Interview - Aaron from Sad For Life

I’ll start by asking about “Sad For Life” for anyone who may not be familiar how would you describe what you offer the music scene right now? Sad For Life is a label and events team. We work closely with artists on the label with releases and promotion. We also host many events from gigs, to film nights, to networking. Our ethos is to promote the music and artists we are passionate about, to use our events as a platform to promote these artists and create a new audience in the process. Often blurring the lines between art forms. Merging wrestling with a festival or art with a gig, I believe doubles the potential audience in a show and most importantly doubles the potential to entertain.

Sad For Life have released music with acts like Travis Shaw and now Dale Husband. What’s the process in finding and working with these acts? Honestly, we’re an open door. It’s me in my bedroom getting the emails and demos. Travis messaged us on Instagram, we organised meeting up and listening over his EP on those offit massive speakers in Base Camp. His passion for everything from the art work to the tracks resonated and it seemed a simple fit. I’ve been a fan of Dale’s as long as I’ve been a friend and have always looked for an excuse to work with him. Even with Tall Talker, I had met with Zach for a few too many pints, take-aways and gigs with the conversation always leading to their upcoming release, it seemed a simple fit. As long as we have something to offer the artist then I’m open to anything to be honest. I don’t care much for big fancy emails as much as I do genuine conversation and passion.

You have been organizing events for a good few years, starting with “Grass Route” in the Legion. Would you say there have been many changes to our local scene over the years? First off, I love Middlesbrough, I think there’s a unique DIY sensibility and passion within our music scene and maybe that’s because we don’t have a big fancy academy or any real history of music industry here. I started promoting 10 years ago and to be honest I was arrogant and ignorant, blind to pretty much anything happening outside of my ‘bubble’. I think there’s a lot more quality now than there was then on almost every level. All the good promoters have stuck around and found their own unique way of doing things. I think from the weekly free pub gigs, to the tour dates and club gigs, Middlesbrough offers a much more valuable experience for artists than it did before. This in turn pays off with for an audience. You have been known to also play in bands yourself have you got any plans to slap the bass any time soon? To be absolutely honest, I don’t know. I’ve always enjoyed the promoting aspect of being in a band to the playing bass aspect and now I do that for a living I don’t feel the need to compensate. It was always kind of a good excuse for me to hang out with my mates and try to project their talents. The unique aspects of being in a band that I do miss is winding people up, making people laugh and getting a live reaction to something. To loosely quote Swears’ Stephanos from the Bi:Lingual days ‘we’re good at being a band, Aaron is good at social media’

I am looking in to buying some daft home recording stuff and playing about with loops and sounds for my own personal enjoyment though. It won’t be any good and I doubt anybody will ever hear it but I’m looking forward to it.

The first Heelapalooza took place in 2019 and was a great success. How do you feel the response has been to this event? Me and Sam of Heel Turn came up with this idea for a ten band bill on the train home from a Basement gig in Leeds after being pulled from an all-dayer because we had another gig a week before. We thought if we could sell it out with us on the bill it’d be a big fuck you to that bullshit impersonal all mighty promoter mentality. I accidentally went and got a little bit of funding, sponsors, 2 other venues, 30+ bands and hardcore wrestling. It was a massive success and the plan is to do it every year, naturally growing it as the audience grows to hopefully become the biggest day of entertainment, new music and independent business Teesside has or will ever see.

The reaction to Heelapalooza 2019 blew our mind, humbled us and showed us what we’re capable of. It was all so positive, apart from that one dude that didn’t like bands having Power Ranger backdrops. Bands have been eager to come back to Teesside as a result and I’ve personally seen audience for Sad For Life shows grow since. It’s equal parts exciting as it is nerve racking. Fun fact, the 10 bands we had in mind for the all-dayer all played the first Heelapalooza too!

What are your plans for certain events that have sadly have had to been cancelled? To hopefully rearrange them and do them the justice we intended. I’m an event manager at Base Camp too and the number of events we had planned that have had to be changed really sucks. I felt I was really hitting my best stride. More than anything though, I hope the world can go back to normal that we can all be safe and enjoy ourselves socially again.

During the current lockdown what have you been doing to keep things running creatively? Using the Sad For Life, Base Camp and Heelapalooza platforms I’ve been building for the last couple of years, I’ve tried to use this time to put out some unique ideas that influence audience involvement and spotlight those responsible for my very fortunate position. Planning a live stream version of Heelapalooza to entertain through all the negativity in the world at the minute, planning #localmusictshirtday to show support and solidarity for struggling artists, promoters and venues while having a bit of fun. Also working on Dale Husbands album release has been a lot of fun, having the time to piece everything together and promote it properly. It’s some of his best work yet and hopefully all the right people hear it!

You also put on events like markets, movie screening and many other things that bring something new. How important do you think these events are for the local community? I grew up in Middlesbrough and have no plans to leave here, I want the place to thrive and I want the people here to love being here as much as I do. We were shafted with the title ‘the worst place to live’ when I was a teenager and I think that mixed with being snuck into your gigs by our dad lit a fuse in me to be creative and do something positive for the area. Now I have a platform to do so, I want to create memories and be a part of the events that inspire the 14 year old in the crowd to go on to play in a band as much as I want to be a part of the reason an older couple go out for a night to see a movie on a big screen.

You have been known to work alongside RISE, the wrestling promotion. Even signing one of their top stars. What can you tell us about your relationship with RISE and how it came about? I’ve been a wrestling fan my whole life and as soon as I saw there was a non-family orientated show launching in Middlesbrough I knew I had to be involved. Bi:Lingual ended up playing their launch night and since then I’ve had a watchful eye on everything they’ve been doing as a fan. They blew up in Leeds and rarely returned to Teesside because they’ve never found a dedicated audience here like they have in Leeds. I organised a show in Base Camp and after meeting with Caden and O’Doherty we took to Isaacs and after a few beers we just blurted out the idea of Caden being the first wrestler to sign with a record label, becoming the ‘sad boy’ and doing merch collabs. It’s been so much fucking fun to be able to do that. The interest in RISE shows in Teesside is gradually building and I think before too long they can match that Leeds energy.

I really admire Danny and everyone involved at RISE. There’s a real sense of ‘by any means necessary’ that comes with every show they do and that resonates a lot. The community of performers and fans they’ve build is completely unique and something I aspire to build with my projects. They’re hard workers and a lot of fun to be around who can switch on at a moment’s notice.

Finally if you could pick five local acts for people to check out who would it be? I’m going to cheat and use a couple of acts that have at least one local member too. Sorry. Marketplace, Travis Shaw, Eyeconic, Tall Talker, Fehlt.

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