stumble across something special, it jumps out more and you definitely feel it.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

Loving. Each pedal is like a different color of paint or type of brush, but ultimately all of my gear I consider an extension of myself.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For me all of all of that gets dragged in, it’s just a matter of how much focus and intensity each form inspiration is being honed in on.

I find inspiration in almost everything I do. Whether it be an experience that pushes me to create, and idea I want to express, or feeling that I have to let out.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

Sure, I find it easier to communicate negative and aggressive energy through music, it's also easier to say things that you wouldn't normally say because that social barrier is torn down a bit when you are dealing with art. Anything that is more taboo in a typical social setting is pretty much fair game in art.

The biggest idea behind any art should ultimately be to invoke thought or feeling on whoever is on the receiving end. That's what I strive to do.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

I think music is good for sharing ideas and feeling and setting different moods and vibes.

More complex things, things that we can misunderstand require words. Words and actions.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

For me, discovery is all about being outside of your element.

Given that, I'm constantly trying to get away from muscle memory and doing things that feel different than “normal” when it comes to writing. New pieces of gear I feel help invite this.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I really enjoy the sound of nature when on a mountain top, peak, or overlook. I'm not sure if you could call it music, but if anything for me its grounding.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

How many times a phrase happens, loudness, frequency, the actual physics of sound. There are a bunch of ways music can correlate with numbers.

I believe the one aspect of music that can't really be quantified or captured through numbers is the innate response the listener has.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Music doesn't play a very big role in my day to day. So connecting to silence is quite nice. It’s nice to give the brain one less thing to process.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more mundane tasks?

Absolutely. Anyone can make a cup of coffee not everyone can create or perform.

Most of what I express through music is how I feel or reflect about specific circumstances and experiences.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

As much as I enjoy Spongebob singing “1979,” I would wish that no AI would ever touch a piece of music.

I also think that if somehow there was some sort of situation where art did not need to be monetized, there would be more music that was more real and authentic.